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Need online HONORS physics course. Want straight forward course.....


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My daughter has decided she wants to pursue biomedical engineering in college. Until recently she was going pre-med. She made her high school course selection based on this, so instead of taking honors physics her junior year, she took AP biology. This year's schedule is already completed and it is too late to change it. She is taking 5 AP courses, including AP chemistry, in addition to two elective courses.

 

After talking to admissions counselors at various schools she wants to consider for college, she is being told that she needs physics to be seriously considered for engineering. She needs to take it on the honors level that has a lab component.

 

Because of her already packed schedule, she really needs a course that is straight-forward. Not alot of busy work....extras....bells and whistles. Just a good, solid physics course. It would be great if the course would be presented to draw a student's interest, however, as I know physics can be dry. She just wont have time for alot of projects, research papers, etc.

 

Thanks for any direction,

 

Margaret

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You might look into the Scholars Online physics class. It is definitely honors level, and it has an AP option for the physics B exam. (It is approved by the College Board.)

 

My older kids both took it and found it challenging but pretty straightforward -- they both spent only 45 minutes or so on it per day and both got a 5 on the physics B exam. You can do labs with the class if you so desire. (Labs are required if you want to list the class as "AP"). I was surprised by how little work the class involved.

 

The class is very straightforward -- no extra projects, papers, or whatnot. The class just works through the Giancoli text with a little supplemental reading.

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My daughter has decided she wants to pursue biomedical engineering in college. Until recently she was going pre-med. She made her high school course selection based on this, so instead of taking honors physics her junior year, she took AP biology. This year's schedule is already completed and it is too late to change it. She is taking 5 AP courses, including AP chemistry, in addition to two elective courses.

 

After talking to admissions counselors at various schools she wants to consider for college, she is being told that she needs physics to be seriously considered for engineering. She needs to take it on the honors level that has a lab component.

 

Because of her already packed schedule, she really needs a course that is straight-forward. Not alot of busy work....extras....bells and whistles. Just a good, solid physics course. It would be great if the course would be presented to draw a student's interest, however, as I know physics can be dry. She just wont have time for alot of projects, research papers, etc.

 

Thanks for any direction,

 

Margaret

 

You might want to look at Kinetic Books Principles of Physics. We are currently using the Conceptual Physics and are very pleased with it.

http://www.kineticbooks.com/products/textbook/text_levels.html

http://www.kineticbooks.com/products/prod_purchinfo.html

 

Course plans with quizzes, etc are available for both through Kolbe Academy. We also purchased the complete solutions manual through them, but I didn't look at Principle of Physics so I don't know if they offer a solutions manual for it.

 

http://www.kolbeforum.org/KolbeDocs/SampleCoursePlans/HighSchool/KBPrinciplesOfPhysicsSample.pdf

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Kinetic Books offers two completely digital/interactive AP-approved courses: Physics for Scientists and Engineers (calculus-based, approved for both AP Physics C exams), and Principles of Physics (non-calculus, approved for AP Physics B).

 

Prices range from $35 (online access to Principles course) to $50 (CD version of Scientists & Engineers course). They also offer a virtual labs program for $25-30, and an online homework package that lets the student upload their assignments to the KB server, which corrects the work and generates reports for the teacher ($50).

 

So, for example, for around $125 your daughter could list "AP Physics for Scientists & Engineers w/Lab" on her transcript, and have objective KB-generated grades to back it up.

 

http://www.kineticbooks.com/products/homeschool.html

 

Jackie

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Since Principles of Physics prepares the student for the AP physics-B exam, do you think it is feasible for my daughter to take this course without ever taking a physics class in high school? She has taken honors biology, honors chemistry, AP biology, and is taking AP chemistry this year. She completed honors pre-calc last year and is taking AP Calculus AB this year. I know in order to enroll in AP physics at our local high school, she would have had to have completed honors physics first.

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Since Principles of Physics prepares the student for the AP physics-B exam, do you think it is feasible for my daughter to take this course without ever taking a physics class in high school? She has taken honors biology, honors chemistry, AP biology, and is taking AP chemistry this year. She completed honors pre-calc last year and is taking AP Calculus AB this year. I know in order to enroll in AP physics at our local high school, she would have had to have completed honors physics first.

 

Have you considered calling Kolbe Academy and asking their opinion? Their website recommends it in 11th-12th grade for those who have completed and intro to chemistry/physics in 8th/9th grade (I'm wondering if that is the equivalent of physical science??) and have completed biology and chemistry.

 

They give the same recommendations for Conceptual Physics and my 8th grader is using it currently w/o any difficulty (though he is advanced in science and math, taking alg 2 as an 8th grader and completed all 3 Plato middle school science programs last yr)

 

I would suspect that your dd would do fine.

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I'm concerned the Conceptual Physics course will be too easy. She will be a senior with already 3 APs under her belt and already to take 5 APs this year. Conceptual Physics would be the equivalent to an "academic" course at her high school. She has always taken either "honors" or "AP" level courses. Especially since she is pursuing engineering, I think it is important that she takes at least an honors level course in physics.

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The KB website says that each level essentially includes the lower level(s) within in, so if you bought the full AP version and your DD was struggling with the calculus part, you could drop those sections, complete the "middle level" version, and call it Honors Physics.

 

From the website:

All three textbooks are built on the same basic building blocks, in a modular fashion. We divide each of our topics into smaller "chunks," each a single Web page, which makes it easier to find and link to desired topics in a digital curriculum. The more advanced textbooks add more advanced topics and cover material in more depth, but the basic content is similar through all three versions.

 

You can do a free trial version; go to the bottom of this page and click "Experience the Product":

http://www.kineticbooks.com/products/textbook/text_levels.html

 

Jackie

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I'm concerned the Conceptual Physics course will be too easy. She will be a senior with already 3 APs under her belt and already to take 5 APs this year. Conceptual Physics would be the equivalent to an "academic" course at her high school. She has always taken either "honors" or "AP" level courses. Especially since she is pursuing engineering, I think it is important that she takes at least an honors level course in physics.

 

I wasn't suggesting Conceptual Physics b/c it is not recommended for those interested in majoring in science. I was thinking in terms of asking about Principles in Physics. I think they would be able to answer the question in relation to her background.

 

I posted a link in this thread earlier today to a sample of their syllabus for the Principles course. It gives a complete course overview.

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