Anyone use Oak Meadow without enrolling?

[hmschoolmom22]

I see you can purchase the curriculum materials only and teachers manuals without actually enrolling...has anyone done this and how does it work?

 

OM is VERY expensive!! way beyond what we can afford!

[Michelle in AL]

I have their high school World History (print materials). There are discussion questions, project suggestions and additional information for each section, but no answers, so unless you know the answers, it's hard to grade. We kind of wing it for history, but I can't imagine doing that for something like math or biology.

[AngieW in Texas]

I bought just the syllabus and the teacher manual for OM high school level Biology and American History direct from OM with no problems, even though I wasn't buying anything else from them. I bought the textbooks for history and biology on amazon for less than $10 each. I bought the entire Health package used from somebody on the OM_HS email loop.

 

The teacher manuals have the answers to all the questions in the syllabus. They cost $25 for most high school subjects.

[Michelle in AL]

Thanks Angie, just wanted to clarify something, the discussion ?'s in the Oak Meadow syllabus are the same as in the Biology Teacher's manual? I might use them for Biology if that is true.

Thanks,

Michelle

[AngieW in Texas]

The discussion questions in the syllabus are taken nearly word-for-word from the questions at the end of each section in the Biology textbook. Sometimes there are slight wording differences. Sometimes there are 1-2 questions for a section that differ radically from what's in the text. The multiple choice question in the text is never used in the syllabus. Sometimes another question is substituted for it and other times they just don't do that one.

 

I randomly opened the text and ended up in chapter 20. The questions in the section 1 review in the textbook are:

1. Compare the properties of viruses with the properties of cells.

2. Describe Stanley's experiment with the tobacco mosaic virus.

3. Name the parts of a virus

4. List the steps by which viruses replicate

5. Describe how HIV causes AIDS.

6. Evaluate the argument that emerging viruses are new viruses.

7. multiple choice question - Viruses differ from cells because viruses

a. can grow, b. do not metabolize, c. have homeostatis, d. lack nucleic acids

 

The question in the syllabus are nearly identical with a few exceptions:

1. Why are viruses not considered living things?

2. same as #2 above

3. same as #3 above

4. Explain the steps by which viruses replicate, describing both of the possible cycles. (slightly different wording, but essentially the same question as #4 above)

5. What is AIDS? In your own words, explain how HIV causes AIDS. (again, slight different wording, but same question as #5 above)

6. same as #6 above

7. In the 1520s, the Spanish explorer Cortes and his armies introduced smallpox to the Americas. The death rate among the Native American people ranged from 50-90%, compared with a death rate of about 10% among people in Europe. Can you account for the difference in death rates? (this one is completely different)

 

I am using the 2006 edition of the Holt Biology book rather than the 2004 edition that the syllabus calls for, so the questions may have changed slightly between those editions. The chapters in the 2006 edition match up with the chapters in the 2004 edition page-for-page and the section titles all match up as well, so the two editions aren't very different.

 

I already had the 2006 edition of the text when I ordered OM. I bought it used on amazon for $5 several months before even considering Oak Meadow. I wasn't sure at first if it would work or not with the OM syllabus, but it seems to work just fine. My dd is in chapter 21 now.

Edited February 1, 2010 by AngieW in Texas

[Michelle in AL]

Thanks Angie, I think we can work with that.