Biology's a no go - need something else

[lizziebeth]

I purchased the 2010 Miller & Levine Biology book, but it's just not for us. Since my ds has attention problems anyways, I find that messy textbooks with stuff all over the pages is way too distracting. I need something clean, neat, organized, and perhaps with a higher level of vocabulary (but not TOO difficult to read). Maybe Campbell's? Are there others? Any suggestions?

[JennW in SoCal]

Have you considered going a non-textbook route? The Teaching Company series of lectures, Biology the Science of Life, is excellent. Each lecture is only 30 minutes, and the professor is good. You could match that with the Biology Coloring Book and with projects from Biology Corner. It doesn't look like an orthodox high school science program, but it would cover the same material as a text book and would give varied activities each week.

 

There are also many non-fiction books about nature, naturalists, and genetics, evolution and etc to round things out. If I can find the thread I'll post a link, but within the last school year there was a thread where "living books" on biology were listed by various people.

 

Also, just google "biology lesson plans" and look for ideas there. Or "microscope lesson plans" or what ever topic you want to cover.

[JennW in SoCal]

I found 3 threads on living books!!

 

This is the first thread, and in the 2nd post Karni has links to 2 other threads.

[Lisaroe]

I purchased the 2010 Miller & Levine Biology book, but it's just not for us. Since my ds has attention problems anyways, I find that messy textbooks with stuff all over the pages is way too distracting. I need something clean, neat, organized, and perhaps with a higher level of vocabulary (but not TOO difficult to read). Maybe Campbell's? Are there others? Any suggestions?

 

Hi- Have you tried Apologia- My ADHD son seemed to do well with it.. It has an mp3 option that reads the text to them- we used that along with the text and full course on cd-rom (basically the text on computer) It does have some interactive clips through out the text. Plus, my son likes to do the hands on stuff-but we did do the virtual dissection instead of the real stuff.

 

I know other's have said it is easy but it moved at his pace which was nice.

The older editions have less pictures in them.

Good Luck- Lisa

[lizziebeth]

Have you considered going a non-textbook route? The Teaching Company series of lectures, Biology the Science of Life, is excellent. Each lecture is only 30 minutes, and the professor is good. You could match that with the Biology Coloring Book and with projects from Biology Corner. It doesn't look like an orthodox high school science program, but it would cover the same material as a text book and would give varied activities each week.

 

 

Jenn, I had considered the TTC course, because we've used many other ones with great success; however, I was concerned about several of the reviews on TTC's website for this course - namely, one of the reviewers said he/she had a degree in chemistry but thought the first 45 lectures re biochemistry were too difficult to understand. Can you tell me a bit more about your opinion of the course and the teacher? Does it cover pretty much what a "standard" biology course should cover? I would love to do the lectures along with other books that I pick out (the living books idea is great, btw!)

[JennW in SoCal]

You know, the TTC course does dive into the chemistry of the cell fairly quickly, but I didn't find it difficult to understand as the lecturer does a great job. Biochemistry is now a big part of high school biology unlike what I had way back when.

 

I think it depends on what you want your student to get out of it. If you want biology to be a broad and interesting overview, then you can relax while watching the lectures, do some coloring book pages and some living books and move on. In otherwords, your son doesn't have to feel pressured into memorizing all those tems and details if you aren't interested in an AP level course.

 

You could probably skip over many of those chemistry lectures if they are too much and move into the sections on evolution, human and animal physiology, plants, ecology. All of those topics are part of a high school biology course -- it is crazy how many topics are to be covered in a year!

[Kalypso]

We chose to use Campbell's Exploring Life instead of Miller/Levine. The pages seem to be less cluttered.

 

This thread compares the language used in the 2 texts:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155176&page=2