9th grade science: is this good?

[Sasharowan]

Does this sound good for a 9th grade science course? Do I need to add anything? We live in Florida so getting to the beach for labs is easy.

Thanks Mary

 

Oceanography

 

 

 

 

Text: Oceanography: An Invitation to Marine Science by Tom Garrison

Website: http://www.brookscole.com/cgi-Wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9780534408879&discipline_number=30

There are 18 chapters. We will spend 2 weeks on each chapter.

Week 1: read the chapter, answer the key concepts questions, learn the vocabulary defintions.

Week 2: use your answers to the key concepts and the website to study the terms and concepts from the chapter, take the test.

There will be 18 tests and 2 papers for this class.

Test format: Multiple choice, matching, short answer, and essay

Papers: One from chapters 1-9 and one from chapters 10-18. Papers will be 1-2 pages double-spaced, 12 point font. Choose one topic from each section and do further research on it. Use at least 3 resources other than the text.

[Hunter's Moon]

A lot of colleges want to see Biology, Chemistry, and then an advanced form of that course so I suppose as long as you do those courses in 10th, 11th, and 12th it is fine to do Oceanography first.

 

I think it looks great!

[Storm Bay]

I think you can do this, but Biology/Chem/Physics are frequently required, depending on what your ds would like to study in college. That said, I didn't need Physics at my university, but I had plenty of science (whatever it was I needed, & for sure that included Chem & Biology). Do you have an idea of what sciences you want to do which year?

 

Another idea is to check with any colleges you are thinking of applying to if you already know what those are.

[Sasharowan]

Thanks guys, but what I was asking about was the 2 papers and the tests. Does that sound good for 9th grade. We plan on doing the regular sciences later, but the youngers are doing Earth science this year and he asked to do marine science instead. Since I had the book lying around, I decided to use it, but it doesn't come with anything preplanned and he is my oldest so I wasn't sure about the level of what to expect from him or what colleges would look for in a portfolio.

[April in CA]

I think what you have planned for oceanography sounds really neat. Does your text have labs, or will you need to find them from another source? Be sure to keep a good lab notebook if you do them, in case a college wants to see a portfolio. Enjoy your studies!

Blessings,

April

[KAR120C]

And we may well be overdoing it (that's the case more often than not... lol...) but for Biology with a textbook, I have had DS write short 1-page papers on usually one topic per chapter, taken from the sidebars and extra notes in the text. Nothing big - just what he can do a little bit of googling on and then outline and write up in an hour or two total. In chapters without labs there are frequently two little reports instead of one. Some are more opinion/essay type assignments, a few are a little creative (come up with an idea of a model for workings of a cell -- like it's a factory, or a city, or whatever, and what all the organelles would be) and some are straight research-and-report.

 

We're finishing Biology and moving into Marine Biology next year, without a textbook, and he has come up with seven species plus two extra topics to be the structure of his course... so each of the nine "units" will end with a paper... probably 4-5 pages. But each one will be the end result of about a month's work, so not as big as it sounds.

 

On the other hand... we don't do much in the way of testing. The Biology book has a workbook, which serves as a kind of chapter quiz, and there are practical quizzes in the lab book, but for Marine Biology it's going to be just the papers.

 

If you're doing plenty of labs (and lab reports?) and the chapter tests, I think the lighter writing load is probably fine. I personally like to go with more writing and less testing, but I expect in the end colleges don't care too much either way.

[Sasharowan]

I don't know how many labs are in the book, I need to check that. This is for my kid that hates writing, so I am going with more tests for him. If I had him doing 1 page a week for science plus the stuff for history and english, i wouldn't have time for the other 3 kids. :)

[Teachin'Mine]

I think it sounds like an awesome course! I also think you're fine with two papers and test along with the labwork you'll be doing. FWIW, I can't remember doing a single paper in high school science - earth, bio, chem, or physics. If I remember correctly, it was all about memorizing for tests and of course understanding and writing up the labs. I think most home schoolers - here anyway - do way more than most ps kids do in science classes. :)

[tampamommy]

We live in FL too:) Love the hot weather after such a cold winter.

 

You've received some great advice from everyone so far. I think the one other consideration is whether or not your ds is "science-bent."

 

If he is not, I'd have him do the tests as you've outlined, selected written lab reports (which I'd limit to one page typed), and the two papers...which I'd make a bit longer for a 9th grader (3-5 pages).

 

If his inclinations are in the sciences, I'd keep the tests as is but make sure they have some longer essays. I would also have him do all lab reports and the papers would likely be 4-6 pages.

 

Just to give you a comparison point, my 8th grade ds is indeed science-oriented and he's doing Apologia Physical Science this year...perhaps Biology as well. He will take all the module tests, quarterly exams, do written lab reports (most weeks), and write 1 or 2 papers, each about 6-8 pages.

 

Have fun!

[Hunter's Moon]

I think it sounds like an awesome course! I also think you're fine with two papers and test along with the labwork you'll be doing. FWIW' date=' I can't remember doing a single paper in high school science - earth, bio, chem, or physics. If I remember correctly, it was all about memorizing for tests and of course understanding and writing up the labs.[/color'] I think most home schoolers - here anyway - do way more than most ps kids do in science classes. :)

 

Lucky!! Lol.

 

I had to do five major papers last year. Three were part of a "packet" over Christmas vacation and had to be at least 5 pages. Who can write 5 pages on plants? :tongue_smilie:

The other two had to be 10 or more pages :glare:

 

Not to mention the dumb lab reports I hated with a passion :thumbdown:

 

To the OP, I like your idea of more tests than writing :) I would love your course if I was doing it!