Opinions on Thinkwell Science

[HeatherInWI]

I'm considering Thinkwell's Chemistry and Biology courses and wonder whether any of you have tried them, what you thought, and, if applicable, how your child did on the AP Chemistry or AP Biology exam after completing the course.

 

Thanks!

[cshell]

:001_smile:

[Michelle in AL]

Here's my review after just purchasing Chem last week. I went through some topics that I was confused about and was able to understand them after viewing the videos/notes:

 

Ok, in my despair to find the perfect Chemistry program that is understandable and complete with LOTS of math problems incorporated, I bought Thinkwell's Chemistry program through the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op. I happen to be a big Dr. Burger of Thinkwell Math fan and I prefer their teaching style to what I've seen of Teaching Co videos.

 

I already own DIVE Chem and Oak Meadow Chem. I was having trouble combining the 2 and when I tried to familiarize my rusty old self with topics not covered in ages such as scientific notation and conversion factors, I found these sources to be slightly lacking in complete explanation and # of practice problems. I do like DIVE, I think it would work better if I used one of the programs it was designed to be used with.

 

Anywhooo back to Thinkwell.

I've compared it to Oak Meadow Chem and it appears to be complete.

You gather information through their notes and video lectures. The notes break down what takes a textbook much longer to say in nice, clear bite size chunks.

 

It has very fun, interesting lab demonstrations sprinked throughout. There are also several lab demos at the end of the course that I haven't viewed yet. I still plan to use DIVE for labs.

 

The interactive exercises are where the chem math is practiced. It includes some not so straight forward problems that force you to think, but I was able to do the ones I tried without outside help. There are just enough problems to enforce and remember the concept.

 

There are also chapter tests and a final exam.

 

I was still worried about it's quality since I'm not a chem major, so I searched the net for reviews. Here's a review by a Univ of GA professor that was done before Thinkwell added the Interactive Exercises.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed079p807

 

I thought I'd post this since others have wondered about Thinkwell too.

 

The only thing I can't figure out is how to schedule it.

__________________