One of those go deeper or cover more questions...

[Nan in Mass]

Susan C. - I'm sorry I panicked in the middle of your thread. You asked a very good question. For me, I think, dividing things into skills and content is important. Much of my current panic revolves around a few related questions. Exactly how much basic science content one needs to have to survive engineering school? How transferable is depth in one science topic to other science topics? How many science skills can one learn by experimenting on one's own, with relatively little guidance? How much science content can one learn by reading a few not-too-deep trade books every year? Will these be enough when faced with the need to learn in a classroom with textbooks? Will these be enough to get into engineering school? How much of each of these is enough?

 

I can tell you that as far as history and literature are concerned, I have been very surprised at how far the little we have done has gone. How important is history to you? If this is the subject that you have chosen as your learn-to-think subject, then you might want to do more research. If it isn't, then I suspect you can cut down on the number of questions she answers. Obviously, the skills she is learning are good ones, ones that will cross over into other subjects. How much content do you want her to get? If you want her to know a lot about the topics of those questions, then you will want her to put the time into doing them all. If you want her to learn the skills involved but don't care as much about the topics, then just do some of them, enough that she gets adequate practice with the skills (good luck figuring out how much that is - sigh). If you think that her time would be better spent developing those skills as she learns content in a subject that is more important for her, then I would only do a few and turn them into papers and call that part of the written componant of the course. If this is the case, then you could ask the hive the more general question of how many papers to write for a get-it-done credit of history and see what sort of answers you get.

 

-Nan

[siloam]

Thanks Heather, great idea (I usually do email text authors, I have no idea why I didn't think to ask for help...).

 

Who is Maggie? Do you have a specific email address? I did see a contact page on their website, but an email might be better.

 

Maggie and her dh are co-owners of Bright Ideas Press that published AAH. I will PM you with her direct e-mail. The author of the book taught this course as a co-op before Maggie talked her into writing the texts.

 

Heather

[Susan C.]

Nan,

You are welcome into any of my threads! Really!

 

The reason I am gravitating toward AAH's questions is that there are rough ideas for the answers in the teacher's edition. So, we are not completely shooting in the dark. But, you can get too much of a good thing, I'm sure!

Edited October 7, 2010 by Susan C.
another typo...

[Nan in Mass]

Answers are nice GRIN. I'd just cut down on the number, just like we tend to do the odds in a math book.

-Nan

[Susan C.]

There is a certain reviewer, that I do like, not on here BTW, that said AAH was lower level, but doing ALL of the extra questions would bring it to high school level. That is where I got the silly idea. I like this much better. We might get our lives back! I might even skip a few chapters.......oooooh :)

[swimmermom3]

There is a certain reviewer, that I do like, not on here BTW, that said AAH was lower level, but doing ALL of the extra questions would bring it to high school level. That is where I got the silly idea. I like this much better. We might get our lives back! I might even skip a few chapters.......oooooh :)

 

I was going to ask you what your student wants to do, but it looks like you have solved your problem.:D the balance you are seeking really is an elusive creature at times.

[Nan in Mass]

Boards are dangerous GRIN. Someone is always doing something at a reeeeely rigorous level, but cyberspace filters the fact that most people don't do everything at that level. It is sort of the opposite of the lowest common denominator effect. It is good because it keeps those of us who have no idea what high school level is to a higher standard than we might otherwise sink to, but it most definately has its bad points as well.

-Nan