Really crazy request.. biology and art...

[Emma]

DD, 9th grade, is struggling, and I do mean struggling with Apologia biology. She hates it. HATES. IT. She doesn't understand why it is so hard. She'd rather do algebra and she and math don't get along. Anyway, this is my artsy child. The one who has designs on art school and animation and Disney. The child who watches Bob Ross for fun and was super excited when I bought her a 9B pencil from Michaels's Craft Store. Is there anyone, please Lord, let there be.. who has a schedule, or a plan, or some advice for doing Apologia with art, primarily making art the focus? I am not a scheduler and I am a box checker, so we use Sonlight and the Apologia schedule from SL to keep her on track, but, I'm not sure she's learning much. I basically tell her to study the study guide before she takes the test. I'd love to change this and make it right for her. She's not going to be a doctor, so I'm not too concerned with learning every aspect of the Krebs Cycle. KWIM? Someone, please share something with me!! I will send cookies...promise!

[Guest]

I'm so sorry your dd is having such a hard time!

 

If you are not tied to all the tests and such for reporting purposes in your state, I would think it would be much more pleasurable for her and a better way to learn, even, if she were to present her understanding of chapters, or topics, or however your organize her work, in drawings or any kind of art project.

 

I was thinking that since you mentioned animation (which by the way I know nothing at all about), could you have her come up with a plan for showing cell division or replication through animation? There would have to be some kind of narration or verbal explanation of the process alongside the art, and that would clearly demonstrate her knowledge.

 

Have her research the way that Darwin and other scientists relied on drawing to represent the species they found on global explorations (Lewis and Clark either drew or had someone who drew animals and plants; Captain Cook had a botanist/artist; there's Audubon; etc.). Investigate how scientific drawing has changed or evolved. What is considered state of the art nowadays in biology?

 

I googled "art in biology" and got pages and pages of sites. The first four or five along that popped up looked well worth browsing through for ideas and also for validation of your approach and your intuitive thoughts.

[anneofalamo]

well, I just got these books as my science minded but hates art son is doing apologia biology next year. I am buying the extras all this year.

but the books are so wicked cool, I got them from a recommendations off Donna Young apologia biology page: I linked them so you can click on the pic to bring you to amazon to look at them. But they are so cool looking to me!

[mamananci]

My 9th grade daughter is a science lover and cannot stand Apologia Bio....I just enrolled her in Environmental Bio thru Oak Meadow and she will try another Bio next year....

 

I like the coloring books!!!

[elegantlion]

What about adding in some Natural History? Emmanuel books has a syllabus for combining Apologia and NH. Emmanuel books also lists some resources for doing nature study and keeping a nature journal.

[jelbe5]

Here is a helpful website that also combines nature study with Apologia Biology . . .

 

http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/2009/08/nature-study-as-part-of-high-school.html

 

Adrianne in IL

[Emma]

Thank you everyone!! These are awesome suggestions. I am definitely going to need to ponder over all of them during our Christmas break. I will have a new plan hopefully in Jan. I do think the information in Apologia is worthwhile, it's just not her forte, therefore it is a chore and she's not learning. Anything. :glare:

 

I am going to peruse these sites and books a lot over the next few wks.!

[Nan in Mass]

I second the natural history. I also think that instead of doing study guides, she might be better off doing graphic organizers to study from. Think spider structures, tree structures, timelines, process diagrams that illustrate each step with an arrow to the next step, flow charts, etc., rather than word heavy things like notes and study guides. If she translates the chapter into graphic organizers, she might do better. If she can't make a flow chart or some other picture of what is happening in the Krebs cycle, she isn't really getting it. Being visually oriented, if she draws it, it will help her to remember it. She will have to add labels, though, not just do it all with pictures, probably. Here are some examples: http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=altavista&va=graphic+organizers+biology

 

Have you seen that book that has silly pictures to help you memorize vocabulary? Here is an example:

http://www.amazon.com/Vocabutoons-Vocabulary-Cartoons-Build-Powerful/dp/0965242293/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1291298779&sr=1-1#reader_0965242293

If she makes these on her flashcards, it might help her to memorize the vocab. I have heard that Apologia has tons of vocabulary to memorize.

 

My mother took drawing classes in college and she has a great book on anatomy that she used for a textbook. Here is an amazon list of books like it: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=anatomy+for+artists If she is aiming for Disney and animation, she will need a thorough understanding of anatomy, both human and animal, and she will need to understand how plants grow in order to be able to draw them. For example, if she wants to do an animation of a tree growing, she will need to know that trees grow from the top, not the bottom: the lower branches stay where they are and the tree adds new branches from the tips. On tall trees with branches only at the top, the lower ones fall off as the tree grows. Different types of trees have in different places the little nubs under the bark that are able to sprout new growth. I have seen animations where this is done wrong and it always bothers me. Animal behavior is important, also, in order to make the animals seem like who they are. Biology is one of the most applicable sciences to art. Chemistry will be harder : (.

 

There are colouring books to help with studying biology. Here are some: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=anatomy+for+artists#/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_21?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=zoology+coloring+book&sprefix=zoology+coloring+book&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Azoology+coloring+book There are anatomy ones as well.

 

 

She might like to look at this: http://crochetcoralreef.org/

 

HTH

-Nan

[Carol in Cal.]

Biology is one of the most applicable sciences to art. Chemistry will be harder : (.

 

 

 

Actually, if you think of chemistry at the molecular level, it's much easier to picture it, and I would think that drawing it would be possible as well. You just imagine those molecules and their 3d shapes, with their polarities and their weak and tight bonds, coming close to each other, vibrating, and combining. Being able to picture things on a single molecule level got me through the terrors of all the memorization in university level organic chemistry. I was so happy when we got to state functions in physical chemistry, because it took so much gross stuff back to the molecular level.

[Emma]

Thank you Nan. These are great links. I am going by our Barnes and Noble today for the coloring books. Maybe if I explain it from the art point of view, it will hold more interest for her and therefore she will remember it!

[LittleHouseHomeschool]

We had the same problem. Nothing was sticking with Apologia. We went with ABeka Biology and both of my sons learned well. Apologia made learning much more difficult for us. I believe it was a combination of issues. (Learning style, the redundant writing style, the over-teaching, etc...)

 

My son is a science major and so far it has not appeared that ABeka has harmed him at all. :tongue_smilie:

[emubird]

An artist's conception of biology:

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Life-Works-Mahlon-Hoagland/dp/0812920201

 

I didn't find that my kids could learn biology from this alone, but it did give them some different ways of looking at things.

[Emma]

An artist's conception of biology:

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Life-Works-Mahlon-Hoagland/dp/0812920201

 

I didn't find that my kids could learn biology from this alone, but it did give them some different ways of looking at things.

 

 

OK! We have this book. I picked it up from a garage sale and stuck it on the shelf. I didn't even remember I had until until you linked it. Did your dc just read it, or did they copy pictures, or what did they do with it?

[Emma]

We had the same problem. Nothing was sticking with Apologia. We went with ABeka Biology and both of my sons learned well. Apologia made learning much more difficult for us. I believe it was a combination of issues. (Learning style, the redundant writing style, the over-teaching, etc...)

 

My son is a science major and so far it has not appeared that ABeka has harmed him at all. :tongue_smilie:

 

I definitely won't use it with my other dc. I'm sure, if I had science minded kids, it would be great, but I don't and it's not (for us, anyway.) Definitely won't use their chemistry. I do like Abeka. That was my second choice... probably should have made it the first choice.:tongue_smilie:

[harmonyartmom]

We have one very visual-spatial learner that did okay with Apologia Biology with some changes in focus. We are very art centered in our family so I can relate to your daughter's feelings.

 

We used the two coloring books that were mentioned but they still were a little too "technical" for my son. I ended up assigning nature journal type entries for him to complete in conjunction with the text. If you are interested in what we did specifically, here is a link to a page I posted all of our "extra" type items for Apologia Biology. We were hoping to make it more CM in nature so it would be more relevant but I could see how an artistic child might like some of the activities we did as well.

 

http://www.squidoo.com/apologiabiology

 

Lab work was very artsy with lots of drawing and sketches. We also sketched out many of the biology concepts with colored pencils for our notebooks. My son also really, really, really liked the Live and Learn Apologia Biology Learn N' Folder set. I know...it wasn't my first choice for a high schooler but he benefited so much from having this as a way to record his answers and then review on his own. If your daughter likes crafty stuff, this is a great project with cutting and folding. Here is a link to a review I wrote on Curriculum Choice:

http://thecurriculumchoice.com/2009/11/live-and-learn-press-biology-learn-n-folder-notebook/

 

I hope something here helps your daughter.

[Emma]

Thanks Barb for the awesome links. I love your site! I printed the ideas that you had for nature studies for each module. I'm trying to pull all the ideas together, to revamp our biology studies after Christmas.

[LauraQ]

I love art, and I'm a rather visual learner, so for me Apologia wouldn't be a good fit. I often take things I read in texts and turn them into tables, charts, graphs, illustrations, labeled diagrams, etc. as study aids. You can encourage her to do this as well! This way, note-taking is more about drawing and labeling (this works well for biology) and less about outlining and summarizing.

 

I'm supplementing Apologia Science with Singapore Biology Matters this year for dd, and I'll tell you that SBM has some really fabulous illustrations, and includes some fantastic photographs as well. It may well be worth the $30 investment for your daughter to have more visual input to go with Apologia's word-intensive text. I have about 1/2 of Sonlight's schedule for Apologia Biology coordinated with supplemental readings and work from SBM if you are interested. E-mail me if you want a copy, but be warned it could take me a week to get it typed up and sent back to you as I have it written on the SL schedule in pencil only right now ;-)