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7th grade science recommendations


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My son finished all of Uzinggo and after this we covered a little more physics. Science is his favorite subject and is asking for more. I was looking into Science Fusion but I'm seeing so many bad reviews on how the site itself works. I would like something hands on and hopefully easy to be self-directed if possible. What has worked for your middle schooler?

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I'm starting to think this is the way to go. thanks!

I'm wondering how that works for transcripts if he is starting in 7th.

 

I'd love to hear an answer to the transcript question.  My son started some high school level classes this year, and I created a Word document including the year, instructor's description, amount of class time, books used, etc. so I won't have to try to re-create it years from now if needed.  I have no idea where he will be academically when he's officially in high school, but I do know that his transcript will look quite different from other students'.  Does anyone have BTDT experience with this?

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What I did was to start anyway, and figure that I'll put whatever the last four (or four years worth, depending) of science on DD's transcript (I'm expecting that most will be DE unless she decides to go to college early). It's not like there's not always more science out there. I am keeping two sets of records-one at official grade level (where science for next year will be listed as "science, middle school") and one that lists actual level, where she's already done several years of "special topics in biology with lab", with college textbooks, experiments done, lab studies done, and college faculty members listed as the instructor of record."

 

This was something that a friend who is in admissions at our local state U suggested to me-because according to her, they see a lot of homeschooled kids (and some PS kids) with two transcripts-one that lists their courses as they fit into the school's matrix, and one which lists what they actually did. As she says, she doesn't care that the cover school won't let you give high school credit for math before 8th grade or science for 9th-when they have a kid applying for admission, they just want to know that they know the content.

 

I also do plan to have DD take some form of outside exam for validation in areas not validated directly by the ACT/SAT since I believe it's highly likely that she'll be doing college courses in science pretty much as soon as she has the math background needed to take them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We've done bio this year and had a blast. It hasn't been the most rigorous course ever, but we've used high school level materials. I plan to have T do either an honors level Bio 1 or AP Bio in 9th or 10th grade, depending on her interest level.

 

Alternatively, we might do Environmental Science (either regular or AP) in 9th grade in conjunction with world geography. IMHO, these courses go together really well and are a great introduction to more mature studies. Sort of: "Welcome to high school, here are all the world's problems--what are your thoughts?"

 

There are lots of AP science options and even more dual enrollment options, you won't have to draw on what you did in middle school to fill their transcript and they'll be able to take more interesting classes because they've done the basics earlier.

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Thanks for the help. I asked him what he wants to do and he said robotics. I think for now we decided to follow the robotics builds from Khan Academy and he is trying out a Intro to Robotics MOOC starting in August. Maybe we will just enjoy being "ahead" and focus on this for a year

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I'm starting to think this is the way to go. thanks!

I'm wondering how that works for transcripts if he is starting in 7th.

 

I grouped courses by subject and indicated which ones were taken in middle school.  In my school profile I said this:  

 

Consistent with [name of local school district] policy, high school courses completed during middle school are identified on the transcript and are given high school credit, and their grades are included in the GPA.

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Alternatively, we might do Environmental Science (either regular or AP) in 9th grade in conjunction with world geography. IMHO, these courses go together really well and are a great introduction to more mature studies. Sort of: "Welcome to high school, here are all the world's problems--what are your thoughts?"

 

We're doing this next year using college level/AP texts but I'm not going to attempt to prepare him for the AP exam.  I'm really excited.  This will be for a 13yo 8th/9th/10th grader.

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We've done bio this year and had a blast. It hasn't been the most rigorous course ever, but we've used high school level materials. I plan to have T do either an honors level Bio 1 or AP Bio in 9th or 10th grade, depending on her interest level.

 

Alternatively, we might do Environmental Science (either regular or AP) in 9th grade in conjunction with world geography. IMHO, these courses go together really well and are a great introduction to more mature studies. Sort of: "Welcome to high school, here are all the world's problems--what are your thoughts?"

 

There are lots of AP science options and even more dual enrollment options, you won't have to draw on what you did in middle school to fill their transcript and they'll be able to take more interesting classes because they've done the basics earlier.

What did you use for bio?

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What did you use for bio?

That's been a long and winding road. T started in Athena's high school biology class which uses Exploring Life by Campbell et al. and some community college online readings. She also did a Landry Academy bio lab intensive. We did the Standard Deviants online biology course. Then I decided we needed to produce more written output, so we started doing CK12 and Georgia Virtual Learnings units for biochem, cell organelles, osmosis/diffusion/active and passive transport. We're going to do cellular respiration and photosynthesis next. T's been doing the worksheets and taking the unit tests. We've been moving quickly because this is review, but I wanted more high school level output in addition to the input. We've also been using The Way Life Works and the extras at:

 

https://quarksandquirks.wordpress.com/biology-hs-level/

 

Once we get through the heavier (read: less interesting) topics, we'll just follow rabbit trails over the summer for genetics, evolution and kingdoms of life because we both like those topics and will do them for fun.

 

I've also used Bozeman Science videos:

 

http://www.bozemanscience.com/

 

For next year, I signed T up for the Landry Academy middle school chemistry in the summer and high school chemistry in the fall. I learned my lesson about how hard it is to do your own thing and produce a high school level class. I didn't start out to do high school bio last fall, it just sort of happened. If I had to do it again, I'd still use Athena's, but I would have used CK12 or Q&Q from the beginning and had T do the worksheets and quizzes as she went through the bio class. Live and learn, and post on the hive!

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