physics Help for my high schooler!

[armywife70]

Hello all!

 

Question for you. I am thinking on our plan for our 14 yr old. She is wanting to go into the Science realm, but more Biology related. So, my question is, does she NEED Physics? We are planning on her doing Chemistry of course, but she is not doing well with Algebra 1. Right now she is getting about a B- average. So we will be redoing some of it so that she gets a proper understanding.

 

Also, if she needs Physics, what kind of program would be best? We are very literature based.

 

Thank you SO much in advance!

 

Becky

[Faithr]

You might want to look into more of a Charlotte Mason approach.  Here's a link to Harmony Arts High School Science.

 

Also, there's a old blog, probably 1o years old and hasn't been updated, but it is a Charlotte Mason approach to learning science from a real life naturalist.  Here's the link to that.  

 

What you might want to do is have a year of Earth science which includes some of physics and intro to chemistry (learning about the elements).  Then you could do a year of Biology and then do some Chemistry.  Is she in 8th or 9th grade now?  If you have one more year she could focus on environmental science or ecology.  Or maybe anatomy, if she's more inclined to medicine.   If she has a particular major or career in mind, it is a good idea to check out the colleges she might go to and see what it is they look for, especially from homeschoolers.  She might want to take the Biology SAT, or maybe dual enroll in a community college biology class - that outside verification that she really did study this stuff will help with getting into college.

[GoodGrief]

You might want to look at the requirements for her potential major at colleges that she might want to attend (I know she probably doesn't have a strong sense of that at this point!) If she is going into biology, I do think a physics course is probably part of a solid foundation for that, but that may not be the case everywhere.

 

My non-mathy older daughter actually did okay with physics (ultimately did it dual enrollment at a small university with tiny classes). It was chemistry that gave her lots of problems. She also struggled with Alg 1 (and Alg 2!) A tutor really helped us in the end; wish I had done that earlier. She did not, however, choose a science-related major.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Gr8lander

[armywife70]

You might want to look into more of a Charlotte Mason approach.  Here's a link to Harmony Arts High School Science.

 

Also, there's a old blog, probably 1o years old and hasn't been updated, but it is a Charlotte Mason approach to learning science from a real life naturalist.  Here's the link to that.  

 

What you might want to do is have a year of Earth science which includes some of physics and intro to chemistry (learning about the elements).  Then you could do a year of Biology and then do some Chemistry.  Is she in 8th or 9th grade now?  If you have one more year she could focus on environmental science or ecology.  Or maybe anatomy, if she's more inclined to medicine.   If she has a particular major or career in mind, it is a good idea to check out the colleges she might go to and see what it is they look for, especially from homeschoolers.  She might want to take the Biology SAT, or maybe dual enroll in a community college biology class - that outside verification that she really did study this stuff will help with getting into college.

We are defenitely Charlotte Mason style! I just am never sure how to do it with High School Science. Thank you so much for the link! She is in 10th grade and also is doing a few classes at the local Tech college. She has an idea of what she wants to do, but being 14, that of course can and most likely will change. :)

 

You might want to look at the requirements for her potential major at colleges that she might want to attend (I know she probably doesn't have a strong sense of that at this point!) If she is going into biology, I do think a physics course is probably part of a solid foundation for that, but that may not be the case everywhere.

 

My non-mathy older daughter actually did okay with physics (ultimately did it dual enrollment at a small university with tiny classes). It was chemistry that gave her lots of problems. She also struggled with Alg 1 (and Alg 2!) A tutor really helped us in the end; wish I had done that earlier. She did not, however, choose a science-related major.

We will defenitely be checking into a few colleges in the area that she is interested in!

 

Thank you so much for your replies! These were much needed ideas/thoughts for me to look into!

[RootAnn]

Can't answer you on the "does she have to have physics" question, but she doesn't need really strong algebra for conceptual physics. Take a look at something like Conceptual Physics by Hewitt. There was another really readable conceptual physics book by someone that I had bookmarked (but can't find right now) that was free on the internet, I think. Then, if she needed college physics later, she could do that. You don't need the algebra-based one to do the calculus-based one in college later.

[dereksurfs]

Our ds14 is taking online high school physics with one of our own WTM forum members, Jetta Seboly.  She uses the Conceptual Physics text which RootAnn referenced above while also adding in some algebraic content.  Jetta is an excellent instructor and has a true teacher's heart for young students.  You may consider asking her for some guidance.  This is her website:  http://www.clovercreekscience.com/

 

Regarding whether she could skip Physics or not, I think it depends on a number of factors including your goals for her.  I would be careful not to limit her potential scholastic options this early on.  In time, she could change majors/goals/etc... and need certain subjects as a minimum entrance criteria to attend schools she is interested in.  Of course, she could go back after graduation and take a class at a CC to make up for deficiencies.  

Edited January 10, 2016 by dereksurfs