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Will some people just dislike biology?


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My son drags his feet on the biology and tries to get out of doing it, all the time. My question is, should I just accept this as an inevitable for some subjects? Or try to seek out something less painful and/or more enjoyable for him?

 

Also, because of his ASD, he is very hard headed on how he does stuff. We are using Science Shepherd.

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My son drags his feet on the biology and tries to get out of doing it, all the time. My question is, should I just accept this as an inevitable for some subjects? Or try to seek out something less painful and/or more enjoyable for him?

 

Also, because of his ASD, he is very hard headed on how he does stuff. We are using Science Shepherd.

 

Very natural to like some subjects and dislike others. Whether you want to seek something else out--I would say that depends. Most of the time, I finish out what we have and make adjustments when it's time to purchase new curriculum. Biology texts are expensive--so I wouldn't rush out to get a new one. Now, if it's a really bad fit (let's say he doesn't understand it, routinely gets less than 60% on tests)--then I would consider accommodations (can we adjust the text to fit his needs--is audio possible, or reading aloud? Adjustments to tests, testing open book? etc...), or as a last resort I might consider changing it. I'd have to be convinced that another program was likely to solve the issues we were having with the current one though.

 

For me, it's not enough for a kid to say they "hate" something--they have to be able to say or show why, and something else has to have a high probability of being better for me to switch mid-year.

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Sometimes when my kids didn't like something, I'd say, "Well, I don't always like doing the dishes or laundry either, but they have to be done." Sometimes a kid is just trying to get out of something that's "work," and I think it helps to show that their "argument" ("I hate ____") is irrelevant to what needs to be done. 

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Do you know why he doesn't like it?  Is it the way the material is presented?  Or the subject itself?  Or is the material hard for him?  Or too easy?  Or is he doing the subject at a bad time of day?  With math, for instance, DD does so much better if she can tackle it before 10am.  Is it the pacing?  Does he need smaller chunks over a longer period of time?  More interaction with someone else?  Less interaction?

 

If you aren't sure of the cause, I agree with PP, I would try to tweak out why before hopping to something else.  Maybe the two of you could brainstorm where the disconnect is and see if the current material can be tweaked in some way?  I realize with the ASD that makes things more complex...

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It also may just be this part of biology. My DD plans to be a herpetologist, and is pretty down with entomology, Icthyology, ornithology, Mammalology...but honestly finds a lot of the stuff in Campbell's about as interesting as watching paint dry. According to her mentor, that's common-a lot of the material in high school (and undergraduate general) biology just plain doesn't appeal to kids who have passionate interests in whole organisms, and does a lot to turn off kids from the field, especially since the SAT2 and the AP exams both tend to focus on minutiae and have a brutal curve, often leaving kids with the impression that they're not very good in the subject, when actually they're just not good at memorizing details.

Edited by dmmetler
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I don't understand how someone could dislike biology because as dmmetler says, it's just such a huge field. Surely there's something there to interest. Whether it's environment or ecology or animals or plants or reproduction or biochemistry or pathology or zoology... there's so much there that I think most everyone can find something of great interest to use as the central focus from which to explore the subject. 

If the subject has become a list of things to memorize, then yeah, I can see how that would be dull. 

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Our differences make the world go around effectively.  For every student who dislikes ______ (and there are many), there is another who loves it.  It doesn't have to be Bio.  I was never fond of English or Art.  I loved the sciences and took three my senior year because of it.   Art I ditched after 8th grade.  English I would have ditched if I could. 

 

That said, I think it's important for everyone (academically capable) to understand the basics of how both the cell and larger organisms (plant & animal) work just like it's important for all of us to read/write and be able to do math and some abstract reasoning.

 

Whether to change curriculum or not is another issue.  Is there any way you can discuss it with him - perhaps looking at some options?  By high school kids ought to have some say in their education IMO.

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I agree that whether or not to change curriculum is a separate issue from whether he will ever like biology as a subject. 

 

Some kids would rather just get through a basic curriculum in the most efficient way possible in order to meet requirements, but others may be better served by changing things up to match their learning preferences or focus interests.

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I don't understand how someone could dislike biology because as dmmetler says, it's just such a huge field. Surely there's something there to interest. Whether it's environment or ecology or animals or plants or reproduction or biochemistry or pathology or zoology... there's so much there that I think most everyone can find something of great interest to use as the central focus from which to explore the subject. 

 

If the subject has become a list of things to memorize, then yeah, I can see how that would be dull. 

He is very interested in plants. But I am unsure how to make a twist on to that. I am sure I could, should be able to anyway. But can't figure it out.

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One does not need to love every subject. One does need to do the best they possibly can, on every subject.   Biology was the first 9th grade course my DD finished (and she took the EOC exam for it a few weeks ago).   I think English is the course that she spends the most time on.  Everyone has their interests, and their dislikes, but they need to do everything they are required to do.   

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I've said this here before, but neither of mine enjoy learning. They're really more "doing" kids versus sitting down with the books. Yet both have top-notch SATs, APs, and my oldest just snagged yet another great merit scholarship.

 

No one likes every subject, and some really don't enjoy school. I did, but mine don't. They get it done though and are good at what they do. That's what counts.

 

Now if a text is really BAD (we had a few of those), I'd certainly switch. But dislike? Nope. 

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My kids dislike the memorizing part of biology. They like the hands on labs part of it. I ordered the Labpaq bio kit to have something nicely organized for my kids. There are a few plants experiments there.

 

Also get him more botany trade books and journals if that is his area of interests. Botany can be a high school credit. Example of botany syllabus

http://teachers.sheboygan.k12.wi.us/krobison/BotanySyllabus.htm

http://www.groton.k12.ct.us/Page/12238

 

For every subject, there would be certain aspects my kids don't like. If they can't work around it, they just have to work through it.

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I hated biology in high school. We cut up dead animals and looked at unidentifiable blobby things under a microscope and memorized 753,214 vocabulary words. Yuck! Biology was awful!

 

I was an adult before I realized I was taught biology very poorly and that it's actually very intetesting.

 

But then again, not everyone likes every subject out there. My son loves science but generally finds stuff about human anatomy and cells boring. He likes chemistry and physics and doesn't mind evolution, but the rest of biology he's pretty "meh" about.

 

There are two routes to take (and probably more, but two that come to mind quickly): suck it up and learn biology from these resources because we have them and you need to learn biology (good practice for college and life when sometimes you don't have a choice and just have to suck it up) or decide what you like about biology and focus on that with less standard resources (good for cultivating a love of learning and flexibility). I take varying approaches with my kids depending on the subject and their personalities. Only you would know what might be best for your particular kid.

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My oldest dd hated biology and loved chemistry.  Biology was gross to her.  She dreaded the labs and hated the smell of formaldehyde or whatever they use to preserve fetal pigs these days.  Chemistry however was fascinating.  She was just good enough in math to get it and it sort of opened a whole new world to her.  My oldest son loved biology and thought it was fascinating, but nothing grosses him out!  Chemistry was a pure, incomprehensible slog for him.  Then my 3rd son loved both biology and chemistry and went on to take physics which proved to be his favorite.  Alas, he is the one who decided college wasn't for him.  So, go figure!

 

 

Edited by Faithr
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I too hated bio and loved chem in high school.  Bio seemed more reading/language and chem was math.  I don't think these courses are much different now; my dd used the Campbell text for bio at school and the topics all looked familiar.

 

The stuff I personally find interesting about bio would be on a molecular level, a bit more like chem, but that's not high school bio, though it could be a small corner of it.  To me, high school bio topics seem basic and foundational - I don't think they should be skipped just because they're disliked.  A hunt for potentially more interesting resources/texts would be the way to go in this situation, IMO, but if that doesn't work, eh...it'll be done in a year.

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I have this child, which is mortifying to me because my degree is in biology (molecular genetics and biochemistry). He LOVES physics (which is mostly incomprehensibly dry for me). Cell biology was a slog, botany was torture. Anatomy and physiology was tolerable because there are nice resources discussing the mechanics of the human body. Human reproduction nearly ended our homeschooling journey (because who wants to be taught this by their mother!). Then came genetics and evolution. He was happy. So, my advice, view the human body as machine, do enough cell biology to make genetics comprehensible (you need to cover the various organelles and the ATP cycle) then get stuck into molecular biology. Its all applied chemistry. Hewitts Conceptual Integrated Science is brilliant - straight to the point, thorough, good questions at the end of each chapter and no fluff at all.

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