Which Apologia science for 7th?

[whiteisle]

We started Apologia science last year and my oldest two - dd11 and ds13 - have finished the Land Animals and the Swimming Creatures.  I think dd11 will do the Flying Creatures next but I'm stuck as to which one to do for ds13.  I was thinking the General but read someone else thought the Chem & Physics would do well for 7th.  And then I'm thinking ahead as to where Physical would come in....

 

What would be a good schedule for these starting with 7th grade?

[Guest]

The typical sequence is:

 

7th - General Science

8th - Physical Science

9th - Biology

10th - Chemistry

11th - Physics

12th - Any one of the advanced topics

 

(Rather, this used to be the sequence when Jay Wile still owned the company. I have no idea how things have changed since the so-called "new and improved" curriculum came out.)

[whiteisle]

Thank you for that schedule Kinsa.  Would it be possible to do :

 

7th    Chem & Physics

8th    General

9th    Physical

10th  Biology

11th  Chemistry

12th  Physics or Adv. Bio or Adv. Chem

 

?

 

He definitely doesn't HAVE to do the Chem & Physics....I just thought he'd enjoy it. :)

Edited May 27, 2017 by whiteisle

[Guest]

Sure, you can do anything you want! Just keep in mind that colleges generally want to see biology, chemistry, and physics at a minimum, plus usually they want to see a 4th science, in the high school years. What you do in 7th and 8th really won't affect that.

[whiteisle]

Yeah, I'm considering that as well.  This ds is the one who finds the whole idea of college repulsive and states over and over he's not going.  Which very well may be true.  However, I'd rather him be properly prepared if he might ever change his mind.  I guess I'll get a better feel for things the closer we get to high school.  Thanks so much for your input! :)

[MerryAtHope]

You can do whatever you want--I think focusing on a student's interests is much more important than following a certain progression. In fact, only one of my kids did General and Physical--my STEM oriented student did interest-led sciences through junior high, then went right to Biology in 9th (she did Bio, Chem, Physics, and Advanced Bio, and plans to go into nursing). 

 

Whenever you start with the upper Apologia textbooks, whether with General or with another one (like we did with Biology), there is a learning curve with regard to learning how to study and take the tests and so on. So, just be ready for that and for walking alongside your child, especially that first year. 

[whiteisle]

You can do whatever you want--I think focusing on a student's interests is much more important than following a certain progression. In fact, only one of my kids did General and Physical--my STEM oriented student did interest-led sciences through junior high, then went right to Biology in 9th (she did Bio, Chem, Physics, and Advanced Bio, and plans to go into nursing). 

 

Whenever you start with the upper Apologia textbooks, whether with General or with another one (like we did with Biology), there is a learning curve with regard to learning how to study and take the tests and so on. So, just be ready for that and for walking alongside your child, especially that first year. 

 

 

Thank you for that great advice about the upper levels.  He's only entering 7th but I'm already fretting about high school and what that's going to look like.  :o

Edited May 28, 2017 by whiteisle

[SebastianCat]

I have taught General at a co-op, and will be teaching Physical for the first time this fall.   My DD also did the Apologia elementary Chem & Physics book.   I think your plan is fine, but might consider adding some extra resources to the Chem & Physics book for a 7th grader, because it might be a bit light.   If the content and pace is OK for your student, then there's no need to add anything.    But there will be a big jump in workload and content going from elementary Chem & Physics to General the following year, so adding a bit might be a good way to prepare.

 

From what I've seen, Physical Science when done with labs is considered high school credit-worthy, and I've seen a lot of 9th graders taking it, followed by Bio, Chem, and one additional science to finish high school.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I have read that some schools do not always consider physical science for credit in high school, or perhaps if you are interested in a STEM degree anyways.  I think it's best to do that one in 8th grade.  I am not as familiar with the details of Apologia, but I don't know why you absolutely need to do General Science.  I think it would be fine to replace General Science with physics and chem and then go into physical science.  Then you wouldn't affect the normal high school science progression.

[Calm37]

With my 3 daughters, we started the sequence with Biology in 9th and did other things for middle school. I did not think my son would like all the memorization of Biology, and so I started him with Physical Science in 9th.. We have never used the General Science book.

[whiteisle]

It's good to hear you can safely skip the General science.  That opens things up a bit for us.  They really like the series and would like to explore more of the available topics before doing the "have-to's" for high school.

[Guest]

Oh yes, you can absolutely skip General Science. It's not needed as a prerequisite to the others.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Kinsa

[SebastianCat]

It's good to hear you can safely skip the General science.  That opens things up a bit for us.  They really like the series and would like to explore more of the available topics before doing the "have-to's" for high school.

 

 

Oh yes, you can absolutely skip General Science. It's not needed as a prerequisite to the others.

The ONLY reason I would use caution if you decide to skip General Science is the workload.   Going from Chemistry & Physics straight to Physical Science would be a huge increase in workload and depth.  If your student can handle that jump, I see no reason why you couldn't skip General Science.   But if your child would have difficulty making that leap, then General is a good bridge between the elementary books and Physical Science.   As a plus, though, the content in Chemistry & Physics and Physical Science would be similar, so if your child enjoys it, he'd be studying some of the same material again, just with greater depth.  General and Physical both come with tests, and Chemistry & Physics does not.

 

Another idea would be to begin Chemistry & Physics, then let him finish in less than a year, and begin Physical Science, so he speeds up the pace of Chemistry & Physics and slows down the pace of Physical Science, but takes 2 years overall to do both together.   

 

Honestly, what you do in middle school really has no bearing on future years, other than to prepare for high school level work.   If your child has a preference, I'd allow him to follow those interests now, because those options might be limited once he gets to high school.

[whiteisle]

I think he is the type of child that would be overwhelmed going from a level like Chem & Physics to a level like Physical, so maybe fitting General into the schedule would benefit him - allow him to get use to a more demanding load incrementally rather than just jumping into the deep end.  Hmmm....lots to consider here.  

[Judahslamb]

Interesting thread, thank you all for your input. 

[SilverMoon]

Thank you for that schedule Kinsa. Would it be possible to do :

 

7th Chem & Physics

8th General

9th Physical

10th Biology

11th Chemistry

12th Physics or Adv. Bio or Adv. Chem

 

?

 

He definitely doesn't HAVE to do the Chem & Physics....I just thought he'd enjoy it. :)

I'd skip physical and bump bio to 9th if you stick with the series. Physics and chem are physical science, so skipping general would give you two years in a row of the same concepts.

 

Fwiw, bio, chem, and physics have NO science prerequisites, so neither general or physical are absolutely needed. His math level may come into play on chem and physics readiness, but not any science he's done before.

[whiteisle]

Another question.....do you do the Notebook with the upper levels or just do the questions, tests, and experiments?

[ktgrok]

Another question.....do you do the Notebook with the upper levels or just do the questions, tests, and experiments?

 

I've only used Biology, but the notebook was really helpful. It had the questions from the end of the chapter in it, so you could just fill in the answers, had extra study summaries, places to write up the labs, etc. 

[SebastianCat]

Another question.....do you do the Notebook with the upper levels or just do the questions, tests, and experiments?

When my kids have done Apologia sciences at home, we've used the notebook.  When we've taken those courses through a co-op, we haven't used the notebook.

 

I like the notebooks because they have all of the OYO questions, templates for labs, and study guide questions written out for the student, as well as a schedule.   

[whiteisle]

Thank you!!

[MerryAtHope]

The notebooks kept coming out too late for us (they'd have the level we needed just after we finished that level!), but we did get to use it for the Advanced Biology--LOVE the notebooks. It makes it so much easier (the student doesn't have to flip around from the questions in the book to finding the answer to writing in another notebook--it just makes it so nicely organized.) I think some of the notebooks might have some extras and I wouldn't necessarily use those, but just for the OYO, Study Guides and Lab Reports they are very worth it.

[whiteisle]

Thank you MerryAtHope!