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notagoodfitafterall

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    Homeschool High School Physics

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    What about Sabbath Mood Homeschool? 

    Name: HS Physics Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3

    Publisher: Sabbath Mood Homeschool

    Where to buy: High School Science Curriculum | Sabbath Mood Homeschool

    Level: Regular

    Type: Textbook

    Additional Materials: 

    Teacher Resources:

    Lesson Plans: Yes

    Secular/Christian: Both offered

    Program includes labs: Yes

    Lab kit available: No, but a supplies list can be previewed on the website

    Math background needed: For credit as Physics, Algebra 2 is required. For credit as Conceptual Physics, no math is specified.

    Comments: All three "parts," each of which is only one twelve-week term, are required for one high school credit. The author recommends doing one term each year of Physics, Chemistry, and Earth Science, but all three parts of any course can be completed in one year. Also, each part requires a different guide, but all three of them use the same spine. 

     

    *Note: We have not used this program, so I can not vouch for its quality or level of rigor. 

    Chemistry on a shoestring

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Also, if you really want a hands-on lab component, you might want to look at kids resources. A lot of times, they require mostly household supplies.  A Drop of Water by Walter Wick comes to mind, and I've recently found it for $2 used plus shipping. 

    You'll likely still want to include videos of high school level experiments, but at least it's something?

     

    As an aside, the local school district here has banned labs due to "safety" (read: cost), so if all your budget allows is a free text and videos of labs, there's no reason to feel guilty. 

    • Like 2
    • Sad 1

    Chemistry on a shoestring

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Have you looked at ck12? We're looking at it and coordinating videos of most of the labs. 

    I would add in some living books like The Chemical History of a Candle. The chemical history of a candle, a course of lectures delivered before a juvenile audience at the Royal Institution; : Faraday, Michael, 1791-1867 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    Honestly, if you can spend anything, I would get That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles or The Disappearing Spoon. There's a free audiobook for each with an Audible trial. Used they go for as little as $5 each with shipping. I know that's a lot sometimes, though, so don't feel they're necessary.

     

    For labs, what is the budget you're looking at? On an absolutely nothing budget, I would stick with videos. I would hesitate to recommend anything else without a price range. This guide from Apologia might be helpful for writing a lab report, whether doing or watching them. How to Write a Lab Report - Apologia 

    You might also find the introduction to keeping a lab notebook in the free preview here helpful. Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY Science): Robert Bruce Thompson: 0636920514923: Amazon.com: Books

     

    • Like 2

    Private school or not

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I wouldn't even look at a school that costs $20,000, let alone one that costs that much after a scholarship! That kind of money is for college tuition, not for elementary school, at least in my house.

    It also doesn't sound like a good school in my humble opinion, but I tend to see an overemphasis on STEM the same way I see focusing on a trade at that age. 

    Personally, we felt that Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding and the AO nature study/science booklists were more than enough at that age, but I'm really not sure what kind of labs you're after for your dd to say if that's "enough" for her. 

     

    At the end of the day, it's a choice only you and your family can make. Settling on your educational philosophy/what you think is the purpose of education might make it easier. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. 

    • Like 1

    What to Do After Wentworth's First Steps in Algebra?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    1 hour ago, WTM said:

    Have you heard of MEP? It is free and I’ve heard it’s very good

    https://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mepres/primary/index.htm

    I have. I'm hesitant to consider it because students in the UK specialize in the last two years. They only take three or four subjects, so I worry there's an expectation that they can handle more work in those few chosen subjects. I don't want to have to cut back on everything else in order to use it, if that makes sense.

    Thank you so much, though! I will definitely give it a second look. 🙂

    • Like 1

    Enrollment Cliff ???

    in The College Board

    Posted

    1 hour ago, kokotg said:

    I guess I don't get what you're saying then...you want K-12 to be when kids get a rich and diverse education across different disciplines, but you also don't want them to do anything could be considered college level work in high school so that they can, in fact, focus on their major field more when they get to college? At any rate, there are plenty of LAC that have pretty much zero gen ed requirements if that's what someone wants.

    I don't want them to chase exams. Learning shouldn't be about that. I also don't think there should have to be an exam to prove you don't need to study U.S. history or government or whatever in college. A high school diploma should be enough for those sorts of courses. I guess in my view we can pinky swear we really have covered 'x' and move on. I might be willing to agree with a high school level exam for subjects. 

    I just, to me, APs and DEs should only be for classes that students enjoy and excel at. They should be how a student shows strengths, not what they do gen. ed. For example, a student wanting to go into engineering should be able to set herself apart by taking AP Calculus, AP Physics, and AP Chemistry. She shouldn't have to take AP Spanish to avoid taking a foreign language at school or AP World History to avoid history. 

    ETA We already talk about humanities majors, especially English majors, taking "a dumbed down college algebra course." Why can't we say that if the SAT or ACT score was good enough to get into that college for that major, then there's no need for another class in math? Why are the options for that student either go way above the requirements for AP Calculus (or AP Precalculus now) or essentially retake algebra in college? It just feels senseless. 

     

    To bring this back to the enrollment cliff, I'm hopeful the pressure for so many APs will drop, and students can focus only on being "advanced" in their preferred disciplines and can be, well, at the high school level in the other courses. 

    • Like 3

    Enrollment Cliff ???

    in The College Board

    Posted

    1 minute ago, kokotg said:

    Is that hard to find in the US, though? My kid went to a liberal arts college thinking he wanted to take a big variety of classes, but he ended up taking almost all math and geography (and computer science and statistics, which are in the same department as math). It's fairly easy to get most core requirements for most schools out of the way in high school these days, between DE and AP credit. There are still some colleges that are very committed to a certain academic experience and that won't let you opt out of a broad core with credit from high school, but those are easy to avoid if that's not what you want (though the ones that come to mind are definitely not schools that are hurting for applicants...like UChicago springs to mind immediately as having a pretty rigid curriculum, from what I understand. My kid is at Vanderbilt in the music school, so he's VERY specialized, but arts and sciences has fairly broad core requirements that you can't use AP credit to get out of (though you can use DE, interestingly). But at almost all of the LACs my oldest got into, there are either no requirements or the requirements are so broad that by the time you transfer in AP credit there's very little you'd HAVE to take outside your area of interest and in closely related departments. Like in theory the liberal arts experience is about a broad range of experiences, and you certainly CAN have that, but it's also, in my experience, about pretty loose requirements that give you the freedom to EITHER explore or specialize.

    Are AP and DE really getting out of gen. ed. requirements? They seem to just push college off onto high schoolers. At this point, it feels like a four-year degree takes six years when all the DE and AP classes are factored into it. 

    • Like 1

    Enrollment Cliff ???

    in The College Board

    Posted

    I'm torn with regards to the British 6th Form. The quality of the K-10 education really determines how willing I am to allow total specialization in 11th and 12 grade. Still, I'd rather see a kid actually want to learn than just study for a test. But, such is our system. 😕

    • Like 1

    Homeschool High School Math

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Enrollment Cliff ???

    in The College Board

    Posted

    Honestly? I would say that a negligible number of students in the U.S. public school system are receiving a quality education, whether that quality is measured in a liberal arts sense or a STEM/trade sense. If I believed in our school system, my kids would be in it.

    At the end of the day, though, it would be easier to get Richard Dawkins to convert to Christianity and Franklin Graham to convert to atheism than it would be to get the American public school system to offer a quality education. The first hurdle is that I don't think we could get a consensus on what a quality education is. However, I do believe in a person's ability to find his or her own interests and pursue it, and replacing the general education courses with more work in the major area is something colleges could and should consider on an individual basis.

    With regards to the idea of do-overs, I agree we offer too many considering the cost. I have a whole tangent about pass rates, testing, etc. that really doesn't belong here. Unfortunately, we're likely going to see the opposite. With a smaller pool to draw students from, colleges will be pushing even harder for students to take and retake courses. 

    • Like 4

    Enrollment Cliff ???

    in The College Board

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, Frances said:

    I don’t think colleges trying to differentiate themselves from the pack and sell themselves to prospective students is anything new. What I think has been increasing for quite some time is college being seen as a product like any other and just a means to an end, while at the same time the costs has increased much more rapidly than most other expenses. Sadly, I don’t think most parents and students really care about being well educated or expanding their horizons. I think they just want the degree. My husband used to teach a science course for non-majors during the summer. And every summer on the first day of class he would ask how many students would just purchase the credit and their desired grade if they could and skip taking the class completely. And every summer, every single student raised their hand. It was also pretty eye opening what they were willing to pay. Most were willing to pay far more than the class cost, especially if they could buy an A. 

    So I don’t doubt that many colleges will have to continue to cater to the lowest common denominator in order to survive and not risk invoking revolt and financial ruin by exposing students to new, uncomfortable ideas and demanding hard work and excellence. But we as a society will all suffer. Honestly, it makes me think we might be better off with the model used in some European countries like Germany where students are tracked into different paths from a relatively young age, so the range of students attending college is not as wide, and apprenticeships are a strong option. But at least there, the average student is getting a much better k12 education than here, so the dangers of a marginally educated populace are not quite the same.

    I'm going to be brutally honest and say something very unpopular here: the only value I see in a college education is to get a degree and a job. For us, K-12 is about a broad education; it's about developing interests and inspiring further study. But college? By that point, it feels like the basics should be taught, and students should be ready to specialize. I don't necessarily care if my doctor has read Shakespeare as long as he knows better than to give my 9-year-old tetracycline, you know? 

    In that way, I suppose I'm closer to preferring the British university system, where they take fewer electives/general education courses and more courses in their major. Like you said your husband experienced, students usually don't care for subjects outside their majors anyway.

    • Like 4

    Enrollment Cliff ???

    in The College Board

    Posted

    As someone else pointed out, it's going to be tricky to know which colleges will suffer most. Some LACs are doing well, but others are struggling. The same is true for CCs, and, I would guess, some bigger universities.

    I know people talked about "canned courses," and we're seeing that already at some schools, but I wonder if any will take the opposite route. Offering more unique course, potentially more "hands-on" work, could be a great way for colleges to differentiate themselves. It's almost ironic to consider colleges having to sell themselves to prospective students, but that may well become the case.

    To be honest, @Frances and @... both have good points. It begs the question, in this new day and age, will it be students or colleges who have to "suck it up" with regards to courses? The answer is likely related to the competition in the area, both the geographic area and the subject area.

    What to Do After Wentworth's First Steps in Algebra?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Just now, Malam said:

    By the way, have you hear of the Art of Problem Solving textbooks? They're very popular among math-enthusiastic families. I suggest you take a look at their algebra book if it's in your budget.

    https://artofproblemsolving.com/store/book/intro-algebra

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/aops-cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/products/intro-algebra/toc.pdf

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/aops-cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/products/intro-algebra/exc1.pdf

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/aops-cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/products/intro-algebra/exc2.pdf

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/aops-cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/products/intro-algebra/exc3.pdf

    https://s3.amazonaws.com/aops-cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/products/intro-algebra/index.pdf

    I've heard of it, and it was something I was considering. I've heard a lot of people say switching to it is difficult. And, frankly, it's just not really in our budget this year. My goal is to do math for less than $20 this year. 

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