I think, though that this may be mixing up theory with hypothesis. Yes, theories can be overturned, but it happens pretty darn rarely (once a century at most -- and maybe a lot less). Hypotheses, on the other hand, are thrown out all the time. But because, in general conversation, people throw around the two words as if they are exactly the same thing, it becomes very easy for someone to make the logical (but very wrong) leap to saying that all scientific theories are unsupported. Here's an article explaining the difference between a theory and a hypothesis: http://culturalcommentary.blogspot.com/2006/02/theory-vs-hypothesis-whats-difference.html Perhaps the very first step in understanding science is understanding this difference. If people really understood this, they'd understand exactly why biologists scoff at creationism and ID. It's not that they're hidebound traditionalists who just don't happen to like Christians. They just understand that creationism and ID don't have *nearly* the evidential support that the theory of evolution does. That evidence, in fact, is why it's called a theory, and not a hypothesis. A theory has to have a huge mass of evidence supporting it or it's got no business being called a theory. And hypotheses and theories get thrown out at about the same rate in the social sciences. Even a field like history (which most wouldn't think to call a "real" science) has hypotheses that get disproved at a very high rate, as well as theories that have a huge body of evidence supporting them that *don't* get thrown out all that often. It takes a very, very long time for enough evidence to show up for a hypothesis to turn into a theory. That's why it takes so long for a theory to be toppled by another theory. Another huge mass of evidence has to be discovered to make that switch.

I am so much more connected with my neighbors because of facebook. I know much more of what's going on at church. I have a bit more contact with faraway relatives because of it. Really, I think facebook can be a social game changer for the better. (Not that I like the company very much, but that's another story.) My neighbors actually talk to me because they have a bit of information now to start a conversation with. I suspect most people writing articles about how awful facebook is don't have a clue how it's being used. This article purports to present research, but it doesn't appear to really support the idea that facebook is an evil. It seems to me that social media is just a convenient thing to bash -- it sells articles. I'll bet the same things were being said about phones when they first came into use. Maybe people are afraid of getting on facebook and seeing how few friends they really have? Because there is a danger, if one is susceptible, to start counting friends by the numbers. How many do you have? How many people reply to your posts? How many does everyone else have? How many replies do they get? It was pretty obvious, once I got on facebook, that I was not one of the popular girls. But I'd never had that misconception, so there was no rude awakening for me that put me off facebook. It seems there was some research around somewhere that found that no one is as popular as they think the popular people are. I forget where I saw that. (This went beyond facebook popularity, as I recall) I just remembered, too, that I have several "friends" on facebook that I don't know, that I never intended to friend. Facebook has its glitches sometimes. These things happen. But I don't unfriend them. I always figure we might be friends in the future. My general rule of thumb on any type of internet media is to never post anything I don't want the entire world to know, so it doesn't bother me at all to have people I don't know as friends. I've only ever hid one person on my newsfeed and that was only because he was playing SO MANY games that I was getting notifications for that nothing else ever showed up.

Como Zoo also has a conservatory, which is nice if you like to look at plants. It's free-ish. They do ask for donations with a big pot out front, but no one's watching to see if you pay. It might even be a nicer zoo than the big MN zoo if anyone in your family has issues with walking a long way. It's not nearly so big. A lot of it is indoors, so the weather won't be so much of a factor.

Probably not though. A nice post would have been lost. An over the top post got a lot of angry comments and kept the topic up in the public eye here for a lot longer. And while mentioning the problem on this board may not help with the OP's situation, this has turned into a public service announcement. Anyway, I didn't see the original post as being over the top. It was meant to be humorous (I thought). Also, those who think one can just take allergy drugs or "deal with it" probably need a bit of education. Allergy/asthma drugs can only do so much for those who have severe problems.

Only once for the first kid. Can't say yet for the other one.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57407294/is-sugar-toxic/?tag=pop;stories The transcript of the story seems to be at this site -- there's also a link to the video, but I don't know if it's complete (although it does come with ads you have to sit through).

I just saw the big DONATE button at the bottom and decided I'd have to see this story from an independent source before I believed it. Is this even a case HSLDA is involved in? If it's not, why do they need money? And if it is, why are they giving the details of the case on the internet? Either way, it's fishy.

We've been using the Thinkwell lectures along with problems out of a calc book. It helps that we have a full solutions manual. I just go through and find the sections that relate to the lectures. We tried the problems/quizzes in Thinkwell and just got bogged down. The Khan problem sets are also not too helpful as there are large swaths of material he doesn't cover in calculus.

My experience with interview committees for scholarships suggests that "leadership" can be interpreted pretty broadly. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're looking only for kids who have the right title next to their name. Someone can show leadership in a team situation without being the team "manager", and the admissions/scholarship folks are aware of this and looking for it. Leadership isn't just who's giving orders. It's also demonstrating a passion for other kids to follow, or providing a good role model of how to work hard. It can be coming up with innovative ideas. In fact, I suspect a lot of the admissions folks don't even take the titles all that seriously. They recognize that a lot of titles are bogus anyway -- so they'll look for what a student has to say about their role in an activity rather than the paper credentials. I've watched admissions at both large and small colleges (from the inside, not as an applicant or parent of an applicant), and that's been my impression.

I use a cheap food processor that I got at a rummage sale. It works fine, and it's not any kind of name brand. I didn't have much luck with blenders.

We've been watching How the Earth Was Made. It's a little over the top sensational at times, but it does have some good information. For a recalcitrant geology student, it might be a better approach than a textbook. It doesn't cover rocks though (at least not in the first season).

My kids never clicked with Khan Academy. He just doesn't do things the way their minds work. You might be right that it's more procedure based and that's the problem. They can't do anything until they understand the reasoning behind it. I've found that whenever my kids watched a Khan lecture, I had to go back and redo the explanations for them. It was mostly a waste of time. The problem sets are nice (although a bit difficult to navigate), but we haven't gotten much use out of the lectures. So although everyone raves about the site, there are folks who it just doesn't work for.

And I've wondered if these kind of online college lectures might be just as good as Thinkwell: http://lecturefox.com/chemistry/ I haven't looked into them, but they might be worth considering.

We haven't done the exam, and are only halfway through the Thinkwell course. However, I would think it would be a bit tough to do the AP exam without a lot of supplemental problem solving. The little quizzes after each lecture aren't really enough. We also found about half the lectures to be difficult to follow. One of the lecturers is really good (Gordon Yee), but the other tends to cover too much and not explain enough. If we do eventually go on to do the AP test, I'm thinking we'd have to do a lot of review or relearning of that material that wasn't covered very well. But I would probably do this with a cheap chem text. You can pick up older editions very cheaply online at Amazon or Abebooks or some such place. You'd want a text that had a lot of problems, along with a solutions manual. For a student who didn't have a tutor or anyone in the house who could teach them chemistry, the Thinkwell lectures would be a really good resource, but they might need more. The Thinkwell Calculus lectures, though, tend to be pretty good, so I don't mean to make all of Thinkwell sound bad. (Actually, the chemistry isn't actually bad. It just isn't as good as it could be.)

My husband and I have both ended up getting the composite on back fillings because the silver fillings just wouldn't stick (the cavities weren't deep enough). But no, the insurance wouldn't pay because they called it a "cosmetic" expense. I've only had mine a couple months. My husband has had his for a couple years. Neither of us has noticed any issues with them. In the short term, anyway. Here's another comparison: http://www.rodale.com/dental-fillings-mercury-and-bpa?page=0,0

When I've done Zumba at the Y, none of the lyrics are in English. Our Y is pretty sensitive to making sure no one gets offended by things. They've locked down the TVs so no one can change the stations, for example. So it's possible they've chosen to keep the lyrics in a language other than English to keep from offending people. (Although, given the number of Spanish speakers at our Y, there've got to be some people who can understand them.) My guess is that just mentioning this to the teacher or the management might be enough to get things changed. Are you bringing your kids to Zumba? Or just feeling bothered now that you've given it a good listen? If you're bringing the kids, I'd think the people in charge might want to make things more, um, wholesome. Actually, what really bothers me is the decibel level. My daughter won't do Zumba anymore. It was hurting her ears -- and we were wearing ear plugs.

Do as much math as will fit -- not just the minimum requirements. If she gets done with pre-calc and doesn't want to do calc yet, statistics is a good alternative. It's helpful to have done biology, chemistry, and physics in high school, so that the college classes in these areas aren't a complete mystery. Advanced science (such as AP) would be even better, but if she can't make it that far, don't worry about it. Rigor looks good -- but on the other hand, I know doctors who were English majors in college. Didn't do any math or science beyond the bare minimum in high school and college. After graduating from college, they decided they wanted to be doctors, so they just spent a year getting the math/science requirements in after they graduated. They got into med school fine and are doing just fine as doctors. It might not have been the cheapest way to do it, but it does prove that it's never too late. So I wouldn't stress. Just do the best that can be done. If she's up for science/math rigor then definitely do it. If it's a struggle, it's better to build a good foundation now with what she can do than to race through things just because they're required. And make sure she can write. That's always a plus.

It's going to depend on the college, and also how the student gets credit for Calc 3. Is the Calc 3 something you are doing at home? Or is it college credit? If it's done at home, I think you're going to be out of luck on getting credit for any of the Calc without an AP test. Unless the college has it's own math placement test. However, although many colleges have a math placement test, many of them only test to see if the student is ready for calculus. They may not test beyond that. And there is variation in how hard those placement tests can be. Some colleges are resistant to giving kids calc credit unless they can do very well on a really hard test. Others have a more fair test. You likely won't know until the test is taken. The other advantage of doing the AP test is that the student can take it while the subject is fresh, rather than waiting until they've started college. You also might even be out of luck on getting calc credit if the college your child goes to doesn't accept credit from other places. This might even be an issue with the AP test. The 85 dollars is a bit of a gamble. It may prove to be really useful and save a lot of time and money. Or it might do nothing. You won't know until it's too late to go back and change it. However, as AP credit goes, the calc test tends to be one of the ones that colleges are more likely to give credit for. Really depends on the college, though. If your child is already taking dual enrollment courses, the best bet might be to talk to advisers at that college. They may have a good idea which courses will transfer as credit to which colleges, particularly if it's at a community college.

One advantage to consider is that a kid who starts college a year "late" will be more mature and better able to handle the college scene. Having to suddenly be so responsible for class work and managing life is a huge jump for a lot of kids, and those who are a year older when they start have a tendency to do a bit better. I know a few kids who did this (including my own) and it's really been better for them. The colleges don't seem to care. Even if the student took a lot of college classes in high school, many colleges just give credit for them without any fuss. They don't call the student a transfer student. It's particularly nice for kids who are young for their grade.

Because they're fascinating creatures. Because one's understanding of what it means to be human is enriched by having them around. And if you do it right, you get friends for life.

I'm pretty sure they can spot a fake name even without anyone reporting it. Actually, sometimes they will "spot" a fake name that is real and disable a legitimate account. And I assume Happy Camper will be one they will flag. You'd have to come up with something more "real". It may not happen soon, but they will probably find it eventually. There are definitely fake accounts out there, but facebook won't find them unless you use an obviously fake name.

I've now been through most of the Thinkwell biology lectures. I think it would be a good course for prepping to take the AP test. However, I do see that it's not quite the biology course that my husband teaches -- or that I would teach if I were back in teaching. It tends to gloss over difficult things and race through topics. I know that the community college near us was using it as the actual course, though. I'm not going to list colleges near us that don't give bio credit for the AP test because I just have issues with giving out too much personal info. But one really should check with colleges. And be sure the credit being given is for the majors course, if that's what your student will need. A long time ago (really, it WAS the dark ages), the Univ of California gave credit for the AP bio test, but it didn't actually get the student out of any classes. That's usually pretty worthless for most students, particularly in the sciences. They generally have enough credits to graduate and a few more is not much help.

All that being said, though, I still think doing either AP classes or college classes in high school can be worthwhile for students who need the extra challenge. I'm just cautioning people that the AP test may not give a full indication of how well the student really knows the material. And that in some cases, it may be worth repeating the class. I think the issue may be trying to bring college into the high school. If one takes the high school student and puts them in a college class that is mostly other college students, then it will likely still be at the level of a college class. However, as more and more high schools bring college into the schools (via AP tests and other methods), the classes tend to be more like high school, with lower standards. As an interesting side note, many high school kids around here take college classes, but they all seem to have exchanged notes on which are the easy classes. So they may not be getting quite the college experience that they think they are. Also, some of these classes seem to be getting easier as more and more high school students sign up for them. And I hear complaints from actual college students about the immaturity of the high school students bringing down the level of instruction in the classes. Some high school kids have really benefited from these programs, so I'm disappointed to see this happening. Some of the high school students have actually been raising the bar, but then there's a lot more who just come in and lower it.

I know a lot of professors who teach biology (family members and colleagues) and they all seem to find this to be the case. They see it with kids who even took AP Bio in 12th grade, so I doubt it's just the intervening time (although that couldn't really help). I've also heard a few stories that suggest this may also be the case with the AP physics test, but fewer students take that so it isn't as common. And although the AP Calc tests seem to cover calculus better than the Biology test covers biology, I still have the sense that students would be better off just taking the class at college. My daughter, who placed out of calc 1 and 2 with the AP test, found that she had to learn a lot of topics for calc 3 that she should have already known -- but they weren't covered on the AP test. She's pretty smart so she got through it, but it was extremely time consuming to be learning material for 2 classes at once. I wouldn't probably recommend it for most kids if they weren't really good at math. (And even kids who are accelerated and seem to be doing well in the earlier math years may not be able to pull this off. Particularly if they have a full class load otherwise.)

For Spanish, you might look at Destinos: http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html The learner.org site also has a lot of other video courses that might be something you'd be looking for. For English, if you just read a lot, particularly if they are challenging books, you'll have done a lot more than many high school students. Try to find lists of 100 books that high school seniors should have read and work your way through it. You won't get through all 100, but that's not really the goal. here's one such list: http://www.collegeboard.com/parents/plan/hs-steps/21276.html Then you can go to a place like spark notes to read about themes and context and such.