MamaSprout
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Posts posted by MamaSprout
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On 3/22/2024 at 4:16 PM, omishev said:
Hi, I am working on writing a text on the creation/evolution and age of earth debates covering three main areas below. My goal is to present the different perspectives, not debate, and to do so in a respectful way. I am reaching out to ask if anyone has connections with a publisher or illustrator that would be interested in this work. I would also love to hear about any books or other resources on this topic that you enjoyed. Thank you!
1. The range of views within the church
2. History people and discoveries that influenced big bang and evolutionary thought
3. Science surrounding those theories
Have you considered offering it as an OER?
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Also... Dd has "found" a couple of homeschoolers at college by the AoPS Calc books they had on their desk. I said, "They brought them with them to college?!"
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10 hours ago, Likaly said:
Thanks for the encouragement! And thanks for sharing your homeschooling path. I am reading your posts/replies since the beginning, every day at night.
Oh dear. It was a bit messy, lol. Definitely ask questions from all of us veterns. Most of us have "what we would do differently" advice. ETA. I just looked at some of my old posts. Oy. Dd has some eye tracking issues that were clearly a problem from the beginning. It would have saved us both some grief if I had pushed harder with the eye docs back then.
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3 hours ago, rzberrymom said:
My college kiddo has also thanked me several time for making her do AOPS. Says she can always reason backwards and figure out whatever math is in front of her.
We didn't use AoPS as much as imacs/EMF. Dd told me later that she wished we had done more of the EMF/imacs. I told her the computer wasn't up to more of her banging her head against it. 👀 (Geometry was just a textbook. Larson, I think). We always sort of had two math threads going at a time. Regular Math and Fun Math. Sometimes more of one than the other. Pretty sure nothing about The Geometry Year was fun, though.
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My college kiddo just kinda thanked me for making her do proofs.
I’m pretty sure Geometry aged me 6 years… So “yay” for getting through the hard stuff when no one wanted to do it.
:0)
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On 2/20/2024 at 2:59 PM, marybarr said:
I agree with you. Each educational institution is different, so the "requirements" will be different too
Not as different as you might think, especially with engineering, due to ABET accreditation. Transfer credit calculators are available for many schools (or even states).
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I agree that high school students should be writing essays, but most can't.
Or very few can. I have taught college students who don't even write sentences well.
I think I like the Writing book for this project. Since it is a one-off assignment, I'll focus on co-remediation, so a subset of the whole book.
If I'm having fun, I might clone/ adapt the whole thing, It could be a solid "transition to essay writing" curriculum.
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19 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:
These are 2 different levels. Neither are high school level. The higher grammar is probably appropriate for elementary. THe Modern School is probably equivalent of early middle school?? I have never used a writing curriculum so I am not good at comparing.
Here is the break down of the Maxwell books:
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16 hours ago, Clarita said:
I'm sure it's brilliant. I tried to use it for my children who are younger than middle school, supposedly you could remediate or start with an older student with this. The big issue is when it got beyond the subject and verb (to a place where I didn't quite understand), the organization of the website, materials and formatting of the material/answers was confusing enough that I just got lost. Then they changed the website recently and now I don't even know where to find all the things I found before.
I get it, it's free. I don't want to sound like a debbie downer because I think Dr. Ed Vavra is doing a a wonderful thing.
Oh my.
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14 hours ago, cintinative said:
When I was in my "cintinative downloads the Internet" phase I downloaded all of the Glencoe stuff for grammar. Would that be helpful? I have 6th-12th grade. LOL.
In this case, no. It isn’t licensed for sharing. Thanks though!
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So I need to make a free-to-use Language Arts resource. I would love input from you all.
I originally posted on the Logic Stage board, but it seems very quiet there.
Here is my original post:
I am taking a certification course around creative commons/ copyright. One of my final projects is to adapt something out of copyright or with an open copyright into a new free-to-use resource:
"Find an open educational resource and adapt it to better serve your students/community."
My initial thought was to create a remediation co-requisite work text for my university's communications and English courses. The material will be 7-9th grade, because those are skills missing for many of those students.
But. Maybe this could serve more than one of my communities?
When I was teaching co-op courses, there didn't seem to be much available in Logic stage for Language Arts, especially that is free to use. It seemed like there was a gap between about 6th grade and introductory college level.
Is that still the case? What would you look for in a resource like that?
Remember, this is an assignment to adapt something that exists, not create something new, so I would also love to hear about free resources you have found that are "almost" what you need.
Thanks in advance!
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My dd had a good experience with a Russian course that they don't offer any longer.
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I liked Fable level just to get reluctant writers to put words on the page. After that, we usually went a different direction. Lots of good suggestions above.
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I haven't been on the Logic Stage board for a while. Hi. I feel old.
I am taking a certification course around creative commons/ copyright. One of my final projects is to adapt something out of copyright or with an open copyright into a new free-to-use resource:
"Find an open educational resource and adapt it to better serve your students/community."
My initial thought was to create a remediation co-requisite work text for my university's communications and English courses. The material will be 7-9th grade, because those are skills missing for many of those students.
But. Maybe this could serve more than one of my communities?
When I was teaching co-op courses, there didn't seem to be much available in Logic stage for Language Arts, especially that is free to use. It seemed like there was a gap between about 6th grade and introductory college level.
Is that still the case? What would you look for in a resource like that?
Remember, this is an assignment to adapt something that exists, not create something new, so I would also love to hear about free resources you have found that are "almost" what you need.
Thanks in advance!
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On 2/14/2024 at 10:14 PM, wendyroo said:
I wish I could, but he absolutely will not write for me.
He is a strong academic writer, but hates it with a passion. Last semester, at home, I dragged him through Lantern English Persuasive Essays (scoring 95-100% on every essay). He can draft a persuasive thesis, find relevant and reliable sources, and write a strong, well-supported and cited 3 page essay. The problem is, it involves tears and lying and every procrastination tactic in the book. I think to him it truly feels like torture - and that I am forcing him through it for no reason if he does not earn an actual credit on an actual transcript from an outside authority.
I'm not sure how much more he is willing to learn - or really how much he actually needs to learn to make it through his college humanities classes. I'm hoping that ASU's Composition 1 will be a downward or perhaps lateral step from Lantern. And then Composition 2 will hopefully be just a tiny step up from that.
So then we just have to figure out something for senior year that appears to be one more tiny step up. The university where he would dual enroll offers "English 214, Workplace Writing: A course designed to further the student’s ability to write the types of expository prose appropriate to business, business administration, and technical fields." I think that might be as good as it's going to get.
If Comp 1 and Comp 2 are semester-long courses, then that could count as 2 years of high school English. Then maybe see if there is an ASU lit class that would be somewhat interesting?
I know this is a stretch, but does he have any idea where he wants to go to college? I looked at a list of 3 likely candidates to compare for transferable courses for my Dd's dual enrollment. It was motivating for her to know that "boring" courses would likely be "one-and-done." She knew she wasn't going to apply to any super-rejective schools, though.
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I’m leaning that way. I mean, it’s already numerical, lol. I have copies of Humanistic Traditions, which have timeline pages in it. It think as I see a section grow I can dip into that to sort round things out. I tend to get stuck in Medieval world history. I might try to start there and build out.
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Thinking out loud here. It's for adult self-education. Sort of .
I'm always listening, reading, or learning stuff. Some is deliberate (book list), some of it is less so (Great Courses lectures). I want to capture some of this, because I think it is cool when things overlap. I thought about a timeline book like what Dd did for homeschool, but that seemed fussy. So then I thought about index cards. I already use them for task management and some of my more deliberate studying (language learning).
Has anyone done a timeline in a box? I have 4x6 cards, dividers, and a good box. I could tab divide by centuries. Then I'm less sure. My other "knowledge" cards have a different system. Should I do cards by time (decades or years) or by domain (arts, literature) or a combination of the two?
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He's doing better than some of the students I get in Tech Comm, lol. If he keeps moving forward on the two areas that he does passably, he will be fine. The largest advantage to being able to write well in a STEM program is that he will also be able to write quickly and without it being a drain on his already busy schedule.
My dd writes very well and it has saved her so much time with lab reports and such. Another skill that has made her life much easier is her mastery of Office Suite. I tossed her into a Business Applications course as her first duel enrollment course, knowing it would never transfer at the college level, but I know the professor and knew it would be a good start. She can rock a spreadsheet or database and knowing Word lets her focus on the output rather than fiddling around with not knowing how to do a hanging indent. Knowing Excel and Access have made her a much sought-after lab partner. I guess those programs interface with some other software that they use in her field.
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My dd is at Rose Hulman. It's around 75/25. Her program (Engineering Physics) is probably more like 60/40. Her second major is only available as an add on (International Relations), but it's 50/50. Engineering Physics is a very small program, but I think it will grow with Intel's announcement of an Ohio-based chip complex. Rose also does a good job with outreach for girls/ women, though, and Dd's physics advisor is female.
The engineering programs at my university are more like 85/15, although a majority of the math professors are women.
My kiddo wanted to be in some sort of engineering or physics since she was around 10 years old, so she had done plenty of STEM camps, Civil Air Patrol, etc, so she had no problem with the ratios. She navigates it well and has an awesome crew of friends- both male and female. Honestly this is the first time in her life that she has friends that are friends with each other instead of one from 4H, 2 from Civil Air Patrol, 1 from dual enrollment (you get the idea.) Being a minor was a bigger deal than being female, and only because she kept a lid on it for so long that it was something of big reveal when her friends found out.
She's had problems with one chauvinistic professor. He was in humanities and was eventually fired.
So yeah, STEM is still male dominated, and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Any student who works hard will do fine. I remind her of the Madeline Albright quote that "There is no room for mediocre women". It helps that she has a devilish sense of humor and is universally respectful to everyone.
ETA- I do share more about where my Dd is than might be typical here, but she works for Rose's Admissions, complete with her own business card, so she'd be happy to have me share her experiences.
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I’ve only read through part of the thread. I’m going to answer this from the college advisor side of the fence rather than the college admissions side.
At my uni, design is a major that requires Calc 1. I would question a design degree that requires less, even at a two year school.
Four things.
First, I think that CLEP is a fine way to get there if the school accepts it. (Ours does)
Second, we routinely schedule students for a semester each of College Algebra and Trig. Sometimes at the same time. One semester Precalculus is rarely used, but it does exist on the schedule. The main difference is 2 Algebra 2 chapters at the beginning of the semester for the college Algebra book, an assumption that the student has been at least exposed to the unit circle for Precalculus, and of course, pacing. These are widely transferable courses, so are similar from school to school.
Third, unless you have gone through and done the absolutely most easy path through the Dolciani book, which I doubt, you should look at the content of the CLEPs. He may be able to do the Precalc one, and maybe not need a year to do it. ETA- especially if you’ve already taught from Brown’s, you could choose your path to prep from the CLEP rather than locking into one of the paths at the beginning of the book. Mix and match based on what you need.
Third. If the above idea pans out, consider going through and doing a self-paced Calculus CLEP Prep, even if it rolls into his actual college career. This will give him flexibility that he might need later. It would be much better to have that Calc done now then to be a 25-30 year old who wants to increase their earning power, but then need calc, having been away from math for several years.
Anyhow, those are my thoughts. YMMV, of course.
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My science nerd Dd did high school bio in middle school but I wasn’t comfortable counting toward high school.
Neither of us had the bandwidth for another year of bio, and she also had a very full schedule like your kiddo.
She didn’t want/ need a DE credit for biology, but did take a second DE Physics class.
Her college wanted to see bio on the transcript, so we needed something.
She did some day-long labs with friends who were doing anatomy that year and I put together a group forensic biology lab day for 10 or so homeschoolers. She had done most of the other typical bio labs already.
She prepped for the CLEP with the Modern States free course. She did the whole course, but as that was the 19-20 school year, she didn’t take the exam. ETA: She also did Health that year, so between that and her first and second rounds of Bio, she did chunks of Holt Modern Biology, all of an out of print version of baby Campbell, most of Oak Meadow's Health and phys ed course, parts of an anatomy coloring book, and all of the "textbook edition" of The Way Life Works.
All of this was across maybe 14 months? (Excluding what she did in middle school- she spent 12 months on it then.)
I think spreading it out is perfectly fine. I was already keeping course descriptions for college apps, so I just updated it as she finished various parts of the course. (Her government was over 24 months, lol. It was lots of short courses and workshops along with a work text that was always at the bottom of the list of things to do.)
I feel like there’s a gap with good bio options for high school.
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I've seen a lot of open source material and I've never seen OpenIntro. Interesting.
My consortia has a spreadsheet/ website of open resources aligned with our state's college transferable course library. The website is down at the moment, I'll can maybe share it when it is back up. It's mostly what the professors are using vs. what is available. (Spoiler- University Physics 1 is not OpenStax- it's from University of Arkansas.) Regentrude- maybe you should write a better one? 🙂
Our consortia offered competitive grants to professors to write free textbooks and I know some of the big universities do as well. If there is a gap in quality free textbooks that are available, someone often takes it on. There was a gap in good Spanish materials, and I know of two OERs that are being written right now. Another project in the works is an anatomy book where the illustrations are not all 20 year old Caucasians. Anatomy books are spendy, so that will be nice to have available.
Writing books take time, though, are there are still some gaps. I'm the managing editor right now for an author whose first edition was through Oxford University Press, and since she retained the rights to the book, she's revising it and releasing the second edition as an OER. She's being paid to write it, and I know it's not garbage.
I've written two that they are very course and university specific, but I've heard some others are using them. No one paid me for mine. I never intended for them to go anywhere.
My biggest beef with OER is with scrolling text. I try to use resources that can be downloaded as a pdf and frankly, look a lot like some of the black and white homeschool resources that I used in the past. My co-author doesn't. She likes interactive multimedia. I like her, but I don't think I'll do another project with her.
Sorry this got kinda ramble-y...
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10 hours ago, El... said:
Ok, that's very good to know.
Not all OER are junk, but I’ve not been impressed with OpenStax.
FWIW, I serve on a committee that promotes OER in our consortia.
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Chemistry is a disaster! What now?
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted · Edited by MamaSprout
I could have written this post. +1 for the GPB materials.