love2read Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 She's not totally sour on science, but she just isn't interested in it. She (15 yo) loves to read and gets good marks, but science has always bored her even when she was younger and we did tons of hands on things and nature study. This year she did physical science with lots of experiments and it was a huge bore to her. She did like the living books and biographies of scientists that I included. So, next year is biology and she's college bound for the state university, so she will be using Abeka since we already own it. I really would like to brainstorm ways that I can bring this subject to life for her. I'm so sad she doesn't like it more because I love science. In the past she's had nature notebooks and as I mentioned before, we've done lots of hands on. She did a dissection with a family friend last year and left in the middle of it to play the piano. :confused: I'm thinking that maybe I should start each new section with a biography or other writing by a naturalist. Any suggestions? or other ideas? anything at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I don't know about Abeka biology but I found their other texts to be very dry. How about using a video program like thinkwell and adding dissections and experiments? SOme other video programs may work. DOes she like to watch tv shows about science? IF she is totally uninterested in science, I would lay down the law with her. This is what you need to do to get into college. Here are our options for how we will do it. Choose or you are not going to anything more than a community college at first. I have ADHD kids and I simply never allowed them to do things like leave experiments. I do try to make the material palatable as best as I can but all children find subjects they don't like. They have to do them anyway. It isn't always the subjects you think they should find dry. I was so surprised when my first decided that Geometry was his favorite subject and now when my last loves diagramming. On the other hand, first didn't like writing and we still did it. Second doesn't like languages and she still has to do that. Third doesn't like geography and we do it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I liked Experiences in Biology for high school lab. Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2read Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 She isn't refusing to study science. She's actually an A student and works hard at science, I just feel badly that she's never really enjoyed it and I want to use literature to draw her into the subject. She has a great passion for lit. and I think it might be a good doorway. Julie, how did you use the Experiences in Biology? I was actually considering it, but there are only a few pages of samples online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtmcm Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 What's her learning style? I'm auditory and I'm not inclined towards science, so science textbooks were a killer for me in high school. I think it was in Cathy Duffy's book that I read learning style is not as critical in areas where a student excels - they'll learn it regardless of the method of presentation. But if a subject is "hard" for a student then matching their learning style becomes more important. If your DD is kinesthetic, I'd focus on labs, buying the A Beka kit from hometrainingtools.com and maybe buying the very expensive lab CD from A Beka or the more reasonable one from DIVE. If she is auditory (or even visual), I'd use http://www.hippocampus.org/Biology and/or DVD's from The Teaching Company to supplement her textbook. Good literature is an excellent idea whatever her learning style because good stories create memories. My oldest DD is obviously not in high school yet, but I'm already researching High School science since it's just around the corner for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 She isn't refusing to study science. She's actually an A student and works hard at science, I just feel badly that she's never really enjoyed it and I want to use literature to draw her into the subject. She has a great passion for lit. and I think it might be a good doorway. Julie, how did you use the Experiences in Biology? I was actually considering it, but there are only a few pages of samples online. Well, it looks different than when we did it, so not sure if this applies. But I just felt EIB drew my dd in more than the textbooks that jump into a short lab & back into the text. Instead, she just focused on the labs for a while, and did her lab notebook. I'm not sure now what about your post made me think of dd doing that :) I think biographies would be fine, too. I wanted to read more about George Washington Carver this year but ran out of time. How about Jacques Cousteau? The Mayo brothers or specific discoveries in medicine, such as the Polio vaccine? Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomy or Audubon's birds? She could really dig into Darwin issues of course. Well, I'm sure her Biology text has all of the usual suspects, too (Mendel & genetics, Leeuwenhoek & the microscope, Linnaeus & taxonomy, etc.). Current events would also make for good reading. Or Biology careers. Homeschoolers in years gone by were much more creative with science than they are these days, and they still were known for high achievement. My dd usually made a history notebook page about folks she studied in depth, as well as adding them to a timeline. It was a way for her to "own" the info & not forget what she had read. I personally never liked science because whatever class I took, it sounded like "blah blah and this has these chemicals..." And it always bugged me that everything was theory & all that work to learn it could be wasted time. Now that I'm teaching it, I work hard to make my kids find things that "I" find interesting. Ds just finished 7th & did a semester on chemistry (with Rainbow Science) & I drew from many books & activities I've accumulated just because I have this thing about science. Unfortunately, I haven't done biology in a while. Ds will be doing a semester of it this fall, but I haven't started to plan anything. I'm hoping it's more naturally interesting, being that it's about plants & animals and germs and such. I know my son has cultured germs between their toes & such. He built a paper skeleton with all the body parts. He's sung about body parts with Lyrical Life Science. If your dd's the artsy type, maybe she'd like to draw her taxonomy or color her anatomy (Dover has an inexpensive book for that)? But again the literature idea is great. Just wandering thoughts this evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 DS HATES biology. Yet he got a solid A using Exploring the Way Life Works by Hoagland (the textbook version, not the popular press version) and Digital Frog. We're waiting on his SAT II results, but he felt confident coming out of the exam that he had been well prepared. a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoriM Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 Is there any aspect of science that she does find compelling? Does she enjoy nature (is she a camping, outdoorsy person?)? Does she enjoy art enough to keep a nature journal? I know you said she's done it before...but was it mostly drawing, or mostly writing/journalling? How about collecting/organizing? Is she excited about collections? (Our Natural Science Museum has a GREAT room with collections that you can visit...I could spend days in that place. It's the combo of order and nature that I love.) If she's a "people person" and literature more than science, how about the Foxfire books? (Or even Redwall, for that matter...when my dd was reading Redwall, we'd stop to draw the animals, look up "real" versions of each species mentioned, read about their actual habitats and behaviors, learn their names, etc.) I think having a garden is science! Does she like plants? Anyway, there are lots of ways to build an interest in a subject besides reading yet another book or doing yet another curriculum. Now that I'm teaching fulltime again, I see many more learning opportunities that have NOTHING to do with the textbook. In fact, I think I fight the book-learning habits...read a chapter, answer a few questions, prove you know new words...boring, indeed. :) With A Beka Biology, I think *at the least* I'd have some sort of cellular labs (with microscope and pond scum!), some plant-based experiments, and some animal dissection series or observation series if she's antidissection. Oh, and I don't know if she's motivated by money as much as my teen is (grin), but she got much more excited about science when we tied plant production to the yield prices per acre to dollar signs...And then when we tied chemical runoff to the water that drains directly into our water supply and tested the ditch less than a mile from our house...and when we found a snake eating baby rabbits in our front yard, and rescued two rabbits and observed the snake eating one we weren't quite quick enough to save... I think science has to be real to be interesting. Even videos and books cannot make it real like identifying the trees in your yard, and labeling them all with nice plagues. Planting a garden. Caring for a pet...through an illness. Blowing something up in your kitchen. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
love2read Posted June 20, 2009 Author Share Posted June 20, 2009 Thanks ladies, you've given me lots of good ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 I completely understand and share your frustration. We supplemented the biology textbook with books by this author he is excellent and share with his reader the actual work of the scientist and naturalist. http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/4380/Bernd_Heinrich/index.aspx I hope this might be helpful to reignite your dd's interest in the sciences. Dd has absolutely enjoyed these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 This post from the Farm School blog discusses a Charlotte Mason approach to high school science. Perhaps you'll find something of interest. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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