How did you decide what to eliminate from your Biology studies?

[HollyinNNV]

I am looking at an enormous Biology book for next year. Are there any "throwaway" chapters that we can eliminate ahead of time. I want to plan ahead because the end of the book is all human body and I want to cover that since the person teaching the course is a doc. I know he won't want to miss any of those chapters. But, what is "ok" to miss? (It all looks important to me.) Any BTDT advice?

TIA

Holly

[HollyinNNV]

I am looking at an enormous Biology book for next year. Are there any "throwaway" chapters that we can eliminate ahead of time. I want to plan ahead because the end of the book is all human body and I want to cover that since the person teaching the course is a doc. I know he won't want to miss any of those chapters. But, what is "ok" to miss? (It all looks important to me.) Any BTDT advice?

TIA

Holly

 

So, I take it that everyone does every chapter?:001_huh:

[Antonia]

We "do" every chapter, but I give my dd some slack as to memorizing all those terms. We also skip some of the experiments, as we have either done them in the past or can watch them online, etc. I haven't actually looked at all the chapters. There may be some I would be willing to allow her to skip altogether. We are using Apologia, btw.

[Anne/Ankara]

Holly, you bring up an important point. A few days ago someone on the board posted the link to Campbells' Exploring Life biology book, which touts itself as a concise, essentials version of high school biology.

 

http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZ3R9&PMDbSiteID=2781&PMDbSolutionID=6724&PMDbProgramId=22021&level=4&prognav=po

 

I'm looking at using it with my youngish biology student next year. Maybe you can tell from the website which chapters are "essential" for biology... at least at this level.

[Nan in Mass]

The teacher's guide says you probably won't be able to cover it all in one year and makes some suggestions on how to decide what to keep. I looked at that and then decided which chapters we'd covered within the last few years someplace else (sound, light, and electricity we covered while getting our ham licenses) and based my decision on that. I know that I can make it so my children learn nothing at all by going too fast, especially since one is young and one is a slow worker, so I'm pretty careful now about selectively skipping things.

-Nan

[mooooom]

If it is a school text, I've found it really helpful to type the name of the text and syllabus into Google. An awful lot of schools have them online. Then you can get an idea of what biology teachers think are the important sections. Schools never seem to use the entire textbook. I think it is very different than homeschool texts like Apologia.

[TRILLIUM]

What book are you using. Some books are designed to be used for more than one version of freshmen biology. If you have the teacher's manual they will usually give you that information.

[MaryM]

It isn't unusual to find a separate Anatomy and Physiology course following Biology. You might want to take that in to consideration given your tutor's strengths. Frankly, we didn't skip anything and supplemented with video lectures to support quite a bit of the course using Thinkwell, just the lecture part. There are many ways to slice this course though. We started out thinking of it as a regular course then moved to making it AP with the exam which is why I didn't want to skip anything.

 

Mary

[Laura K (NC)]

He took a little over a year to finish it. We threw out some chapters on evolution and some other religion parts... not that I don't agree with it, but because I want to cover evolution when we do ancient history, and cover the whole thing as part of history instead of science. That was only one chapter, though. I thought everything else was important enough to cover.

[Moira in MA]

We threw out some chapters on evolution and some other religion parts...

 

Interesting phrasing, that, but I tend to agree.:iagree: I'm researching texts for HS biology and I want to address both sides but the issue has become extremely polarized. I took a look at the Thinkwell lectures, it seems every chapter circles back to the idea of evolution.

 

If they are spending so much time on evolution, what are they leaving out?

[Jane in NC]

If they are spending so much time on evolution, what are they leaving out?

 

Biology is now taught through the lens of evolution. Example: Formerly students learned systematics, i.e. categorization of phylla or orders. Now they learn connections between common ancestors (so instead of considering Aves and Reptilia as different orders within Chordata, students learn about their evolutionary connection). It is not so much what is left out but how the subject is viewed.

 

There is indeed a far greater emphasis on biochemistry in even the most basic biology texts these days. Older high school bio teachers often comment that this is material that they did not see until college, grad school or at all, depending on their age! Students formerly studied cellular processes; now there is additional vocabulary associated with the chemical mechanisms involved.

 

I studied Mendelian genetics in high school. Students still compute probabilities of white flowered pea plants as I did, but again the issues of evolution and biochem enter the discussion.

 

There is probably less dissection in a typical high school biology class today. This may be for reasons of safety, expense and students with ethical problems. Personally, I think dissection can be beneficial. But students are also doing some other really interesting labs, often motivated by technology, and of course determined by how deep the pockets are in their school systems. For example, they may do something with DNA.

 

I think it would be a mistake for a parent to skip a number of things in a high school biology class simply because they did not see the material when they were students. High school biology has become quite sophistocated. At least in my opinion!

 

Jane

[Carrie in NC]

and we have 30 weeks to cover as much of the book as possible. I think anatomy and physiology is important in high school biology, so I cover all of those chapters, and all the cell chemistry and genetics chapters. I usually skip the evolution chapters, although in the new book I'm using (2008 Prentice Hall Biology) there is a good chapter on microevolution (speciation, genetic drift, genetic isolation) that I intend on covering. I double up on the taxonomy chapters to cover them faster. Dissections are fun, but this information is not as essential imo as genetics (ethic issues constantly in the news) and anatomy and physiology (everybody has a body). I also skim the ecology, biomes, and population dynamics chapters. It's not that those aren't important, but I have to cut somewhere.

 

There is also the possibility of cutting certain sections of individual chapters instead of whole chapters.

 

Also, someone has already mentioned that many Teachers Editions have plans laid out for several guides for pacing the text that will give you ideas for shortening or eliminating chapters.

 

HTH

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

 

I think it would be a mistake for a parent to skip a number of things in a high school biology class simply because they did not see the material when they were students. High school biology has become quite sophistocated. At least in my opinion!

 

Jane

 

We stood in line at the polling station on election day with an older AP Bio teacher from one of the local high schools. She said when she took over the AP classes, her learning curve was *very* steep. She said that she had to take a couple of classes to get her knowledge up to speed and that she struggled that first year to make sure she covered everything properly.

[HollyinNNV]

The teacher's guide says you probably won't be able to cover it all in one year and makes some suggestions on how to decide what to keep. I looked at that and then decided which chapters we'd covered within the last few years someplace else (sound, light, and electricity we covered while getting our ham licenses) and based my decision on that. I know that I can make it so my children learn nothing at all by going too fast, especially since one is young and one is a slow worker, so I'm pretty careful now about selectively skipping things.

-Nan

 

I'll look for those suggestions when I get the IG. I didn't want to get it until I had a good look at the text.

Thanks!

Holly

[HollyinNNV]

If it is a school text, I've found it really helpful to type the name of the text and syllabus into Google. An awful lot of schools have them online. Then you can get an idea of what biology teachers think are the important sections. Schools never seem to use the entire textbook. I think it is very different than homeschool texts like Apologia.

 

Good idea. I tried this a little this afternoon. Looked like several teachers eliminated the human body information at the end of the book. I intuitively feel like learning biology is all about the eventual understanding of your own body. So, it seems strange to leave it out, but I guess somethings gotta go.

Holly

[HollyinNNV]

and we have 30 weeks to cover as much of the book as possible. I think anatomy and physiology is important in high school biology, so I cover all of those chapters, and all the cell chemistry and genetics chapters. I usually skip the evolution chapters, although in the new book I'm using (2008 Prentice Hall Biology) there is a good chapter on microevolution (speciation, genetic drift, genetic isolation) that I intend on covering. I double up on the taxonomy chapters to cover them faster. Dissections are fun, but this information is not as essential imo as genetics (ethic issues constantly in the news) and anatomy and physiology (everybody has a body). I also skim the ecology, biomes, and population dynamics chapters. It's not that those aren't important, but I have to cut somewhere.

 

There is also the possibility of cutting certain sections of individual chapters instead of whole chapters.

 

Also, someone has already mentioned that many Teachers Editions have plans laid out for several guides for pacing the text that will give you ideas for shortening or eliminating chapters.

 

HTH

an entire chapter in a week? Do you assign the questions within the chapter and at the end of the chapter as well?

 

Thanks for telling me which chapters you skip and skim. That helps a lot.

Holly

[AngieW in Texas]

My 9th grader is using Prentice Hall's Biology by Miller and Levine this year. I don't like this book. I think it's overly complicated and I don't think my dd is learning much from it although she's managing to at least get B's and C's on the tests. She doesn't want to switch books because she's used to this one already.

 

I use the teacher guide to figure out what to skip. We aren't skipping any entire chapters. The teacher guide lays out three different plans for getting through the book - one for strugglers, one for regular students, and one for accelerated students. The accelerated students are the only ones who cover the entire book. I have my dd following the schedule for strugglers because she really doesn't like science.

 

There are 139 chapter sections in all.

 

The accelerated students do all 139 sections. When you add in 40 days for the 40 chapter tests and 10 days for the 10 unit tests, you can see that they have to cover more than one chapter section in a day. They also have to cram in experiments somehow.

 

The regular students do 130 sections. They would also have to do some major cramming to make everything fit. If they do all 40 chapter tests and the 10 unit tests, they would need 180 days just to do the text without doing any experiments at all.

 

The strugglers do 103 sections. They have time to do all the chapter tests and unit tests and experiments as well. We are following the struggler schedule and skipping the unit tests.

[Laura K (NC)]

I meant that I threw out chapters on creation, not evolution. Of course! It's an A Beka book, after all! I misspoke.

 

Either way, it's not science so much as politics. It doesn't surprise me that Jane said that modern biology books are taught through the lens of evolution. When I was in college, evolution was taught in Anthropology 101, so not many students messed with it. I'll broach it next year in ancient history, but since it's theory v. faith in our family, I don't think there's much to discuss unless my sons want to go into it more deeply with a persuasive paper.

 

FWIW, A Beka is really, really strong with dissection. There was a lot of gathering and classifying from nature, too, and I wish we had spent more time on making sure that was done with more precision. I will present the labs again next year to my middle son and some of his friends, as I did last year with my oldest.

[Michelle in MO]

I think it would be a mistake for a parent to skip a number of things in a high school biology class simply because they did not see the material when they were students. High school biology has become quite sophistocated. At least in my opinion!

 

Jane

 

it's not considered as rigorous of a biology text as some, when we went through it last year with my oldest, it was definitely much more biology than I remember from high school! Of course, that was almost 30 years ago, in the 70's, which may not be saying much.

 

Even if someone doesn't agree with evolution, it's still a good idea that your child be informed about evolutionary theory. They will undoubtedly encounter that in college all the time at all but a very few colleges or by a very few college professors.

 

I personally also like the idea of a separate human anatomy and physiology course. Even though some on these boards have made passionate arguments for a text that covers all, and their opinion is certainly valid, too, I still think there's so much to cover under anatomy and physiology that it merits a separate course.

[Carrie in NC]

an entire chapter in a week? Do you assign the questions within the chapter and at the end of the chapter as well?

 

Thanks for telling me which chapters you skip and skim. That helps a lot.

Holly

 

We generally cover a chapter a week, although some weeks we cover two chapters. I assign the end of section Assessment Questions for the students to do at home and send the answers to their parents. this is for their benefit. I don't grade these or record the grades. To prepare for a test (usually a unit test) I have the students to the Chapter Assessments at the end of each chapter. I also send the answers to those via email. In the past I've created a study guide to help the students study the parts of each unit I feel are most important and will be on the test. Due to time restrictions I can only send about 10 to 12 tests a year, so I have to select the material I think is the most important. If I were only doing this at home, I'd probably give short end-of-chapter tests and then Unit tests.

 

BTW- I wanted to add that I tell the student's parents to have their students read the entire book, even though we aren't covering it in class. I agree with the poster who said the students need exposure to all the material, especially if they want to take the SAT II or CLEP tests.

[Moira in MA]

Biology is now taught through the lens of evolution. Example: Formerly students learned systematics, i.e. categorization of phylla or orders. Now they learn connections between common ancestors (so instead of considering Aves and Reptilia as different orders within Chordata, students learn about their evolutionary connection). It is not so much what is left out but how the subject is viewed.

 

Thank you, this makes more sense than the impression I was getting from just reading the chapter titles in the Thinkwell course.

 

I think it would be a mistake for a parent to skip a number of things in a high school biology class simply because they did not see the material when they were students. High school biology has become quite sophistocated. At least in my opinion.

 

I do hope that I didn't leave the impression that I was thinking of leaving stuff out just because I never saw it in my biology class. It would be a really sad course.

 

But to quote you from another thread on Biology:

 

My summer neighbor, a retired biology teacher whose father was a rather famous botanist, feels that the fun is gone from introductory courses which formerly focused on observation, classfication, larger systems. Now, biology is about the cell and evolution. It has become the study of biochemical processes.

 

Since my student is really not intending to pursue science and she has been taking a rigorous chemistry course this year, I'd like her to enjoy her required (by me) biology course rather than view it as another forced route march. I'm trying to discover if something like that exists. I'm beginning to think that it really doesn't and I'm not sufficiently science oriented or creative to do it on my own.

 

One thought I've had is to see if there are some creative college level biology courses for non-majors that may fit the bill -- conceptual biology maybe? Time for some googling.

[HollyinNNV]

We generally cover a chapter a week, although some weeks we cover two chapters. I assign the end of section Assessment Questions for the students to do at home and send the answers to their parents. this is for their benefit. I don't grade these or record the grades. To prepare for a test (usually a unit test) I have the students to the Chapter Assessments at the end of each chapter. I also send the answers to those via email. In the past I've created a study guide to help the students study the parts of each unit I feel are most important and will be on the test. Due to time restrictions I can only send about 10 to 12 tests a year, so I have to select the material I think is the most important. If I were only doing this at home, I'd probably give short end-of-chapter tests and then Unit tests.

 

BTW- I wanted to add that I tell the student's parents to have their students read the entire book, even though we aren't covering it in class. I agree with the poster who said the students need exposure to all the material, especially if they want to take the SAT II or CLEP tests.

 

Well, after reading all of the awesome posts in the thread this last sentence you wrote helped a bunch because I do want the kids to be prepared for the SAT II. I went to Barnes and bought a SATII Biology study guide and if the students are going to be prepared, we WILL have to cover Anatomy/Physiology and EVERYTHING ELSE! Gasp! But, I like your ideas of taking the animal chapters 2 at a time (2 by 2 haha).

 

Angie-My dh is actually the teacher on this course and he really likes the PH Miller and Levine.:blushing: I sooooo appreciate your advice and warnings about the book. I know that you did not like the labs. Did you do the labs from the lab manual or the textbook? I think the book labs are pretty "lite" too but there is a huge lab manual (which I don't have yet) and I'm holding out hope it will be good.

 

Looking at the book, dh thinks that the chapters on photosynthesis, cellular respiration, intro to genetics, dna/rna, all deserve two weeks, rather than one.

 

This has been incredibly helpful everyone!!!

Holly

[Jane in NC]

 

I do hope that I didn't leave the impression that I was thinking of leaving stuff out just because I never saw it in my biology class. It would be a really sad course.

 

 

...

 

One thought I've had is to see if there are some creative college level biology courses for non-majors that may fit the bill -- conceptual biology maybe? Time for some googling.

 

No, no, Moira, I did not mean to suggest that you were going to leave things out because you had not been exposed to the concepts. Maybe I have read too much into some other threads, but I have had the impression on previous occasions that some posters were tempted to bypass material that is out of their comfort zone with this justification.

 

Regarding your "conceptual bio" concept: Nan may have beat you to this idea with her return to a Natural History type of biology course. Her sons observe, read and draw. And I even have a proposed reader to accompany your course, The Norton Book of Nature Writing:

 

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=NmOA7xXGO1kC

 

Hmmm...there might even be a market for this!

 

Jane

[AngieW in Texas]

I bought a Holt Biology book. It has much better labs that we're going to do. My dd didn't want to switch books at this point, even though the Holt book would be much easier to work through. I plan on using Holt for my other girls when they get to this point.

[Rachel]

We skimmed the Evolution chapters as we are Creationists and have studied this topic to death already.

 

Also, in California, you have to take Health as a seperate class.........so we skimmed the Human Body sections of Biology that he had already covered in health.