Singapore Biology

[Amy in TX]

Has anyone used this? Reviews? Thanks!

 

http://www.singaporemath.com/Science_Matters_s/128.htm

[KAR120C]

So far I think it's fabulous... but I should warn you - I've been extremely happy with everything we've used from Singapore (Math from Earlybird through Primary and into NEM, and Science from My Pals Are Here through Interactive and into this) -- I know not everyone is, and I'm sure there's some aspects of "fit" that are particular to us.

 

In any case -- we got a late start this year because of some travel, and we're only in Chapter 4. I have found the experiments so far to be just fine for home use, with only a few I'm planning to skip (the ones with dataloggers, although they're almost always paired with another version that uses more old fashioned technology... like a thermometer and a stopwatch... LOL) We're about to do some enzyme experiments that were kind of a trick to get materials for. I ended up ordering from Ward Science, and they only had one kit that was available for non-institutional sale... but it's been a reasonable substitution so far. And there are a couple things I had to track down American names for (LOL). I don't remember what the enzyme was called in the book, but Amylase figures into a handful of labs, and once I figured out that's what we needed it's easy enough to get at Home Science Tools. There are a whole lot of houseplants coming up... and a few species I'm replacing because they're hard to find. Oh! and there's apparently a standard pH indicator they use, which you have to make up yourself, but you can get the ingredients and I found the "recipe" online. It doesn't look difficult, but I've not actually done it yet. You need cresol red for it, which I only found at www.looseinthelab.com and not most of the standard places... I don't think it's really that much more difficult than any other high school science program as far as materials go, unless you're comparing it to somewhere that sells a whole kit. :)

 

The way I'm scheduling this is for DS to read the chapter and take notes, do the labs (writing them up in a formal lab notebook), and write short papers for each of the extra little things in the text like "Reverse Osmosis and Water Desalination" or "Is Your Diet Balanced?", then do all the end of chapter exercises as a review and then do the workbook independently like an end of chapter quiz. Some of the labs are actually practical quizzes, and I've been grading them as such (equal with the workbook for weighting). So far there's been at least one practical quiz per chapter, and so he has two parts to his grade on each chapter. I correct the other lab notebook entries, but I've not kept grades on them.

 

I've been tempted to cut back somewhere, because it is a lot of work (and we have a shortened year), but really I don't want to -- it's all great stuff, and it's really well planned out for each part to dovetail neatly into the rest. He works an hour a day M-Th and at least an hour on Friday - sometimes two.

 

Do you have specific questions? or shall I babble on some more? ;)

[Amy in TX]

I need a high school biology course for my dd for next year (10th grade). Not being a sciencey type, I'm looking for something that's pretty much all pulled together, with planned experiments, exercises, tests, etc.

 

What you've described is almost exactly what I had in mind, though it sounds a bit time-consuming. I guess an hour a day is not unreasonable, though. This dd talks of wanting a medical career, so she should really have a chance to do a rigorous bio. course to get a real "taste" of the field.

[KAR120C]

Because it's Singaporean and not a US text, there are some slight differences in emphasis -- a little less chemistry to go with the biology, for one. So for that reason I think I'd add in an SAT Subject Test book, just to match it up to the US standards a bit. We've done a little in one book and there is more detail about the structure of the molecules than the Singapore book covers.

[Amy in TX]

Good to know--thanks!

[Dana]

In any case -- we got a late start this year because of some travel, and we're only in Chapter 4. I have found the experiments so far to be just fine for home use, with only a few I'm planning to skip (the ones with dataloggers, although they're almost always paired with another version that uses more old fashioned technology... like a thermometer and a stopwatch... LOL)

 

Bumping since this thread was linked. (Yes, I know it's old :) )

 

For anyone else interested, I've done some research into the dataloggers (for MPH 3/4 this year for us). If you use Lego Mindstorms, you could use its sensors as a datalogger or you can get attachments for some graphing calculators that'll import the data into its memory. This is the site I found.