Love2Smile Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 My non science 9th grader needs to do Biology next year and I'd like to know which is less difficult for a homeshcooler. We wont be doing any labs, other than watching DVD's or videos. Any other suggestions are appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emma Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 I think they're both fairly rigorous. I actually asked this last night at a homeschool meeting. Abeka biology was pretty basic, from what the other ladies told me. I believe all the labs are on a DVD. No dissection here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Katia Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 (edited) I would suggest ACE Biology PACEs, along with their lab DVDs. From what I can see, it is a much more enjoyable course. If you have money to spend, get the complete course on DVD; it is like a National Geographic show. Wonderful filming/camera work. You can check out samples of the PACEs and DVDs at this blog: http://rockinhsmom5.blogspot.com/search/label/Science%20Samples Just scroll down until you find the Biology samples. The DVD samples are right below the PACE samples. ETA: Forgot to say, I had a ds that did BJU Biology and a dd that did Apologia. They were both pretty tough courses, but as for one being more rigorous than the other? It pretty much came down to taste in style: ds liked the style BJU presented and the text, whereas dd didn't care for BJU's textbook-y style but really liked the chatty Apologia, which btw, ds did not like, LOL. Edited February 10, 2010 by Katia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karenciavo Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 I think Apologia is less rigorous. According to the Dive web site BJUP Biology is good to use with their cd to study for AP, but you need both the Apologia Biology and Advanced Biology texts to get AP level information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Agreeing that it is mostly a difference in style. My dd could not stand the non textbooky, conversationally tone of Apologia. She loved BJU which is morel ike a standard science text. The one thing that Apologia Biology is lacking is a human anatomy section. They have it separated out into another class. It is included as part of regular biology in BJU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 Agreeing that it is mostly a difference in style. My dd could not stand the non textbooky, conversationally tone of Apologia. She loved BJU which is morel ike a standard science text. The one thing that Apologia Biology is lacking is a human anatomy section. They have it separated out into another class. It is included as part of regular biology in BJU. Did you use the DVD's for BJU not the lab ones but the ones from BJU? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 Does ACE have human anatomy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolly Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Did you use the DVD's for BJU not the lab ones but the ones from BJU? We use the ones with Miss Lacy. It is of the satellite school broadcast. We actually like the interruptions. It lets you fastforward.:) The labs are shown on these dvd's also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Katia Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Does ACE have human anatomy? Yes. Here are the main/basic contents of each PACE: Pace 1097: Birds Pace 1098: Mammals Pace 1099: Fish, Amphibians, and Reptiles Pace 1100: Sponges, Coelenterates, Mollusks, and Echinoderms Pace 1101: Worms and arthropods Pace 1102: Plants Pace 1103: Microorganisms Pace 1104: Man - skin, skeleton, and muscles Pace 1105: Man - nerves, circulation, and respiration Pace 1106: Man - nutrition and growth Pace 1107: Man - reproduction, genetics, and embryology Pace 1108: Ecology and conservation If I had it to do over....(isn't hind-sight wonderful?)....I would have my non-science dds do this course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love2Smile Posted February 10, 2010 Author Share Posted February 10, 2010 Yes. Here are the main/basic contents of each PACE: Pace 1097: Birds Pace 1098: Mammals Pace 1099: Fish, Amphibians, and Reptiles Pace 1100: Sponges, Coelenterates, Mollusks, and Echinoderms Pace 1101: Worms and arthropods Pace 1102: Plants Pace 1103: Microorganisms Pace 1104: Man - skin, skeleton, and muscles Pace 1105: Man - nerves, circulation, and respiration Pace 1106: Man - nutrition and growth Pace 1107: Man - reproduction, genetics, and embryology Pace 1108: Ecology and conservation If I had it to do over....(isn't hind-sight wonderful?)....I would have my non-science dds do this course. It looks good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4wildberrys Posted February 10, 2010 Share Posted February 10, 2010 Yep, agreeing with Katia. Apologia was a no-go with my non-sciency dd. We had to quit about module 4. :glare: She's going to use the Ace with just the lab DVD next year. I think Apologia is quite challenging---just not as visual as BJU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at the beach Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Okay, sorry to hijack! But here's a question, ladies: If I planned on my dd taking another biology course in high school--say AP Bio--would it matter whether I went with Apologia or ACE for her first course next year, do you think? I love the idea of those DVD's and the paces, but my dd loves the idea of doing real experiments, and I think she'd also like the conversational style of Apologia. I'm also wondering how much time it takes approximately to do Apologia every day versus ACE Biology? Thanks for any input! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Comparing Apologia to public school bio class--Apologia is not rigorous. Most of the experiments are middle school level. My son in public school middle did about half of them, including extracting the DNA. Still, doesn't mean it's not a good course. I do wish they'd include decent lab write-ups, tho, as a requirement. Haven't seen BJU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4wildberrys Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 Comparing Apologia to public school bio class--Apologia is not rigorous. Most of the experiments are middle school level. My son in public school middle did about half of them, including extracting the DNA. Still, doesn't mean it's not a good course. I do wish they'd include decent lab write-ups, tho, as a requirement. Haven't seen BJU. Agreeing on the lame labs and lack of decent lab writeup instruction. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alphabetika Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 "Agreeing that it is mostly a difference in style. My dd could not stand the non textbooky, conversationally tone of Apologia. She loved BJU which is more like a standard science text. The one thing that Apologia Biology is lacking is a human anatomy section. They have it separated out into another class. It is included as part of regular biology in BJU." My dd felt just like Lolly's - didn't like the style of Apologia's text, likes BJU. She just started using BJU with the DIVE CD and it's going very well. We'll do some real life labs, too, mainly dissections. BJU looks to be much more rigorous than what I had in PS, but that was in the 80s. For instance, I don't remember nearly as much chemistry in my bio class. I agree, too, re: lack of human anatomy in Apologia. My dd is very interested in anatomy, but I don't think she needs a whole year of it (i.e. Apologia advanced bio). So, we're actually designing a 1.5 year course: BJU bio up to the human anatomy portion, then psychology, then the anatomy part of BJU with some other texts (living books plus another anatomy book). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted February 11, 2010 Share Posted February 11, 2010 If your dd is planning to go to college, I'd find out how much lab work is required. Two of the teens that came to the chem lab I did came because they hadn't realized they need some lab classes for college acceptance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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