Would you do this? H.S. biology in middle school

[VBCaroline]

I'll be doing biology with my rising 9th grader using the Miller & Levine text. She is an average student(Alg I next year).

Her sister will be in 7th next year. She turns 13 in November, and she is a bit accelerated in math(just finished LOF Beg. Alg. and will complete Jacob's Alg. this summer).

 

Would there be a downside to having her do biology with her older sister? I was thinking that it would set her up well to do AP biology in high school, but then I wonder what I would do if she does not want to pursue that. Would I do biology again, maybe using a more advanced text?

 

6th grade ds will do PHSE Life Science, so it makes no difference for planning purposes.

 

Caroline

[Gratia271]

I'll be doing biology with my rising 9th grader using the Miller & Levine text. She is an average student(Alg I next year).

Her sister will be in 7th next year. She turns 13 in November, and she is a bit accelerated in math(just finished LOF Beg. Alg. and will complete Jacob's Alg. this summer).

 

Would there be a downside to having her do biology with her older sister? I was thinking that it would set her up well to do AP biology in high school, but then I wonder what I would do if she does not want to pursue that. Would I do biology again, maybe using a more advanced text?

 

6th grade ds will do PHSE Life Science, so it makes no difference for planning purposes.

 

Caroline

 

I cannot think of any downside to doing this. If she is able to handle the course content, it makes sense in my estimation to let her proceed. She could then progress through the advanced science course work to the extent of her interest.

 

I roughly correspond my DC science and math course work, regardless of age. My oldest daughter will be taking HS Bio this fall. Age-wise, she is 11 years old and a rising 6th grader, though she has already completed HS Algebra. The current plans are to pursue Bio, Chem, and Physics during the middle school years then reserve the "high school" years for AP work and/or college course work.

[Dmmetler]

Duplicate post

Edited June 8, 2010 by Dmmetler2

[2cents]

I see no reason you couldn't do them together. We're doing HS bio with our 8th and 7th grader this fall. It is easier to keep them together for a lot of the classes since they are close in age (17 mos apart).

[Dmmetler]

I see only one possible downside-what would your older DD think of it? If it would bother her, I'd consider not doing so for that reason. However, your younger DD's math background is certainly sufficient to take high school biology based on what is done in the ps programs I'm familiar with.

[2smartones]

I prefer teaching the same content to all siblings, but at the same time, your expectations should be higher for a high school student than they would be for a middle or elementary student. I remember taking "Life Science" when I was in PS 7th grade, and then I had high school bio in 9th. Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot of difference in the content, but rather in the depth of the chapters and the way it was taught (with labs, etc.). I say go for it. Just because someone is advanced in one subject doesn't mean he/she will be in another, so if you start seeing any resistance or frustration, back off on the expectations. Teach the highlights of the chapters and go into more depth in the future.

[VBCaroline]

Wow. You all are fast!:) I guess we'll give it a go.

Thanks.

Caroline

[angela in ohio]

This is my plan for the coming year. We are using BJU with the Miller & Levine text on the side. We promoted our younger dd last year by a year based on MATS recommendations (she will graduate early,) so she will technically be an eighth grader, but she won't be 13 until April next year. She begged to do Biology with older dd and is completing the course I planned for her to do next year over the summer so that I will let her. :001_smile: Older dd doesn't mind (and I don't think I'd let that be a factor anyway.) She will be taking VTI Algebra with it.

 

I figure the worst that could happen is that she needs to re-take it, right?

[H0MEFree]

I say-- go for it! :001_smile:

[VBCaroline]

Yes, thanks for the encouragement. I think I will go for it. I worked through a few of the chapters this week, and I think it will be fine.

Thanks!

[Donna]

I did HS biology with dissection when oldest was 12yo and other ds 10yo. I just modified output for the 10yo.

[higginszoo]

We'll probably be doing this next year (2011-12).

My older ds will be doing 10th grade work. My older dd will be 7th grade age, probably 8th -ish in schoolwork, and is planning on going back to brick and mortar school for high school. Biology is her special area of interest. She'll probably have to take it again when she's actually in high school, given her plans, but it will at least be good preparation for doing AP level later on, and she can also be a lab partner for ds. Working with a lab partner is a skill I remember needing to learn in high school. (I loved my partner -- we did Bio and Chemistry the next year together, we're still Facebook friends, but we had some adjustments getting going.)

[elizabeth]

Sounds great to me. For that matter why not let her indulge an interest in ecological sciences or forensic or genetic why do bio twice?? Just a thought.

[8filltheheart]

I'll be doing biology with my rising 9th grader using the Miller & Levine text. She is an average student(Alg I next year).

Her sister will be in 7th next year. She turns 13 in November, and she is a bit accelerated in math(just finished LOF Beg. Alg. and will complete Jacob's Alg. this summer).

 

Would there be a downside to having her do biology with her older sister? I was thinking that it would set her up well to do AP biology in high school, but then I wonder what I would do if she does not want to pursue that. Would I do biology again, maybe using a more advanced text?

 

6th grade ds will do PHSE Life Science, so it makes no difference for planning purposes.

 

Caroline

 

I disagree with everyone else. :tongue_smilie: I would be afraid that the "weight" of a text like M/L text might turn her off of biology. The better biology texts are very bio-chem heavy. B/c of that, I have made the decision to no longer teach bio then chem, but chem and then bio. I think the bare minimum is a good physical science course prior to biology via texts like M/L. (Biology via texts like Apologia really don't require any outside foundation.) Texts like M/L and Campbell are also complex in their discussions/explanations.

 

I would suggest that if you decide to have her join her older sibling, you keep communication with her open. If she starts to feel like it is a burden, I would pull her out of the course and give her something more enjoyable for 7th grader. (I have had a younger advanced sibling want to do science with an older one before and it lasted about 3 weeks. She never complained but I could tell she wasn't loving science like she normally does. It was just too much information for her.)

 

Also, when kids do take advanced courses when they are younger, I would recommend on planning an advanced course during high school. Universities want to see courses like biology (or AP biology) on a high school transcript. The advanced course with an accompanying score is a validation of the course. Or an alternative would be having an SAT 2 score with the younger age course to validate that it was actually a high school credit worthy course. http://sat.collegeboard.com/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/biology-em

[VBCaroline]

Thanks for posting, 8FilltheHeart. I'm still thinking about this.

My issue with this child is that she is extremely bright, but she is not very motivated when it comes to academics. I have not helped her with LoF Alg or Jacob's Alg one bit,and she scores As on her tests. However, she will tell anyone that she doesn't like/care about it. Same for everything else we do. She doesn't like doing subjects together(with just me or with her siblings) because "it takes too long". If I schedule something for her, she does it, and she usually does a good job, but it is hard to pique her interest in anything she deems "school". In general, she is a very quiet child, and she does not enjoy discussions and does not really participate much when we're talking history or lit. She does enjoy group activities, like girl scouts and youth group, but her quietness is a definite obstacle to making friends(off the subject a bit here, but helpful in getting an overall picture of dd). She is extremely artistic-does very detailed, small papercuttings, sketches beautifully (really-her sketches sometimes look like photos), bakes and decorates elaborate cakes and cupcakes, excels at violin.

 

I guess I struggle with whether I should push her to do what I know she could do academically, or to just let her "get 'er done" for now and allow her more time to pursue artistic interests. I can see some wisdom in the second option. I wish more had been required of me when I was in school, so perhaps that's why this is difficult for me.

 

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts.