I need advice about science...

[Julie in CA]

I have three high schoolers who all need to take Biology. They are all at different levels:

 

Student #1 will be a freshman. Very bright and eager to learn, but doesn't have a great background in science.

 

Student #2 will be a junior/sr, but has learning difficulties. Reads comfortably on about an 8th-9th grade level, but will struggle (and probably not succeed) with learning the material if it's written at a level much higher than that.

 

Student #3 will be a junior. Very very smart, and more science/math oriented, but is easily bored with dry reading, and fairly lazy academically.

 

They all need Biology. I would prefer it from a Christian perspective, and don't love Apologia. We will need labs.

 

Would it be totally out of the question to use Tiner's Exploring the World of Biology as our basic text, using a LabPaq to do fairly heavy labs, and then add supplementary reading for Student #3 and maybe Student #1 to make it a full course for them? I'd like them to be using the same spine, and the level of Tiner's book looks just right for Student #2. Does this seem like an acceptable plan?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-World-Biology-Hudson-Tiner/dp/0890515522/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278349576&sr=1-1

 

Maybe this also?

http://www.labpaq.com/kd-BioKit-1.htm

 

And if this plan is good, what should I think about for supplementary reading for the students who need a real full course?

[FaithManor]

There is a one day sale at the Teaching Company 70% off and they have high school biology on sale today. I think this might meet your needs. No, it won't be from a Christian Perspective but in my experience, things at the Teaching Company are very basic and if your kids are well grounded, this shouldn't be a problem. They tend not to take any dramatic positions on bio-ethics or anything else.

 

You could then use the labs from Apologia or from any other course. You might find an Abeka or Bob Jones text used on ebay and the supplement with that.

 

I think your child that learns easily but isn't sciencey would do well with The Teaching Company and it would definitely be very good both for the student that would have a hard time with technical reading and also the third one who gets bored. Usually, the lectures are very interesting.

 

Faith

[Julie in MN]

Faith,

I also have been thinking through Biology options & trying to think outside the box. But I'm not familiar with using either of those (I have Tiner's but at a glance it looks short), and haven't used Teaching Co. Biology (some of their classes I've liked, others I haven't).

 

Some more things I've looked at:

 

- Biology 101, a Christian course that is supposed to have ideas on how to round it out into a credit

- Experiences in Biology, a lab course I've used & been happy with

- Dive Biology

- Textbook with alternative ways to absorb material, such as notebooking or projects, possibly using ideas from Barb Shelton's Lab Science book (the author of Form-U-La)

 

 

Some more threads I've saved for consideration:

using TTC & reading

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188184

 

using Singapore Biology Matters

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=185854

 

using living books, including Honors Biology

http://www.squidoo.com/apologiabiology

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188354

[HollyDay]

We just started Biology last week. Dd, who is a very visual learner, chose BJU for biology over Apologia. The Apologia text was just that, a lot of text with not too much visual information. BJU is not light reading though. It assumes the dc has a good science background. BJU does have a dvd program...

 

Have you looked at Castle Heights? They have a nice lab book.

 

Alpha Omega Biology? They have lifepacs and SOS.

[Corraleno]

There is a one day sale at the Teaching Company 70% off and they have high school biology on sale today. I think this might meet your needs. No, it won't be from a Christian Perspective but in my experience, things at the Teaching Company are very basic and if your kids are well grounded, this shouldn't be a problem. They tend not to take any dramatic positions on bio-ethics or anything else.

 

You could then use the labs from Apologia or from any other course. You might find an Abeka or Bob Jones text used on ebay and the supplement with that.

 

I think your child that learns easily but isn't sciencey would do well with The Teaching Company and it would definitely be very good both for the student that would have a hard time with technical reading and also the third one who gets bored. Usually, the lectures are very interesting.

 

Faith

Just to clarify, the Teaching Co. Biology course is not one of the HS level courses, it's college level and it's very heavy on biochemistry. I would use it for an AP level course, but definitely not for kids who are not very sciencey and/or have had little prior exposure to Biology. It's also not from a Christian perspective (8 lectures cover evolution).

 

Jackie