Biology choices

[Murphy101]

Of these which would you choose and why?

 

Abeka biology current edition w/ lab book and study guide

Apologia biology 1st edition w/ solutions guide

Campbell's 2nd or 3rd edition (Is this so old that I should just get rid of it? Or so old that it's an awesome find?:)

Miller/Levine I have no idea which edition the little used books store had, but they had a shelf of them, so I'm guessing I could choose from several editions.

 

Regardless of which I use, I have full dissection kits w/specimens for labs and microscope with slides.

 

If you think there's a better choice than all of those, I'd be interested in that info too.

 

Thanks.

[Tullia]

Hi Martha!

 

This information may not be helpful, but ds used the first edition of Apologia Biology. IMO, the changes in the second edition were a huge improvement and I wish we'd used it. Still, though, we supplemented the biology text quite a bit with a secular text given to us by a friend who used to teach bio at a CC. I'd have done so with the second edition as well. YMMV ;)

 

Martha in NM

 

PS My friend is an enthusiastic Darwinian, and was horrified that we were using Apologia. I expect her generous gift of an up to date instructor's copy of a just published text was partly because of that. She preferred newer texts in general b/c there's been so much new information available in the past decade.

[Teachin'Mine]

Out of those choices, I would probably go with the Abeka. In many subjects, having an older edition really doesn't make much of a difference, but IMO it does in biology.

[mjpeter]

We have not done Biology yet, but we have good friends who have had great luck with BJU Biology.

 

Good Luck!

[regentrude]

Which Campbells are you talking about? the "big" one, or "Concepts and Connections"?

I'd go with a newer edition of Campbells . they are currently at th 8th, so i thing the 2nd or 3rd would be too outdated because there are new developments in biology (I would not buy the current one because those are expensive, but the one before.)

If it's the first biology class, I'd choose the shorter (only 1000 pages vs 1400) Concepts and Connections.

I like Campbells for the scientific rigor.

[SkateLeft]

We're combining Oak Meadow's Biology (which uses the Holt textbook), with Labpaq BK-1.

[Murphy101]

Which Campbells are you talking about? the "big" one, or "Concepts and Connections"?

I'd go with a newer edition of Campbells . they are currently at th 8th, so i thing the 2nd or 3rd would be too outdated because there are new developments in biology (I would not buy the current one because those are expensive, but the one before.)

If it's the first biology class, I'd choose the shorter (only 1000 pages vs 1400) Concepts and Connections.

I like Campbells for the scientific rigor.

 

The big one, which is apparently very outdated beyond use.

 

And yes, it would be for their first biology class, not advanced.

[Michelle in AL]

For the first level of biology I like Exploring Life by Campbell. Concepts and Connections is more difficult to understanding and contains lots of "real life applicaitons" which I find distracting to the actual concept being taught.

 

I really like Exploring Life combined with the DIVE CD lectures and labs or the lectures from Kahn Academy. Either of these lectures brings the rigor up just a notch and increases the understanding.