Strong math and science focus recommendations

[Embassy]

If you have a child with a strong math/science focus what was/is your math and science sequence from middle school through high school?

:bigear:

[regentrude]

For my math and science focused DD, it looks like this:

 

before 9th grade:

algebra 1

biology (Campbell, Concepts and Connections)

 

9th

geometry

algebra/trig based physics (Knight College Physics)

 

10th

algebra 2

precalculus

chemistry (Chang General Chemistry)

Special Topics in physics (Intro to quantum physics; nonlinear systems; half credit)

 

Planned:

11th calculus 1, AP biology

12th calculus 2, calculus based physics (dual enrollment at university)

 

We use Art of Problem Solving for math.

[snowbeltmom]

For my math and science son:

before 9th grade:

AoPS Introduction series of online classes (5 classes total)

Biology - CTY online (CTY uses Plato/CyberEd program)

Biotechnology at CTY summer camp

 

9th grade:

Genetics at CTY summer camp

AoPS Alg III online class

AP Physics B at our local p.s.

Honors Chemistry with ChemAdvantage (they use Chang's textbook)

 

10th grade: (current grade)

Neuroscience at CTY

AoPS Pre-calc online class

AP Chemistry with ChemAdvantage (uses another Chang textbook)

 

11th grade plans:

Organic Chemistry

AoPS Calc

 

12th grade plans:

AP Physics C electricity

AP Physics C mechanics

(Ds took Physics B at our p.s. The p.s. does not offer Physics C level, but the physics teacher has said that he will design the labs that my ds needs to perform, and ds can come to the school and conduct the labs during the teacher's planning period.)

Calc. based statistics

AoPS Intermediate Counting & Probability online class

[Capt_Uhura]

Which Chang book are you all referring to? A link would be helpful. :D

 

thanks,

 

Capt Uhura

[regentrude]

Which Chang book are you all referring to? A link would be helpful. :D

 

thanks,

 

Capt Uhura

 

Chang General Chemistry- The Essential Concepts is the one I use and Chemadvantage used for their honors class when that still existed

http://www.amazon.com/General-Chemistry-Essential-Raymond-Chang/dp/0077354710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317474232&sr=8-1

 

Chang Chemistry is the other one, chemadvantage uses it for AP.

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Raymond-Chang/dp/0077274318/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317474254&sr=1-1

 

(Don't be shocked by the prices in the links. As always: do no buy the current editions new. Buy older editions for under $10 used.)

[8filltheheart]

Chang General Chemistry- The Essential Concepts is the one I use and Chemadvantage used for their honors class when that still existed

http://www.amazon.com/General-Chemistry-Essential-Raymond-Chang/dp/0077354710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317474232&sr=8-1

 

Chang Chemistry is the other one, chemadvantage uses it for AP.

http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Raymond-Chang/dp/0077274318/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317474254&sr=1-1

 

(Don't be shocked by the prices in the links. As always: do no buy the current editions new. Buy older editions for under $10 used.)

 

This is the ed ds is using for AP chem http://www.amazon.com/Chemistry-Raymond-Chang/dp/0073301701/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317474748&sr=1-1

[8filltheheart]

My oldest ds's path looks nothing like my youngest ds's. Oldest ds wanted to attend a public university. Youngest ds wants to attend a top-tier one. Their course loads sort of reflect those options. (ETA: I wanted to add that oldest ds's uni was a great engineering school and he was academically very strong in their program. He graduated near the top of his class and w/great job offers. I don't want to stress anyone out w/what my youngest ds is doing b/c students do not need to be performing at his level to get into great programs and do well in them. Youngest ds is simply a unique kid w/a strong passion for math, physics, and astronomy. My oldest was far more interested in his then girlfriend, now wife, to ever consider the workload that my youngest creates for himself. ;) )

 

Oldest ds:

 

9th:

bio

geo

 

10th:

chem

alg 2

 

11th:

A&P

pre-cal

 

12th (dual enrollment at a university, not CC):

chem 1 & 2

pre-cal 2 and cal 1

 

 

Youngest ds:

 

before 9th:

physics

alg 1, geo, alg 2, alg 3, counting and probability

 

9th:

pre-cal (followed by the SAT Math 2....oldest ds did not take 2s. I recommend it if applying to highly competitive schools)

chem

astronomy 1

 

10th:

AP cal BC

AP chem (will also take the SAT 2)

astronomy 2

 

11th(planned, hoping for this to work!)

cal based physics (at a university) (will also take the SAT 2)

multivariable cal and diffEQ (at a university)

independent study on black holes

 

12th (again planned)

bio at the CC (he does not like biology!)

math??? I'm hoping his professors at the university will provide direction. This is way out of my league!

probably a higher level chem course at the university

Edited October 1, 2011 by 8FillTheHeart

[Embassy]

Thanks so much! This is very helpful. My son is years away from high school, but I need to start collecting texts now since we will be moving to a country without easy access to English textbooks. I have no idea what to do about labs, but one step at a time.

 

For those who have taken a strong math/science track how much time did your child devote to those subjects each week?

[regentrude]

For those who have taken a strong math/science track how much time did your child devote to those subjects each week?

 

It varies. We aim at minimum one hour per day for math and one hour per day for science. In practice, it goes in spurts, but averages out over the month.

She did spend more time on the college physics class (3 class hours per week): 220 hours including lab.

[Kathy in Richmond]

Here's a link to an old post (post #5 in thread) where I summarized what my math/sci kids used.

 

We bought older editions of the science texts to keep costs down, and/or bought them used online. A lot of the math books were favorite old volumes from my student days. Lab equipment was purchased from Home Science Tools for the most part.

 

AoPS was strictly online when my kids went through, except for their two problem-solving volumes (those are the AoPS texts referred to in the above post). So we used AoPS online courses in addition to textbook math done with me at home. It worked very well this way, layering a higher-level of knowledge and more challenging problem-solving over the basics.

 

And it's certainly not necessary to do all this math :) - my kids just loved it and asked for more. They probably spent on average a couple of hours a day on math and another hour or so on science. But they also had days where they spent more time if they were on a roll and wanted to do more, if they were working on math camp, AMC, etc, problems. My daughter participated extensively on math teams, which added to some of her weeks, & my son would have spent all day on computer programming if given the chance.