What science next? Physics?

[rhrice3]

Ladies,

I am trying to figure out which science to do next year with my ds, a rising sophomore. He did Apologia Biology this year quite on his own. He has had Alg I and Geometry, both Chalkdust, and excels in math and science.

 

I know chemistry is the next course, but my husband will be leaving for a new job out of town in a month, and chemistry was the least favorite of my sciences. I would rather wait on chemistry until the rest of us can move and my husband could help him. I was looking at physics and adv biology with Apologia. My ds seems excited about the thought of physics, and some people have told me that a bright math student could do it early on. Does anyone have a suggestion or experience?

 

Thanks in advance

ReneeR

[74Heaven]

the co op we are hoping to attend taught chemistry this past year and so they are teaching Adv Apologia Biology next year. So that is what we are giong to do. We'll plan on chemistry the following year. this past year, we did Apologia Biology.

 

I have 2 dtrs, one science-oriented and one science-hater.

 

hth

lisaj

[SallyMac]

DS did Apologia chem this year through the Potter's School, and we used a Ph.d. candidate from our local university who charged only $15/hr. I suppose if you live near a university you could use Apologia w/o the aide of an online school and just hire a tutor. Or you could always try the other way and go through an online school. I have never had chemistry (half the year I was working at a hectic job, quit in December), so your ds may be able to tackle this with online or tutorial support.

[periwinkle]

if he is strong in math. The only things my ds and I can think of that he may need would be basic trig functions and vectors. He could pick those up from a web tutorial pretty easily. Would he be concurrently taking Algebra 2? That would be helpful!

 

Oldest ds did Apologia Chem and Physics...he thought they were similar in difficulty (the physics course isn't necessarily more difficult, although the math is probably a bit more complex). He was actually taking precalculus when he did the physics, so the math wasn't an issue at all for him.

[rhrice3]

He would be taking Chalkdust Alg II concurrently. We do ALL the problems with Chalkdust because that is the only way to make it challenging. He scored high on his ACT recently and has a really good handle on the trig that was introduced in Geometry. I always speed through the first few chapters in math text as review. I let my kids test them and as long as they score 95% or above I keep moving until I see new material. A friend of mine whose son does TT (which I don't think is nearly as challenging as Chalkdust) was told by Apologia that he could probably do physics ok. I am figuring the worse that could happen is we have to move very slowly and he does not finish math and physics before the year is up, like he usually does with math and science.

 

Another thing is that he is a child that when excited about a challenge, goes 100% full force. He seems to be more excited about physics than adv biology or chemistry. His dad, a physician, thinks that he could handle the phsics so I am inclined to do it.

 

Boy, I'm babbling. Must be the heat!

ReneeR

[mktkcb]

OK, my dd is using Apologia Physics this year, and frankly, if your ds hasn't had Alg.2 and a smattering of trig, it might be a little tough. It might be ok, though. I'd get a copy if you can, and peruse it well. It's not the most rigorous of Physics courses in that it doesn't assume a knowledge of calculus, but it uses a lot of math. More than Chem. Just a heads up.