cheryl h Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 DD13 will have already done both Apologia General Science and Physical Science. There may be more cause to explore Chemistry next year rather than Biology for 9th grade because of a very valuable co-op experience. Does it really matter if you do high school level Bio or Chem first? Why? I understand the reason for waiting on Physics, as it requires higher level math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowbeltmom Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 DD13 will have already done both Apologia General Science and Physical Science. There may be more cause to explore Chemistry next year rather than Biology for 9th grade because of a very valuable co-op experience. Does it really matter if you do high school level Bio or Chem first? Why? I understand the reason for waiting on Physics, as it requires higher level math. Imo, chemistry requires just as much, if not more, higher math skills than algebra based physics. I think that the some concepts in biology (such as the Krebs cycle) are easier to understand if the student has had a prior chemistry course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Does it really matter if you do high school level Bio or Chem first? Why? I understand the reason for waiting on Physics, as it requires higher level math. If the student has completed algebra, it doesn't really matter. If your child is doing algebra as a 9th grader, the child isn't ready for chemistry. Hence the reason for biology first. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHomeScientist Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 DD13 will have already done both Apologia General Science and Physical Science. There may be more cause to explore Chemistry next year rather than Biology for 9th grade because of a very valuable co-op experience. Does it really matter if you do high school level Bio or Chem first? Why? I understand the reason for waiting on Physics, as it requires higher level math. The short answer is that no, it doesn't matter. Traditionally, biology was taught in 9th grade, chemistry in 10th, physics in 11th, and an advanced science course in 12th. That was nothing to do with the sciences, but all about the math. Biology as traditionally taught required no math beyond arithmetic. First-year chemistry required algebra, and first-year physics required algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Nowadays, modern first-year biology courses have deemphasized dissections, examination of organ systems and macroorganisms, and all the other stuff that required no math (the "top-down" approach"), and begun looking at biology "bottom-up", which is to say the chemistry of life, life processes, microbiology, and so on. On that basis, it's actually better to have first-year biology follow first-year chemistry, although it's certainly practical to do biology first and just spend some time talking about the chemistry of life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 The short answer is that no, it doesn't matter. Traditionally, biology was taught in 9th grade, chemistry in 10th, physics in 11th, and an advanced science course in 12th. That was nothing to do with the sciences, but all about the math. Biology as traditionally taught required no math beyond arithmetic. First-year chemistry required algebra, and first-year physics required algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Nowadays, modern first-year biology courses have deemphasized dissections, examination of organ systems and macroorganisms, and all the other stuff that required no math (the "top-down" approach"), and begun looking at biology "bottom-up", which is to say the chemistry of life, life processes, microbiology, and so on. On that basis, it's actually better to have first-year biology follow first-year chemistry, although it's certainly practical to do biology first and just spend some time talking about the chemistry of life. The "physics first" movement suggests Conceptual Physics (algebra based), followed by chemistry, then biology. Students would then be prepared to take any of these science courses at a more advanced level as their fourth science class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl h Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 [quote name=TheHomeScientist;3737469 Nowadays' date=' modern first-year biology courses have deemphasized dissections, examination of organ systems and macroorganisms, and all the other stuff that required no math (the "top-down" approach"), and begun looking at biology "bottom-up", which is to say the chemistry of life, life processes, microbiology, and so on. On that basis, it's actually better to have first-year biology follow first-year chemistry, although it's certainly practical to do biology first and just spend some time talking about the chemistry of life.[/quote] I will take this to mean that it depends first on the curric. you choose, and secondly on the math your dc has done, which will be Saxon Alg 1/2. She will be doing Saxon Alg 1 next year so this may limit our choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MostlyRetired Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Having had to emergency-teach chem to both my ds during 9th grade public school biology, I'd strongly advise chem first....old-school descriptive biology is not what is going on in current curricula. It is simply unreasonable...and futile...to ask kids to memorize the Krebs cycle and the like with no background in chem. Way easier to catch up a bit of algebra to do stoichiometry in chem than to help a kid fake his/her way through chem-based bio without the prerequisite chemistry. (I am a chemist by trade....high school science curricula really, really annoy me!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl h Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Honestly, I am a little biased toward Apologia, and I just checked their website and it states that you had to have completed Algebra 1 to do their high school level Chem. I would love for someone who's done it to chime in and either agree or disagree with that statement, and whether it would be doable to just tutor her ahead in her algebra to meet the math needs of the Apologia Chem text like another poster mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolkitty Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I teach both Bio and Chem using Apologia in our CoOp. you need Saxon algebra 1 completed and maybe you will be able to wing it doing Algebra 2 along with Chem. Please don't make ur student hate Chem just because they don't have the Math.I see it all the time with families puting two siblings of different Math levels, most all the time I see the weaker Math child dropping the class.the math gets hard quickly. hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjbucks1 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 My ds in doing Apologia Chemistry this year (9th grade), but he completed Saxon Algebra II last year. I really would not attempt chemistry without the math. I think you need a solid understanding of algebraic priciples in order to be able to do the mutiple step calculations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl h Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 You all have been immensely helpful to me today. One less thing to decide...there shall be no chemistry...she definitely isn't far enough in math...we will pursue the biology. Hooray! Wheww...glad that's decided.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyDay Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 We are using BJU chemistry this year in 10th and it definitely requires math. I had to teach logarithms this week and dd has not gotten to that yet in Algebra 2 (Saxon). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.