Teaching Company & Campbell Biology

[Pam in MA]

I'm planning on using the Teaching Company course "Biology: the Science of Life" and Campbell's 6th edition of Biology for my ninth grader. I think I can purchase the CD from the publisher that will give me some additional resources (like some tests to use for evaluation, among other things.) Then we will add a LabPaq and call it "Biology!"

 

Anyone done anything like this? Can you offer any tips or other encouraging words?

[Barbara H]

We used Campbell's for AP bio (along with Thinkwell). My main thought is that there is A LOT in Campbell's. It is definitely a college level text so don't be discouraged if it takes a while to work through. It was definitely a new experience for our student to work through a text with so much information and try to figure out what was most important.

[regentrude]

We used Campbell's for AP bio (along with Thinkwell). My main thought is that there is A LOT in Campbell's. It is definitely a college level text so don't be discouraged if it takes a while to work through.

 

:iagree:

If I was using Campbell Bio, I would not want to burden my student with an extra TC course that has 72 lectures; the text alone is plenty.

[TiaTia]

Hi, Pam! Are you still doing this? Maybe we could help each other. I'm fiddling with a correlation now, using Nowicki's TC lectures and Campbell & Reece, but the 7th edition. (I happen to own the 6th edition also, but am stealing from the textbook map at HippoCampus, which references the 7th instead.) Which LabPaq are you using?

[marbel]

We have just begun doing this as well. My son watches the lecture, then does the reading in Campbell - we have the 7th edition. I also found a workbook for the text so he will do that too. I don't have the cd and don't plan to buy it; I'll pull questions from the workbook if I want to have a test.

 

My 9th grader responds well to the Great Courses lectures - much better than to a text alone. If doing both gets to be too burdensome, I will cut out some of the reading from the text. But, he has found it interesting and challenging, though not too difficult.

 

We are not too far into this, but it's working well so far. We got started at an odd time of year due to a long illness last fall/winter, so he will be doing Biology over the summer.

[TiaTia]

Marbel, two questions. (1) Are you following Nowicki's "essential reading" recommendations at the end of each lecture outline? I started mapping them last night. (2) Which workbook did you get? (ISBN?)

 

BTW, in case it's useful to anyone, Campbell & Reece 7th seems mainly different in the re-worked introduction, the moving of "Introduction to Metabolism" from Unit 1 to Unit 2, and insertion of "concept" tags. Sixteen pages shorter overall.

[marbel]

Marbel, two questions. (1) Are you following Nowicki's "essential reading" recommendations at the end of each lecture outline? I started mapping them last night.

 

Yes, that's all I'm doing. I'm not going to get any of the other "essential" books, so if a chapter doesn't correspond to the Campbell, he will just watch the lecture and if he needs/wants more information on that topic, we'll find it online.

 

We are also using some of the recommended reading (he's reading Watson's DNA: The Secret of Life now) and The Biology Coloring Book.

 

(2) Which workbook did you get? (ISBN?)

It's actually called the Student Study Guide, author Martha R. Taylor. It includes chapter review, various types of questions, vocabulary ("word roots"). Answers are in the back of the book. ISBN: 0-8053-7155-9

 

I found it used on Amazon for next to nothing.

 

BTW, in case it's useful to anyone, Campbell & Reece 7th seems mainly different in the re-worked introduction, the moving of "Introduction to Metabolism" from Unit 1 to Unit 2, and insertion of "concept" tags. Sixteen pages shorter overall.

Thanks for this! Edited May 7, 2012 by marbel

[Pam in MA]

I'm glad to hear the plan of watching and reading is working out. Thanks for more info on the workbook. We haven't started on this yet and I'll have to plan the details this summer. I was just looking at the LabPaq website and it looks like they've changed things so you can't see the kits that are available and are supposed to send in a request form for your course. Not sure how that's going to work out, but I'll check it out when school's out and I have some time to think! I'm sure I'll go with the basics because my dd will be a ninth grader. I wonder what other ready-to-go lab kits are available for biology?

[TiaTia]

I did a "total 180" this week: put lovely Campbell & Reece aside for this year and switched to the high school level Holt's "Biology" (2006) with the friendly polar bear on the cover. Still using selected lectures from Teaching Company Biology (Nowicki's "Science of Life" lectures), but have shifted mapping from C&R to Holt. This means scrambling up the order of Nowicki's lectures considerably, since he has a (groovy) three-concept approach that just doesn't fit the more pedestrian Holt outline. I think it'll still work, though. Holt has a boatload of ready-made assessments, labs, and other goodies that I hope will save me some urgently needed time. Way too much organismal biology, but I'll cut that down in favor of other topics. Aiming for SAT II ratios.

 

Anybody done worksheets, quizzes, reading guides or the like for Nowicki's lectures? I wouldn't necessarily develop these for one student, but looks like I'll have at least four. Hmm. Maybe a generic worksheet for outlining main points . . . .:auto: