Online Science: Apologia, Veritas, or Landry?

[Shawna in North CA]

I am looking for the best option of a live online science course for my son. He's currently taking Omnibus I online with Veritas and loving it.

 

What I love about Veritas is:

 

Master Teacher--this is the most important thing, imo.

High Level

Focus on oral recitation, as opposed to a bunch of answer-the-question busywork

Smooth technological format that really feels like a real class

 

Veritas offers science courses....wondering if they are as well-done as Omnibus, or if a more science-focused academy, like Apologia or Landry, might be better.

[Sunshine State Sue]

If you are open to other options, you might consider Derek Owens. He offers Physical Science and Physics. We used him for 9th grade Physics. You may read my review in this thread:

High School Physics & Chemistry

 

I would be happy to send you a sample hw, lab, test. I haven't tried emailing from this forum. Either send me a PM or email (if it works on this forum) if you would like it.

 

We used Landry Academy for a semester long class - Exercise Physiology and Sports Medicine. Although most people I've seen on the boards have had a positive experience with Landry, our experience was less than impressive. The quality of Derek Owen's class was much, much better.

[Shawna in North CA]

Thanks Sue! Very interesting. Just so I understand it correctly, the lectures are NOT live, but the coursework is time-sensitive, in that, assignments are due as certain times, tests are scheduled, etc? Is that right?

 

In that case, there must not be any classroom interaction between students and teacher. Did you find that to be a negative in any way? I suppose that a science lecture is a bit different than a humanities or history lecture, where rhetoric is important. Science is more like math...present the facts, present them in a variety or ways, give examples and illustrations, and move on. No real need to ask the students what they think, since there is not more than one right answer with science and math. Did you find that to be true?

 

Also, does this teacher present from a particularly strong either atheistic or creationist worldview? Although at highschool level, this doesn't concern me so much, though I am curious.

 

Thanks1

[Sunshine State Sue]

Thanks Sue! Very interesting. Just so I understand it correctly, the lectures are NOT live, but the coursework is time-sensitive, in that, assignments are due as certain times, tests are scheduled, etc? Is that right?

Correct. The lectures are not live. He has a syllabus with weekly assignments, but you are free to go as fast or as slow as you wish. Since you pay monthly, you can cut down your cost if you finish quicker. We tweaked the syllabus a bit - we started earlier, took more time off at the holidays, and moved spring break to fit our needs, but followed it in a general way. That's a benefit.

In that case, there must not be any classroom interaction between students and teacher. Did you find that to be a negative in any way? I suppose that a science lecture is a bit different than a humanities or history lecture, where rhetoric is important. Science is more like math...present the facts, present them in a variety or ways, give examples and illustrations, and move on. No real need to ask the students what they think, since there is not more than one right answer with science and math. Did you find that to be true?

There are pros and cons to this arrangement. I have found that online classes (like IRL classes) can have distractions. The pace of many classes is slow for ds. There are no distractions here and he can move through the material at his pace. There is not much interaction between teacher and student, but there is some if the student has a question. He also grades every assignment and will have comments or hints. And you are correct, there is not as much need for peer interaction as in a humanities or history class. If we lived in the Atlanta area, we would have loved to take his live classes, but alas, we do not live in the Atlanta area.

Also, does this teacher present from a particularly strong either atheistic or creationist worldview?

No. I would say that it is secular. I don't think anything controversial was ever presented.

HTH!

[rockala]

A word of caution here- perhaps this should be cross posted on the other thread. We ended up using a provider in which dd had the same teacher for three of her hs years. She had planned to go into a portion of the medical field in which was very competitive. Colleges that offer the major have many- sometimes hundreds of applications for a few select spots. We found out senior year that most of these colleges wanted a letter of reccomedation specifically from a science teacher. She planned to apply to as many different colleges with the major in hopes to get into one of the programs.

 

Sadly we found out senior year the teacher was only willing to give one or two letter of reccomendations at the most. She has always been a excellent student in this class. He explained that he never said that he would grant one at all. We explained that a single one could be uploaded to the common app- he would not have to write multiple letters, but this was unacceptable to him. The student really needs to handle it which I was not aware of, however I did begin to ask how the teacher felt about dd and was promptly told that was between him and the colleges.

 

The whole process was less than desirable and dd ended up changing her plans- which turned out to be a good think-at least right now it seems :). It has definelty changed my approach for future online classes though and I will ask this in advance if regular feedback is forthcoming and how they would handle letters of reccomendation. I do not want my son to end up in this situation.

 

It is difficult as the teachers usually have little personal interaction and likely have never seen the student and have no idea of their general demeanor. Most of what we communicate is non-verbal and teachers in a live classroom can read those ques and know more about how hard the student had to/did not have to work. So in fairness it is tough all around. Admittedly, we could have handled a little better and learned a lot, but wanted to give a heads up to anyone who has a student consdering such a field.