Need Science Line up advice. Skipping biology??

[mom2agang]

My son wants to be an engineer and has no interest in Biology and Disection. He is doing Apologia Physical science this year. Then what I wanted to do is do the Biology 101 DVDs and the Human Body DVDs. After that move onto Chemistry and Physics. Can I do that?

[EKS]

If you want to do a drive by biology course, I'd recommend focusing on modern biology--biochemistry, cell biology (structure and function, photosynthesis, respiration/fermentation, growth/division), and genetics (DNA, protein synthesis, heredity). Evolution would also be part of a modern biology course, but obviously it would be up to you how or whether to cover it. I would forgo everything about classification, structure and function of plants and animals (and this would include dissection), and ecology. I do think that learning about the human body is necessary, though, and could be done at the end of the course or in the context of a separate health course.

[shawthorne44]

In 8th grade, I took an elective science class at my b&m school. The teacher looooovvved biology, and it was basically a biology class. I hated it! I swore I would never take a biology class. I never did, and it did not cause one single problem. I have a Physic B.S. and an Engineering Masters.

 

There is a bit of divide in the Sciences between the Physical and Life Sciences. Someone that will thrive in the Physical will be probably miserable in the Life, and vice versa.

[jhschool]

Yes.

 

I think that is fine.

 

The way I handle credits is, DS has to do either 200 hours of A-level work,

or go through a decent text and do at least 75 % of the problems and get them correct,

including all the levels (e.g. odd-numbered problems for easy sections)

(or a combination of texts and problems/assignments equivalent to the latter).

 

I would add an easy overview book, and also a problems/tests component.

I would add a high schol

level workbook, even if it's an easy one, and a few tests, to check that he learned the

material.

 

You could also look at skipping Biology altogether, and doing a "real" credit of

a science your child really likes, like Astronomy or Earth Science. Engineering schools

won't care if your child skipped Biology--I think...or rather, I hope...as long as he

took another good science. At least this is sort of our plan (although I was going to

use Barron's EZ Biology over the summer).

 

You do need good Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics

no matter what for an engineer.

[8filltheheart]

Yes.

 

I think that is fine.

 

The way I handle credits is, DS has to do either 200 hours of A-level work,

or go through a decent text and do at least 75 % of the problems and get them correct,

including all the levels (e.g. odd-numbered problems for easy sections)

(or a combination of texts and problems/assignments equivalent to the latter).

 

I would add an easy overview book, and also a problems/tests component.

I would add a high schol

level workbook, even if it's an easy one, and a few tests, to check that he learned the

material.

 

You could also look at skipping Biology altogether, and doing a "real" credit of

a science your child really likes, like Astronomy or Earth Science. Engineering schools

won't care if your child skipped Biology--I think...or rather, I hope...as long as he

took another good science. At least this is sort of our plan (although I was going to

use Barron's EZ Biology over the summer).

 

You do need good Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics

no matter what for an engineer.

 

 

Definitely look at schools you are considering. The schools ds is looking at all state something

like "Science: at least 3 years, including 1 year of life or biological science and 1 year of a physical science with at least 1 lab science." Ds does not want to take biology, but he definitely will be.

 

The way we are handling it is waiting until his sr yr and having him take Thinkwell's biology. He is going to take it in addition to additional physics courses. Thinkwell courses for him are pretty much just time-consumers and not difficult, so it will complete the requirement w/o over-burdening him with an intense bio course.

[Nscribe]

Definitely look at schools you are considering. The schools ds is looking at all state something

like "Science: at least 3 years, including 1 year of life or biological science and 1 year of a physical science with at least 1 lab science." Ds does not want to take biology, but he definitely will be.

 

Seconding this rec because we have found the same sort of requirement stated for various colleges. Checking the requirements stated by colleges your Ds may be considering would be wise.

[Brenda in MA]

If you want to do a drive by biology course, I'd recommend focusing on modern biology--biochemistry, cell biology (structure and function, photosynthesis, respiration/fermentation, growth/division), and genetics (DNA, protein synthesis, heredity). Evolution would also be part of a modern biology course, but obviously it would be up to you how or whether to cover it. I would forgo everything about classification, structure and function of plants and animals (and this would include dissection), and ecology. I do think that learning about the human body is necessary, though, and could be done at the end of the course or in the context of a separate health course.

 

:iagree:

My dh managed to complete high school and college w/o having taken Biology (just physical sciences -- Chem, Physics, Astronomy), and he regrets it now. In addition to at least some coverage of Human Anatomy, I agree with EKS that some of the Modern Bio topics are crucial to a well-rounded adult education. So many of the breakthroughs in Biology are in the newer topic areas, and I think it's important to at least have a passing knowledge there so you can understand current events & issues (stem cells, cloning, etc.). Also -- to be able to understand your own healthcare and that of family members later, I think having that basic Bio knowledge is very important. There is probably no need to repeat animal and plant structure because most kids get at least some passing knowledge of this in earlier science and just from observing the world around them.

 

Definitely look at schools you are considering. The schools ds is looking at all state something

like "Science: at least 3 years, including 1 year of life or biological science and 1 year of a physical science with at least 1 lab science." Ds does not want to take biology, but he definitely will be.

 

The way we are handling it is waiting until his sr yr and having him take Thinkwell's biology. He is going to take it in addition to additional physics courses. Thinkwell courses for him are pretty much just time-consumers and not difficult, so it will complete the requirement w/o over-burdening him with an intense bio course.

 

This is a good approach as well to getting in some Biology without it being too time consuming. Here, we decided to do an inverted science sequence -- Conceptual physics in 8th, Chem in 9th, and Bio in 10th. We used the Kolbe/Prentice Hall Bio course and found it somewhat interesting but not overwhelming. My son has gone on to take AP Physics and will take Chem at the CC next year -- so definitely an interest more in the physical sciences.

 

Another thing to consider is that STEM majors at a lot of colleges require at least one semester of college-level Bio -- this is definitely true for Chem & Physics majors, and I've also seen that requirement for other majors that land in the the colleges' schools of science, like math and computer science. My son's engineering major didn't require Bio, but it is strongly suggested since some engineering majors find themselves working in life science fields anyway, like pharmaceuticals or medical devices.

 

Best wishes,

Brenda

[8filltheheart]

 

Another thing to consider is that STEM majors at a lot of colleges require at least one semester of college-level Bio -- this is definitely true for Chem & Physics majors, and I've also seen that requirement for other majors that land in the the colleges' schools of science, like math and computer science.

 

 

None of the schools ds is looking at require college bio for physics majors unless they are opting for the biophysics track. (thank goodness for him. ;) ) They all require high school bio for admissions, though.

[flyingiguana]

I don't understand why everyone thinks biology requires dissections. You can do perfectly fine bio courses without a single dissection.

 

It makes sense, too, to expect high school students to do some biology, just to be a well rounded person. It doesn't have to be college level/AP. There are plenty of materials out there for a gentle intro to biology. Thinkwell (as mentioned) is one option. You want to find something where the instructor (if a video or live course) is fairly enthusiastic about the topic.

 

If you are going to cover classification in your bio course, you might want to check out all the David Attenborough videos. The best, in my opinion, are the Life of Birds, Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth, Life in Cold Blood, and the Private Life of Plants. The more recent ones that he narrates are good as well, but they don't have as much of his enthusiasm. (The old series Life on Earth that he did was also great -- except that the photography wasn't nearly as wonderful.)

 

There is also a nice 2 hour video on Darwin called Darwin's Dangerous Idea (the video, not the book -- the book is a totally different beast). There were others in that series as well that were worth watching. You might also see if you can dig up some decent popular videos on modern bio. The old Nova shows might be a place to start. And many of the Nature shows from PBS are interesting. Videos will make the course a lot more lively. (Although, I'd suggest if you're going to do PBS shows, that you look for the older ones. The more recent ones have gone towards fluff.)

 

We really only did the Thinkwell course and the Attenborough videos (and a lot of Nature videos). I meant to do more, but it hasn't happened yet. If we go on with biology, we'll probably do some readings. Things that come to mind are The Selfish Gene, The Future of Life, Silent Spring and perhaps something by Jared Diamond. We did try The Double Helix. It really didn't cover a lot of biology at all. And what it did cover wasn't explained well. So I wouldn't recommend that one at all. Another one that we did read part of was The Dinosaur Heresies, which does get at some anatomy/physiology while talking about *dinosaurs* which can be a draw for some students.

 

We also tried a couple high school biology texts at one point. It was a complete and utter failure. They didn't really explain much and were really boring. Thinkwell, while there were some parts that I found questionable (all of human biology, for example), was mostly pretty easy to follow.

[Brenda in MA]

None of the schools ds is looking at require college bio for physics majors unless they are opting for the biophysics track. (thank goodness for him. ;) ) They all require high school bio for admissions, though.

Interesting. The several schools that we've looked at all required at least one Bio course if the student was in the school of science. I'm glad to see that it isn't always the case. I've heard much grumbling from college kids who were math or CS majors about why they had to take a Bio course anyway....

 

Brenda

[FaithManor]

None of the schools our ds's are looking at allow one to skip high school biology. It's listed specifically in the minimum requirements for admission.

 

I personally wouldn't want to skip due to the need for much of the anatomy and physiology as well as bio chem in order to make wise healthcare decisions as adults. It's good information to have.

 

Only one of the boys will need college bio for the degree. But, they can't get into college without high school bio.

 

There are plenty of bio labs to complete without doing dissections if one doesn't want to do them.

 

Faith

[AngieW in Texas]

I would definitely do a bio course, but there is no need to do one freshman year. In fact, it is best to take chemistry before biology. To get through the dreaded biology course quicker, he could wait until 11th or 12th grade and take the lowest level bio course at cc and get high school biology taken care of in one semester. Since it isn't required for the degree he is interested in, it doesn't matter whether or not it is biology for science majors. He just needs something that would count as high school level.

 

Something like one of these ought to work:

BIOL 1408 INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY -- UNITY OF LIFE (4-3-3). Introductory biology course designed for non-science majors who desire a conceptual approach to biological topics. An introduction to the nature of science, the characteristics of life, the molecular and cellular basis of life, genetics, reproduction, and development. An emphasis will be placed on how these topics are related to current issues such as genetic engineering, biotechnology, and problems facing modern society. BIOL 1406 and 1408 may not both be counted toward graduation.

 

BIOL 1309 LIFE ON EARTH (3-3-0). A survey of the living organisms on our planet for the non-science major. Emphasis on evolutionary and natural history, structural and behavioral adaptations, biological diversity and co-evolution. Skills: E ( ) Course Type: T