Homeschool High School Biology

[cintinative]

15 minutes ago, orthodoxmother said:

I’m looking for a second opinion:

An experienced mom at our co-op told me that the Apologia science books are so advanced that unless my child wants an honors course or to pursue a career in science, she suggests using the middle school book as High School Biology I and the High School book as Biology II. 
 

thoughts?

 

That's news to me. I would not use a middle school book for Bio 1 for sure.  I also had not heard of the Apologia being advanced.

If no one else responds, start a separate thread. This one is probably not getting many views on a regular basis.

@Dicentra?

Edited February 25, 2021 by cintinative

[Dicentra]

2 hours ago, orthodoxmother said:

I’m looking for a second opinion:

An experienced mom at our co-op told me that the Apologia science books are so advanced that unless my child wants an honors course or to pursue a career in science, she suggests using the middle school book as High School Biology I and the High School book as Biology II. 
 

thoughts?

 

 

2 hours ago, cintinative said:

That's news to me. I would not use a middle school book for Bio 1 for sure.  I also had not heard of the Apologia being advanced.

If no one else responds, start a separate thread. This one is probably not getting many views on a regular basis.

@Dicentra?

Starting a new thread is a good idea. 🙂  I don't have any hands-on experience with the curriculum so starting a new thread will hopefully get folks to chime in who have used the curriculum. 🙂

[Lori D.]

Welcome! I see by your post count that you are new.
 

16 hours ago, orthodoxmother said:

I’m looking for a second opinion:
An experienced mom at our co-op told me that the Apologia science books are so advanced that unless my child wants an honors course or to pursue a career in science, she suggests using the middle school book as High School Biology I and the High School book as Biology II. 
thoughts?

This is not correct information.

Apologia is a very standard high school level textbook. The first sentence of the description on the Apologia website says "This high school biology course is designed to be your high school student’s first science course."  So not advanced. Also, you can compare the scope and sequence (or even just the table of contents) to other standard high school Biology textbooks, and it is clear that Apologia science textbooks are solidly regular high school level. 

Apologia does offer a second course in Biology that is labeled "Advanced Biology", This may be taken after the first level of high school Biology, and could be labeled "Biology II". 

Perhaps that is what this fellow homeschooler is referring to?

Or some 8th graders do Apologia Biology, and then do Apologia Advanced Biology later in high school. Could that be what this fellow co-op mom meant?


Agreeing with @cintinative: I would not use a middle school text for high school Biology unless the student was remedial. I also agree that you will get more views/responses if you re-ask this question on a new thread. Cheers!

Edited February 25, 2021 by Lori D.

[Homeschoolmom3]

My one son took Apologia through high school and it is not "advance" by no means, I would say it's average.  Definitely don't use MS text. 

[prairiewindmomma]

@orthodoxmotherI agree that is by no means advanced. I would actually argue that in some ways that it is inadequate.

I used Apologia Biology four years ago with my oldest son.  Once we realized that he wanted to go on to a STEM career choice, we reviewed a different biology course so that he would be prepared for university studies.  I was shocked and dismayed by how shoddy Apologia seemed after using BJUP biology. 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

I have about 10 spare minutes and I'll try to give a more detailed review of the two.  

Briefly--

reasons to choose Apologia: it's conveniently offered in a co-op near to you, you have a child with learning issues who needs some of the supportive features (particularly the notebook; we did not find the dvd to be worth the expense), conversational text with wider spacing between print lines, etc., or you can find it in audio (Bookshare has it) and you can't find another text

reasons to choose BJUP: you want coverage of introductory human anatomy & physiology (which is not in Apologia Biology at all), you want a text that is easy to outline with clear and precise writing, and you want more advanced labs

I randomly opened my apologia biology text to a section on reproduction in fungi, and then flipped over to find the comparably text in BJUP....here's an example of the different writing styles:

Apologia:(paragraph on why fungi are so plentiful)... "The sexual reproduction that usually occurs in fungi involves forming specialized structures called fruiting bodies. These fruiting bodies form as a result of sexual reproduction between compatible hyphae. Once the fruiting body is formed, it rises out of the mycelium and releases its spores. The cap and stalk that we normally call a mushroom are, in fact, just parts of the fruiting body of the mycelium of a fungus. In some fungi, sexual reproduction does not lead to a fruiting body. It just directly produces a new hypha, which will mature into a completely different mycelium." (p. 101)

BJUP: (paragraph on asexual reproduction, paragraph on sporangiophores and conidiophores)... "Sexual reproduction occurs during times of unfavorable environmental conditions, and it does not occur in all species of fungi. There are no male or female fungi; they have mating types that are denoted "plus" or "minus". Sexual reproduction occurs when the hyphae of different mating types come into contact. The fused hyphae produce a specialized structure called the fruiting body that forms and releases the spores." (p. 281)

When I read longer passages from the two texts, I come away with clearer understanding from the BJUP one.  These two passages have roughly the same content, but it's clear from the BJUP that there is asexual reproduction, which happens in good conditions, sexual reproduction, and that in sexual reproduction there are not male or female fungi. I come away from the Apologia text understanding that mushrooms can really spread, and that they have either fruiting bodies or can maybe just make a new hypha. 

[orthodoxmother]

On 2/25/2021 at 11:49 AM, prairiewindmomma said:

passages from the two texts,

Thank you for providing this - it was very helpful!

[cintinative]

FYI, based on another post, I checked and The Potter's School entries are out of date. @Dicentra can you update the other posts?

 

Biology (regular track) with The Potter's School

Link: https://www.pottersschool.org/course/list/#course-3999

Text: Science Shepard

Adds two films: Inherit the Wind, Gattaca

Labs included: Yes "This course requires hands-on labs and/or virtual labs which are required to complete the course for credit. TPS has made every effort to keep materials costs as low as possible while providing a creditable course."

Level: Reg Bio
Type: Online provider
Additional Materials: N/A
Teacher Resources: N/A
Lesson Plans: N/A
Secular/Christian: Christian
Program includes labs: Yes

 

Biology (honors track) with The Potter's School

Link: https://www.pottersschool.org/course/list/#course-4000

Text: Miller-Levine  2019

Labs included: Yes "This course requires hands-on labs and/or virtual labs which are required to complete the course for credit. TPS has made every effort to keep materials costs as low as possible while providing a creditable course."

Level: Honors Bio
Type: Online provider
Additional Materials: N/A
Teacher Resources: N/A
Lesson Plans: N/A
Secular/Christian: Christian
Program includes labs: Yes

 

AP Biology with The Potter's School

Grade levels 11 and 12

Link: https://www.pottersschool.org/course/list/#course-3991

Text: AP Biology by OpenStax https://openstax.org/books/biology-ap-courses/pages/1-1-the-science-of-biology

Labs included: Yes  

"This course requires hands-on labs and/or virtual labs which are required to complete the course for credit. TPS has made every effort to keep materials costs as low as possible while providing a creditable course."

Level: AP Bio
Type: Online provider
Additional Materials: N/A
Teacher Resources: N/A
Lesson Plans: N/A
Secular/Christian: Christian
Program includes labs: Yes

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by cintinative

[Dicentra]

12 hours ago, cintinative said:

FYI, based on another post, I checked and The Potter's School entries are out of date. @Dicentra can you update the other posts?

 

Biology (regular track) with The Potter's School

Link: https://www.pottersschool.org/course/list/#course-3999

Text: Science Shepard

Adds two films: Inherit the Wind, Gattaca

Labs included: Yes "This course requires hands-on labs and/or virtual labs which are required to complete the course for credit. TPS has made every effort to keep materials costs as low as possible while providing a creditable course."

Level: Reg Bio
Type: Online provider
Additional Materials: N/A
Teacher Resources: N/A
Lesson Plans: N/A
Secular/Christian: Christian
Program includes labs: Yes

 

Biology (honors track) with The Potter's School

Link: https://www.pottersschool.org/course/list/#course-4000

Text: Miller-Levine  2019

Labs included: Yes "This course requires hands-on labs and/or virtual labs which are required to complete the course for credit. TPS has made every effort to keep materials costs as low as possible while providing a creditable course."

Level: Honors Bio
Type: Online provider
Additional Materials: N/A
Teacher Resources: N/A
Lesson Plans: N/A
Secular/Christian: Christian
Program includes labs: Yes

 

AP Biology with The Potter's School

Grade levels 11 and 12

Link: https://www.pottersschool.org/course/list/#course-3991

Text: AP Biology by OpenStax https://openstax.org/books/biology-ap-courses/pages/1-1-the-science-of-biology

Labs included: Yes  

"This course requires hands-on labs and/or virtual labs which are required to complete the course for credit. TPS has made every effort to keep materials costs as low as possible while providing a creditable course."

Level: AP Bio
Type: Online provider
Additional Materials: N/A
Teacher Resources: N/A
Lesson Plans: N/A
Secular/Christian: Christian
Program includes labs: Yes

 

I've been meaning to do a lot of updating on the pinned posts but I haven't yet managed it.  Hopefully, soon. 🙂  Thanks for the updated info!

[cintinative]

7 hours ago, Dicentra said:

I've been meaning to do a lot of updating on the pinned posts but I haven't yet managed it.  Hopefully, soon. 🙂  Thanks for the updated info!

I just realized my post might have been read as asking you to update everything, and I only meant to update the other posts with the TPS information.  No pressure!!

[Dicentra]

10 hours ago, cintinative said:

I just realized my post might have been read as asking you to update everything, and I only meant to update the other posts with the TPS information.  No pressure!!

No worries, cin! 🙂  I figure, if nothing else, the un-updated posts can at least give folks a program/company name to go by and google even if the links are broken. 🙂  But I will try to do some updates when I can find a bit of time!

[Malam]

Just wanted to add this:

https://debrabell.com/product/biology/

It's a basic highschool bio class. There's a link to the honors bio version too.

Also, MIT's Open Learning Library has a course called "getting up to speed in biology". Interested students should consider taking it before 7.01SC or another 7.01 class.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Malam

[TechWife]

Hi all! 
I’m  a former hs mom (son graduated 2015) who still hangs out on the chat board and the politics board. I just wanted to drop this information here since it just came to my attention.  It sounds fantastic & I’m tempted to buy it for myself! I’m not affiliated with Biologos or the curriculum in any way. Anything Biologos puts out will be scientifically sound. I’m cross- posting this to the middle school school board as well. 
 

Integrate Faith & Science Curriculum

[Malam]

I've seen good reviews for this on the board; I'm surprised I haven't seen this here yet: https://www.fundafundaacademy.com/product/biology/

@Dicentra

[Penelope]

I just noticed that Miller Levine Biology 2019 textbook with the student and teacher digital resources is available directly for purchase as a homeschool bundle. It looks like you can get it directly from Savvas, Rainbow Resource, and Christianbook.com, perhaps other vendors, too.

[Dicentra]

On 6/26/2023 at 10:48 AM, Malam said:

I've seen good reviews for this on the board; I'm surprised I haven't seen this here yet: https://www.fundafundaacademy.com/product/biology/

@Dicentra

Thanks, Malam!  I haven't been updating these threads as I should - it always seems to get pushed down on my to-do list. 🙃  I figure even if I don't get the starting posts updated, people can still read through all the posts in the threads and get some great ideas from all the wonderful Hive members. 🙂

[turkeypotpie]

AP BIO - HOW WE DID IT:

We homeschooled AP Bio last year and had excellent results on the exam. I'd like to share some tips on what we did for our particular situation and hopefully it could prove helpful to someone else. All of this is very much Your-Mileage-May-Vary info that should obviously be tailored to your student and home situation! This is just our example.

- We arrange our school dates to specifically align with AP season, so starting class in early July to give a bit more time on the front end and give more time to review and practice before the May exams. After the AP exam we are done for the year. 

- We keep pretty close to a 4-day per week hands-on/in-class model, with 2 on, 1 off, 2 on, three off so that the material doesn't feel overwhelming and plenty of off-time is available for reading, projects, writing, whatever else is going on. 

- I usually allot 2-4 weeks of review prior to the AP exam, two 2-week vacations around the holidays, and expect several days here and there throughout the year for trips, mental health days, outings, etc. Then I work backwards from what is available and plan out a schedule to cover each chapter of the book with a day or two at the end of each unit for a review and unit exam. This would roughly align to 1-3 sections of the chapter per hands-on day.

- We used Campbell Biology as our main text, and I loved it. We covered the majority of the book aside from specific sections that were not covered in the AP course (i.e., plants). I crosschecked our progress against the College Board syllabi to keep us on track as we read. If we hit an interest area we might spend a day or two finding supplementary documentaries or library books, but we generally kept a pretty tight schedule. 

-- Alternatively I took a look at the free OpenStax AP Bio text and it seemed substantially the same as Campbell. As a zero-cost option I think it would work very well, if slightly less rich visually. OpenStax also has good teacher resources with slideshows and answer keys if you register as a teacher (easy to do). They also appear to have lots of hyperlinks to enrichment websites throughout the text, and for virtual labs, but I don't have a lot of experience using it.

- Getting a College Board instructor account and class approval for your unit guides is incredibly helpful. These materials are free, totally aligned with the exam, have videos on every topic, unit exams, pre-test reviews, and a massive question bank. This setup makes grade tracking and progress reports an absolute breeze. Most answers have explanations and cross reference where a student can focus on their weaknesses. Finally, there are full-length AP exams from previous years. These tools were all absolutely invaluable. At the end of the year you can export a full excel sheet with all grades inclusive if you had your student keep up with the question sets throughout the course. 

- As we completed and discussed material in the Campbell book, I would cross check it with the AP Central discussion questions and assign them to my student via the online interface for in-class work, homework, or discussion depending on time, proficiency, and how we felt that day/week.

- I knew little to nothing about biology going into this. I would read ahead a few chapters to gain familiarity with the material and pre-watch videos while I was on the treadmill or doing chores. There are wonderful YouTube science communicators and these were crucial resources for us. My top recommendations:

-- The Amoeba Sisters are a wonderfully entertaining creator with short, topical videos that serve as nice introductions and review items to dozens of topics. Everything is presented in a clean cartoon-like format with a warm sense of humor. I would frequently look to them for introductions into various topics. 

-- Bozeman Science is the absolute GOAT bio guy on YouTube. He has deeper videos on nearly every topic, and was also instrumental for us in AP Chem. These are short-to-moderate in length and Mr. Anderson was practically our default "teacher". Highly highly recommended.

-- Crash Course Biology is visually engaging and quick, but the snappy transitions and fast pace made it less optimal for us to use as a virtual lecturer. It was a good resource for 'another look' at a concept from a new voice that might add some new bit of context, history, or something to help remember. Decent for review.

-- HeyNow Science has a WONDERFUL set of very comprehensive videos from a clear, easy-to-follow teacher working through well planned lectures aligned with the AP content. Great unit reviews and well recommended. 

-- The AP Daily videos from College Board itself were 'fine'. They would get the job done as far as being laser-focused on the actual content of the course and would provide some good tips for tackling AP-specific questions for their format, but I found their short lecture formats to be dry and basically just a teacher reading through slides with often lousy audio quality. Did not engage my student. Decent for review and test skills, but not first-pass content exploration.

-- Professor Dave Explains, Lasseter's Lab, and Forrest Valkai all have additional materials we would poke around now and then, sometimes for fun/funny side-explorations, sometimes for a unit or section review just to get a new voice. Worth taking a look at, time permitting. Prof Dave has tons of content with some deep dives though he can be a bit dry in presentation. Valkai is hyper-energetic, hyper-engaging, and his passion for biology is infectious, though his materials are purely extra stuff that aren't designed to align with College Board's flow.

-- Finally, for AP exam or unit test prep, my student enjoyed the get-to-the-point style of Carrara who gives the feeling of having a student tutor sit down for an hour and go point-by-point in a casual manner everything you need to know from a particular unit from high-schooler to high-schooler.

- Labs: Unfortunately you're on your own for this one. See some of the other posts here. I did a combination of cobbling together experiments from different science kits and household items along the way, and did some virtual labs online as well. Overall these weren't a great experience and our student wasn't impressed. It might be better just finding a decent all-in-one kit and the AP lab manual, together with Bozeman Science's explanations of the experiments to give structure. I wouldn't do what we did in such a piecemeal way. 

- The Exam: Prior to test day we planned out about three weeks of thorough review, and took three practice exams drawn (1/week) from the AP Classroom materials. We used a 5 Steps to a 5 review manual to guide our study, but you could easily put together a fantastic zero-cost review from the free materials offered by AP Bio Penguins. She publishes a very thorough review guide and has short review videos on every topic, as well as longer-form full unit reviews through Marco Learning (free on YouTube). Seeing what our student missed in AP Classroom allowed us to identify sections where she was running into problems, and we'd attack those areas with gusto. My general plan was to make a checklist of high-missed sections and then reach back into our texts and our favorite YouTube science communicators, then I would use AP Classroom's question bank to build custom quiz sets to practice until our student demonstrated a good grasp of the material. College Board does produce a full set of long-form review videos from AP Bio teachers each year prior to the exams, but we found them to be a snooze-fest that was hard to pay attention to.

- It was tough and took a ton of work and focus, but the effort paid off! Our student got a great score and transferable credit for two college semesters of STEM-major bio and labs (8 credits)!

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by turkeypotpie

[Gymnastkatieg]

Is a National Geographic kids microscope good enough for apologia biology? We will get the apologia slides. Are they compatible?