Mistake- looked at the high school offerings for science

[bethben]

I have been struggling with figuring out science for the future years for my kids. I've got an 8th grader next year. The science curriculum they're using at the local high school is all the texts that have appealed to me- conceptual physics, prentice hall concepts in action, but they are done with the lab equipment, the teacher whose only job is to figure out how to teach only 2-3 classes (while as a homeschooler, I have 3 kids with multiple classes), and special projects that I would have never figured out or thought of. I want my kids to have a great science experience apart from the public school.

 

I guess I'm feeling inadequate to teach high school overall in a rigorous manner. I'm not opposed to outside classes, but especially with science, it's hard to do that with a class that only meets once a week while not being able to really do a lab component that can cost hundreds of dollars. Maybe I'm just having a "the grass is greener" syndrome. I need a kick in the butt or pat on the back.

 

Beth

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

I admit, I was drawn into Apologia Science, and have been in a co op where another mom did whiz kids science experiments every week ( my dc loved that !) I also have a large family and after just reading in TWTM again, I ordered 4 Teaching Company Science classes. I am keeping our microscope, slide set and Apologia Biology and will use what we want out of it. Right now, I am using Astronomy and read so many good reviews of the Teaching Company's Astronomy I had to order it. It had been a long time since I looked on Amazon. There are some great deals for Teaching Company Science.

 

From what I read in TWTM: a lot of hs students don't get a lab until college. Many hs students take a class in a local cc for hs credit and get a semester of lab work.

 

I know a family who never formally study Science and just read science books. Some just do summer science.

I will give you a pat on the back :)

 

Home Science tools has Apologia kits and I have been using the Astronomy.

 

My 7 year old is begging me to study Anatomy and she is interested in the blood typing kit.

 

DD13 is the one not interested in science: and since dh watches tv, I had to give the Teaching Company another try.

 

Chemistry is the class I am not sure if I will have a co op for. I got the Teaching Company set just in case. I got tired of worrying about it. I also contacted the Teaching Company and it is legal to show the videos in a hs co op as long as there is not a charge for it. Each student needs a book ( $15) to work through the classes too.

[8filltheheart]

My kids have all managed to have great science educations w/o fancy labs or special equipment or special projects. The most I have ever spent is around $200 for Spectrum's chemistry equipment and supplies. (and now I only need to purchase the supplies.)

[PeterPan]

Well is the apologia you're using this year working for you? If you keep going with it, it has labs oriented to homeschoolers. Have you actually SEEN the conceptual physics text, etc.? Just because something is popular on the boards doesn't mean it's right for you, and just because it's talked about doesn't mean it's getting used the way you think or intend. You're not crazy to think that to pick up certain traditional texts and implement all the labs as written could get very expensive. It can cost HUNDREDS of dollars your first time through to implement the BJU physical science fully. As me how I know. :) I did it, because I have a student who retains really well when she DOES the thing. Some people pay for online classes, and I paid for lab equipment. But then you get on here and read about people not even DOING labs. So don't assume everyone is using the text the way YOU need to or intend to.

 

The lab book for conceptual physics is freely available online as a pdf. So download it and figure out if you actually want to plunk out to implement it. If you don't, you could stick with Apologia and have labs that have been scaled and selected to work in a homeschool environment. Or you could buy a kit so you have all the components and an upfront, predetermined cost.

 

My radical opinion is that the best science is the one that gets understood and remembered, not the most expensive or the one that was supposedly the most rigorous.

[tarahillmom]

I have done Miller Levine Biology and Prentice Hall Earth Science which are used by the public schools. I did not shell out a lot of money for labs for these courses. I have the lab manuals that go with the books and was able to do at least 80% of the labs without anything more than things around my house, a microscope, and less than $50 of supplies from a local teacher's store. Of course there will be things you cannot do, but do not panic. I have friends whose kids attend a private school and do a lot of their lab work with virtual labs. I really do not feel so far DS is missing anything as far as a lab component.

[Brenda in MA]

My kids have all managed to have great science educations w/o fancy labs or special equipment or special projects. The most I have ever spent is around $200 for Spectrum's chemistry equipment and supplies. (and now I only need to purchase the supplies.)

 

:iagree:

There are many, many science lab kits one can purchase to go with various science curricula. Home Science Tools sells several different ones. We really enjoyed Spectrum for Chemistry. You might have to shell out some money for some basic science equipment for the oldest, but then you'd be able to re-use most of it with your younger kids.

 

If you really take a look at the actual science labs done in many ps, you would be very disappointed. The labs look so slick with all of their equipment, etc., but what do the students actually do and how often? In our area, it's not a whole lot, and if your ps has large class sizes, your student might be in a group of 5 or 6 and not get to do much of the hands-on work himself (or herself).

 

Brenda

[regentrude]

My only real expense was the $200 for a chemistry lab kit which has sufficient stuff for rigorous labs for two students and will be used for both.

Physics lab you can do with common household items - the quality is in the question, clean experimentation, and analysis, not in some fancy equipment.

 

As for this comment

the teacher whose only job is to figure out how to teach only 2-3 classes

:

This teacher will have to grade homework papers and lab reports for all the 150 students he has in the six hours he teaches each day, design and grade quizzes and exams, deal with discipline, deal with the large spread of abilities in his classroom, deal with the school administration, deal with complaining parents, prepare for standardized testing if it is an AP class, remedy what other classes have failed to teach. He may not have a lot of class time for developing in depth labs. Only very dedicated teachers will manage to make the class lively, interesting, the labs of high quality, and they will work extremely hard to pull it off.

Teaching in a classroom requires a completely different level of prep work than teaching one's own homeschooled kids.

[kerenlynne]

A few years ago we had a German Exchange student live with us for a year. This gave me my first glimpse into the Public High School in our small town. She took chemistry and never did one single lab. The teacher was the girls softball and volleyball coach and apparently got confused about the math and was often corrected by the students(Quite the stereotype). I was so shocked that this was going on. No experiments? That was my favorite part of Chemistry and Physics. Since she knew she would have to retake the class in Germany anyway it didn't bother her much but I still can't believe it to this day. I'm sure that was an extreme example but the truth of the matter is whatever curriculum is used, the success of the course will depend on the effort of the teacher. If you put enough effort into your homeschool science class, you can make it interesting. Spend some time on the great science threads on this forum and you will probably come up with some great ideas and resources to fill out your class.

[kroe1]

There are many labs you can do cheaply which demonstrate concepts taught in high school science texts. We are using A Beka right now which offers a gorgeous lab book and awesome experiments. The problem is one can spend thousands on the equipment. But, by google and YouTube searches one can find very cheap alternatives which convey the same results. It just takes a little mom time and some planning.

 

 

[PeterPan]

A few years ago we had a German Exchange student live with us for a year. This gave me my first glimpse into the Public High School in our small town. She took chemistry and never did one single lab. The teacher was the girls softball and volleyball coach and apparently got confused about the math and was often corrected by the students(Quite the stereotype). I was so shocked that this was going on. ... I'm sure that was an extreme example...

 

 

Nope, not an extreme example. I had something similar happen with biology at the high school I went to. Nuts, I don't even recall if we had a textbook for the earth science class I took there. The school I went to first semester did, but 2nd semester (different school, different state) did not. So no textbook for freshman french in one school, no textbook for freshman earth science in another. Sophomore year at that school had a textbook but it was a complete repeat of the BJU life science I had done a couple years earlier. The teacher was also a volleyball coach, so he spent the first half of class talking sports then put in David Attenborough videos. Once in a while he'd assign a chapter and tell us to check it using the answer key he taped to the wall. We dissected a frog and killed things in neglected terrariums. That was our ps hs biology.

 

So yeah, whenever I get these jolts of can't do this or wondering if my weird ideas are good enough, I remember it can't be any worse than talking volleyball and watching David Attenborough all year. Not that DA is bad, but probably we should have done a little something more. ;)