Night Elf Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Ds took Biology in 9th grade with Keystone HIgh School. We did not sign up for the lab which was a separate half semester course. So he earned only 1 credit. Do you think a college will be satisfied that he took Biology and not look into the fact that ds didn't do the lab component? I'm worried a college will see his core requirements as incomplete and that might hurt his chances of admission. DH thinks it will be okay, but I'm concerned it was an error on our part. When he took Chemistry, the lab was part of the course but it's still counts as 1 credit. Would a college know the Biology lab wasn't included in that case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Colleges typically require a certain number of science courses, and 1 or 2 out of those with lab. I have not seen any college requiring specifically a *biology* lab. I list on the transcript which courses had a lab associated with them. We did have four lab science credits, but biology was not one of them. So far, DD has been accepted to several good universities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I see two parts in your question. First, the credit question. Typically, the class with lab is only worth one credit, so there will be no red flag because your ds just has a single credit in Biology. I do list on my transcripts "with lab" for those science classes that include a lab. Ds will have 3 of 4 sciences "with lab", dd will have 4 or 5 out of 8 science credits "with lab". If you don't list it, colleges may go looking in your course descriptions to figure it out. The second issue is the need for lab credits in high school. All the colleges we've looked at (a relatively small sample size) have required two of the science credits in high school to include a lab. The only thing that makes not having a Biology lab a mistake in my mind is that it is a relatively easy science to do a lab at home, far easier than Chemistry for example. However, you already have a lab credit for Chemistry, so you only need one more. You could still add a lab to Biology, something like Landry Academy's lab intensive or even a week (or however long you need) this summer that you dedicate to doing Biology labs at home. The other option is just to make sure you do a lab with Physics or whatever other science you ds will do. Also, be sure to check any colleges he is interested in. You don't want to get to college applications and realize the college of his dreams requires 4 sciences with labs. It is unlikely, but something to be mindful of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Just curious - do B&M high schools really offer high school science classes without lab? I mean, for the core sciences (bio, chem, physics). I've never heard of one that didn't include a lab component? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Just curious - do B&M high schools really offer high school science classes without lab? I mean, for the core sciences (bio, chem, physics). I've never heard of one that didn't include a lab component? My dd's Honors Biology class in public school did not do labs although the class description did mention them. I think her teacher was lazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I would do the labs in an intensive week this summer. Biology should have a lab just like chemistry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Ds took Biology in 9th grade with Keystone HIgh School. We did not sign up for the lab which was a separate half semester course. So he earned only 1 credit. Do you think a college will be satisfied that he took Biology and not look into the fact that ds didn't do the lab component? I'm worried a college will see his core requirements as incomplete and that might hurt his chances of admission. DH thinks it will be okay, but I'm concerned it was an error on our part. When he took Chemistry, the lab was part of the course but it's still counts as 1 credit. Would a college know the Biology lab wasn't included in that case? I have always understood that by definition, "biology" was a lab science. Most high schools award one credit (or whatever is common in each state; in California, it would be 10 credits, in Indiana it would be two) for biology, which includes the lab. Without the lab, it's life science. Anyway, unless you write a course description, a college might not know there was no lab...unless whoever is reviewing the transcript is famliar with Keystone's biology course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Another question if anyone is still reading this. Do you think it's possible for me to use online dissections instead of real animals? The lab kit I would get from Keystone includes the animals, of course, but I know ds would object to the dissection. I think there are free online programs but I'd be willing to pay for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovinHS Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 We used Shepard Biology, which calls for a number of dissection labs. My son dissected a worm and had absolutely no desire to do any more. He did the hands-on labs for all but the dissections. The program came with a DVD, which showed each lab. We watched the DVD, and also got a subscription to Froguts to do virtual dissections. I think between the two he learned all that would be expected if he had actually done them. Another question if anyone is still reading this. Do you think it's possible for me to use online dissections instead of real animals? The lab kit I would get from Keystone includes the animals, of course, but I know ds would object to the dissection. I think there are free online programs but I'd be willing to pay for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twigs Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Another question if anyone is still reading this. Do you think it's possible for me to use online dissections instead of real animals? The lab kit I would get from Keystone includes the animals, of course, but I know ds would object to the dissection. I think there are free online programs but I'd be willing to pay for them. At first I thought, yes you need to do dissection. Lab is about doing and observing first hand, and developing skills - you can't do those online. Since he has an objection to dissection, go ahead and use online dissection, but make sure the actual labs done are worth the credit you are assigning for lab. IOW, don't count the online portion as part of the lab credit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 We used Shepard Biology, which calls for a number of dissection labs. My son dissected a worm and had absolutely no desire to do any more. He did the hands-on labs for all but the dissections. The program came with a DVD, which showed each lab. We watched the DVD, and also got a subscription to Froguts to do virtual dissections. I think between the two he learned all that would be expected if he had actually done them. Thank you. Virtual sounds so much better. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 My oldest used Froguts instead of doing dissections. I have a science degree and love dissections, but those things were amazing! They are so detailed and he could focus on what he was seeing because he wasn't horrified the whole time. He learned SO much more from them than he ever would have from actual dissections. Dd did the dissections. She is like me and loved them. She did what was was asked then searched through every bit ever every specimen trying to figure it all out. Pick the one that your child will learn the most from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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