Has anyone used Power Basics Biology?? Question about schedule

[Maddysmom26]

I'm just curious if anyone used this?  How did you schedule the activities to go along with the lessons. There are quite a few and it doesn't seem to say exactly when to do them unless I'm missing something.

 

Than kyou

[journey00]

Following!

[kareng]

We are in the midst of using Powerbasic Biology.  We began it in the spring last year and are continuing it this school year. There are a lot of activities associated with each chapter.  I have my dd do some reading and then have her complete the appropriate activity or activities that goes along with that reading. I haven't always lined up the activities with the reading so that they correspond exactly.  But, I pick and choose.  I don't do all the activities. I have her do some and skip the others.

 

I hope that helps.

[Maddysmom26]

:thumbup:

We are in the midst of using Powerbasic Biology.  We began it in the spring last year and are continuing it this school year. There are a lot of activities associated with each chapter.  I have my dd do some reading and then have her complete the appropriate activity or activities that goes along with that reading. I haven't always lined up the activities with the reading so that they correspond exactly.  But, I pick and choose.  I don't do all the activities. I have her do some and skip the others.

 

I hope that helps.

 

Thank you ! I appreciate your response!  Sounds good. I was just wondering if I was missing something somewhere because I didn't see anywhere where it said which activities go with what! So I will do the same thing, just sort of pick and choose to go along with the readings.

 

Thanks again!

[PeterPan]

I just worked out our plan for the PowerBasics govt (which is terrific btw, just what I wanted), and I was surprised how little correlation there was.  I ended up going through and making a list of which activities to skip.  Then I made a chart laying everything out into days, with appropriate chunks for work for each day.  Helped me wrap my brain around it too and gave me a chance to schedule in field trips and whatnot.  

 

So a typical day on the checklist says something like "read lesson 8, do practices, do workbook activities 25-27."  Yeah, you could probably do that on the fly.  It's just easier for us to have it all figured out.  I don't know how the biology is, but the gov't activities I really liked.  I found I didn't really want to skip a lot of them.

[Maddysmom26]

I just worked out our plan for the PowerBasics govt (which is terrific btw, just what I wanted), and I was surprised how little correlation there was.  I ended up going through and making a list of which activities to skip.  Then I made a chart laying everything out into days, with appropriate chunks for work for each day.  Helped me wrap my brain around it too and gave me a chance to schedule in field trips and whatnot.  

 

So a typical day on the checklist says something like "read lesson 8, do practices, do workbook activities 25-27."  Yeah, you could probably do that on the fly.  It's just easier for us to have it all figured out.  I don't know how the biology is, but the gov't activities I really liked.  I found I didn't really want to skip a lot of them.

 

Thank you! I tried to do a google search for a syllabus to see if anyone had it planned out but no luck. So I am going to scan through like you mentioned and plan it out!

 

Thanks again!

[PeterPan]

nm 

 

[PeterPan]

Maddysmom, I decided to try uploading the syllabus to Google docs.  Have never done that before.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4d-ni5Q4XwtZDN0TE9YZUdSUEE/edit?usp=sharing So that's a syllabus for the Walch Powerbasics government plus a few extra goodies (movies, the You Decide workbook from Critical Thinking Press, field trips).  I did not attempt to add any reading of Great Books, sorry.  There's just no way to get it done in a semester if you do that.  The activities make sense if you have the tm.  Each line represents a class session, so where Founding Brothers, for instance, is listed, I was allowing the entire series (12 segments of 15 minutes each, freely available on youtube) to cover 3 class sessions.  That's why you'll see it listed three times.  I gave up on the Standard Deviants videos and went with these other videos instead.  They're all freely available through youtube.

 

I just realized I should have included the links when I copied and pasted into the pdf!  Give me a minute.

 

Done.  Here's the link:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4d-ni5Q4XwtZDN0TE9YZUdSUEE/edit?usp=sharing

[Greta Lea]

We used this on and off last school year and I did have all of the readings and workbook activities coordinated, but my computer crashed and I lost it!:(

 

It was a bit of a job coordinating it! You can do it, but just block out a nice chunk of time one day to do it.

 

Oh, and I had also coordinated Khan Academy's biology lectures with it. Those lined up EASILY with the program. Those lectures are in almost the same exact order as the book! My ds was *really* struggling with using just the book. After we began watching the KA lectures *and* taking notes from the lectures, he began to do better.

 

We didn't finish the program because he had gotten bogged down with two other difficult (for him) subjects that NEEDED to be mastered more than the biology at that point in time.

 

He decided he wanted to take biology in an outside class with our homeschool group this year. That's the reason I haven't gotten everything coordinated again.

 

It's worth the time to coordinate the workbook activities and KA lectures. All of that together DID  make a nice program.

[OneStepAtATime]

I hate to butt in here, but I wanted to see how things were working out for you with Power Basics Biology, OP?  Did you find a way to schedule everything?  How do you like Power Basics?

 

Also, what did you buy and what did you find useful?  Workbook?  TM?  Textbooks?

[Maddysmom26]

I hate to butt in here, but I wanted to see how things were working out for you with Power Basics Biology, OP?  Did you find a way to schedule everything?  How do you like Power Basics?

 

Also, what did you buy and what did you find useful?  Workbook?  TM?  Textbooks?

 

Seems to be going well. ( we have been on a break as DD has been on a trip out west) but we will start back up tomorrow.  I figured out the scheduling as far as using the activities along with the chapters.

The set I bought came with the student book, the activity book , teachers guide & test pack with answer key. All are condensed and to the point which I like.

The teachers guide which I didn't notice at first has a Use guide in the front that tells you which activities go with which practice sections in the student book. There seem to be a lot of activities so we have skipped a few of those depending on the sections.

I have a labpaq kit from my college bio class with microscope and all kinds of stuff but we have not used it yet ,will try and incorporate it at some point. & there are small experiments that can be done easily and quickly in some of the sections as your reading along in the student book.

[OneStepAtATime]

Seems to be going well. ( we have been on a break as DD has been on a trip out west) but we will start back up tomorrow.  I figured out the scheduling as far as using the activities along with the chapters.

The set I bought came with the student book, the activity book , teachers guide & test pack with answer key. All are condensed and to the point which I like.

The teachers guide which I didn't notice at first has a Use guide in the front that tells you which activities go with which practice sections in the student book. There seem to be a lot of activities so we have skipped a few of those depending on the sections.

I have a labpaq kit from my college bio class with microscope and all kinds of stuff but we have not used it yet ,will try and incorporate it at some point. & there are small experiments that can be done easily and quickly in some of the sections as your reading along in the student book.

Thanks so much for the update.  Sounds like it is a pretty good fit.  :)