apologia biology

[ariana01]

Hi, so I'm thinking of buying apologia biology, the only problem that I have is that I don't know whether I should buy the microscope? We won't do the dissecting assignment, so would it still be necessary?

[Bear23]

I have the very basic student microscope from homesciencetools.com when they were on sale for about $100.  It has been used for the first 5 modules of the biology. 

[creekland]

I think it's important for kids to see things under a microscope - period.  We had one and my guys used it for far more than what they did in science.  They simply liked getting things (pond water, grass, onion, etc, etc, etc) and looking at it.  It's not difficult to teach them how to prepare slides.

 

There's a whole 'nother fascinating world we can't see without a microscope.  Making it solely part of "school" takes a good bit of the fun out of it.

[Erica in OR]

I agree with the others. We're doing Apologia Biology this year and the majority of the experiments we've done so far in the first several modules need the microscope.

 

You might keep an eye on some microscopes at Amazon. We purchased ours a few years ago around the holiday season when it went on a Gold Box deal or some other great sale.

 

Just having it out and available for biology has led one of the younger kids to wonder what other things look like (ash from the woodstove, etc.) under the microscope—it's leading to some good spontaneous experimentation.

 

Erica in OR