Biology without a textbook

[Haiku]

Has anyone done this? I have looked at several textbooks, and they are fine, but there is so much good, interesting, non-textbook-driven biology stuff available, and it sounds more attractive than a textbook. I'm thinking stuff like HHMI, Action Bioscience, etc.

 

Any ideas or suggestions? Is a textbook necessary as for a proper framework? (This is for a kid who wishes to major in zoology.)

 

[Prairie~Phlox]

I don't know, we are using Guesthollow's Biology, there's lots of online stuff, but a schedule and the textbook is online.  I need some type of structure and this will work for my non-science kid.http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/biology/biology_home.html

[chiguirre]

I think you might like

 

https://quarksandquirks.wordpress.com/biology-hs-level/

 

I think this would work well for a first bio class, perhaps with extra labs and resources for zoology. However, you'll probably want to do a second high school bio using either an AP syllabus or dual enrollment.

 

CK12's online textbook (with embedded videos) and Boseman's bio videos are both well done and free. They'd be good resources for subjects you want to explore in more depth or add in to Q&Q.

[Corraleno]

You could use the Teaching Company's Biology course instead of a text. Thinkwell also has a lecture-based Biology course; you can often find the CD-roms of the lectures on Amazon. Then you can add interesting trade books, documentaries, etc.

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One question I ask in some subjects is if a textbook is necessary because the student needs to learn how to learn from one. I'm also for likely to use a textbook for science because I'm less sure I'll cover the correct scope and sequence.

 

Barb McCoy has a page on using living books for science. http://barbmccoy.hubpages.com/hub/living-books-for-high-school-science-charlotte-mason-style

[Haiku]

Yeah, I feel like for a strongly science-based kid, a textbook is a good idea. I just am afraid it will take away too much time from the really interesting stuff!

[Bluegoat]

My inclination is to say that it would actually have more to do with the parent than the child.  When I think back to high school biology, many of the same types of things could easily be covered from books and other resources.  What might be more of an issue is the confidence in putting something together.

 

One thought might be to see if you could find a good but cheap text that you wouldn't feel the need to follow to the letter, like you might with something you paid a lot for.  Then you could look at its basic outline and structure and use that, and any particular bits from the book that were useful - maybe especially things like labs.

 

I did two years of biology in high school, and I don't actually remember there being anything very esoteric or difficult to reproduce.  Chemistry for your bio student might be where you really need to think about a text book.

[Reefgazer]

It's absolutely possible.  In fact, the college where I teach is veering to open-source, free web materials more and more, because the textbook companies' constant rework of textbooks has made the cost of books too prohibitively expensive for many students.  There is much out there for general biology; less material for A+P and Microbiology.

[Reefgazer]

You could use the textbook as a jumping off point or base, and make the meat of the class the interesting stuff instead.  I might go this route with honors biology for DD.

Yeah, I feel like for a strongly science-based kid, a textbook is a good idea. I just am afraid it will take away too much time from the really interesting stuff!

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

And don't forget that you don't have to use the whole book.  Many high school and college classes don't use the whole book.  Trying to cover every single chapter in one of these puppies would take time away from interesting other things.  But you can be selective.  I've got Campbell's Essential Biology, and I'm looking at covering just 4 of the 6 units in the book - 20 chapters - and then adding labs, HHMI resources, and good trade books.

 

If I had a student who wanted to major in zoology, I'd probably do one year of basic biology, focused on Cells, Genetics, Evolution & Diversity, and Ecology, and then do a second whole year on Zoology, covering animal structure and function and perhaps more on ecosystems. Maybe ecology fits into that 2nd year better than the first year. Anyway, I'd plan to break it up so that I could cover the basics of biology, and then really focus in depth on the student's interest, without feeling rushed.

[Haiku]

And don't forget that you don't have to use the whole book.  Many high school and college classes don't use the whole book.  Trying to cover every single chapter in one of these puppies would take time away from interesting other things.  But you can be selective.  I've got Campbell's Essential Biology, and I'm looking at covering just 4 of the 6 units in the book - 20 chapters - and then adding labs, HHMI resources, and good trade books.

 

Thanks! That's what I am planning to do. I have 18 chapters (of 35) selected. I don't feel the need to do human anatomy, for example, as we have already covered that, and in reading about what current honors biology classes are doing, I have cut out the things that don't seem to be of focus.

 

 

 

If I had a student who wanted to major in zoology, I'd probably do one year of basic biology, focused on Cells, Genetics, Evolution & Diversity, and Ecology, and then do a second whole year on Zoology, covering animal structure and function and perhaps more on ecosystems. Maybe ecology fits into that 2nd year better than the first year. Anyway, I'd plan to break it up so that I could cover the basics of biology, and then really focus in depth on the student's interest, without feeling rushed.

 

This is exactly what I have planned. I'm glad to know you think it's a good idea. :D

[Haiku]

Another question: we have already covered evolution, natural selection, ecology, and genetics in pretty good depth during middle school. Do we have to do this all again, or can we just focus on plant biology (which we did little of) and zoology and still call it a biology course?

 

I'm frustrated because I homeschool in part so that we can be free to study what interests us, but as we approach high school I feel like I have to shove our interests into a box to so I can check off the "standard" high school credits.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Another question: we have already covered evolution, natural selection, ecology, and genetics in pretty good depth during middle school. Do we have to do this all again, or can we just focus on plant biology (which we did little of) and zoology and still call it a biology course?

 

I'm frustrated because I homeschool in part so that we can be free to study what interests us, but as we approach high school I feel like I have to shove our interests into a box to so I can check off the "standard" high school credits.

 

Well, I think if you included a solid study of cells, zoology, and botany that would work.  I tend to think that if you study one topic from each level that makes up a solid course.  Lewelma had a great post about this at one point, I am going to invite her to take a look at this thread and link her post.  I can recreate it imperfectly, but I do think it addresses your question directly.

[Haiku]

Thanks!

[Jane Elliot]

I'm frustrated because I homeschool in part so that we can be free to study what interests us, but as we approach high school I feel like I have to shove our interests into a box to so I can check off the "standard" high school credits.

 

I feel this way all the time. :-( I've not been brave enough to steer away from textbooks. I wish I had picked ds's brain (B.S. Biology, 3rd year dental student) when he was home this summer. I'll have to put that on the list for next time he's home. 

 

For now, I find the lists on this site interesting. Maybe they'd interest you. On this page, she has a list of books she considered for 10th grade biology and her final 10th grade plans.

[lewelma]

You definitely do NOT have to do even half of the textbook if you are working more in depth.  In fact, the current big fat biology textbook have so much material in them that they become a memorization and regurgitation effort, which naturally leads to lack of interest and lots of forgetting!  So focus in just a few areas of interest.  Use the textbook to gain the overview and then pad out your child's interests by doing a research project in each topic.  This research project can be about an issue in the news or a personal interest.  I did a research project on the biological basis of parkinsons and how the different medicines worked.  I did this because my grandfather had parkinsons and I really wanted to understand him better.  My older boy did a research project on the genetics of hemophilia in the royal families because he found it fascinating.  He is also very interested in studying in depth about genetic engineering, because he hears about it a lot in the news. . 

 

Here is the post about designing a biology course that I think Rose was referring to:

 

 

 

Evolution is the only foundation element of biology.

 

My recommendation is to chose 1 topic within each of the 5 major scales (obviously there is overlap!) You can also choose just 4 topics by dropping one of the first 3.

 

within a cell: biochemistry, molecular biology,

cell: cell biology, genetics, microbiology

body systems: human anatomy, plant and animal physiology, health/disease

individual: evolution, plant and animal diversity

large scale system: ecology, environmental science, conservation biology, population genetics

 

There has been a push recently to focus on the within the cell and cell level, but from the point of view of an ecologist (PhD me) I think that this is a narrow focus.  For students without a biology focus, the main goal IMHO  is to make students educated voters, and ecological, environmental, and conservation issues are clearly political and worthy of focus.  However, if you are taking an external exam of some sort, clearly you should research what its focus is and make sure to study those topics.

 

 

Ruth in NZ

[lewelma]

I struggle with this so much as well. I kind of hate it, but I don't feel confident to just follow her interests and give my dd a more non-standard high school experience because I don't want to close any doors that way. At the same time, I'm aware that it's entirely possible I'm closing more doors by making her transcript follow a standard course than if we went off the beaten path. If I knew how to make her unique strengths and interests fit neatly into credits, I would do it that way in a heartbeat.

 

But here's the thing, there is no standard way to teach biology.  So you are allowed to tailor it to your student. If you student is more interested in large scale systems do half of the year on ecology and conservation biology, then take the other half and do smaller units on DNA and protein synthesis, genetics, and evolution.

 

But if your student is really interested in cell/molecular biology, do half a year on cell structure, phytosynthesis, respiration, DNA, protein synthesis, and do the other half of the year on ecology, evolution, and human anatomy. 

 

Each course has elements from each level of organization (intracell, cell, body system, individual, large scale system), but the focus is on what the kid likes.  You could give her 2 research projects to do on her focus area, and then spice up the less interesting material by doing some science in society work and study issues in the news covering those topics.

 

You use the textbook to orient yourself, you chose what you find worthy to memorize vs what you find more relevant to research.  The goal is to connect to the material and learn something useful.  You do NOT have to memorize the entire textbook.  When I took my GREs for grad school, I reviewed/memorized the entire introduction to biology textbook from undergraduate and scored 95 percentile. These undergrade textbooks are now often used for AP classes in highschool.  If you memorize an entire intro textbook, you are missing the point and the material will be quickly forgotten.  The material is too detailed for that level of study and kids lose the forest through the trees. That is the amount of material you should know by heart when finishing your undergrad, not when finishing your high school studies.  DUMP more than half of the textbook!  And if you want to do a research paper focused class, dump 3/4ths.  You can still make a fair and even rigorous credit.  You do NOT have to do a survey course, you can go in depth to make it both more enjoyable and more memorable.

 

Ruth in NZ

 

[AppleGreen]

Oh my! Thank you, thank you for this great thread!

 

Tara, I completely agree with your sentiment about the box checking that is required for high school.

 

Kand, you said so succinctly what I am feeling about not wanting to close any doors, but also struggling with feeling comfortable making sure my kid gets a through education in anything we go "off book" on.

 

And Ruth, wow. Just wow. Your reply to Kand really struck me, especially as I am staring at this enormous Mille Levine textbook wondering how I can possibly teach it, let alone get through it. I spent a good part of the weekend looking at online Biology classes because I am kind of freaking out about my ability to bring a good, solid course to life. I *love* your idea to break it down and going deep in the areas of interest. My student is very interested in studying an environmental science, but sees the benefit of going ahead with biology. Seriously, this is kind of rocking my world. I wonder if I can pull that off? Ack!

 

Oh my, lots to ponder on this. 

 

Edited for spelling. 

[lewelma]

Well for biological knowledge that would support environmental science, I would focus on ecology, evolution, and biodiversity for the main focus.  And then cell biology and biochemistry for the side focus.  

 

I use Starr and Taggart instead of Cambell and Reece, and in my book those main units would be:

Unit 7: Principles of Ecology

Unit 3 Principles of Evolution

Unit 6: Biodiversity (viruses, bacteria, protists, plants, fungi, animals.)

 

Then 3 chapters in Unit 1 (principles of cellular life)

Chapter 2: Life's chemical basis

Chapter 3: Molecules of Life

Chapter 4: Cell structure and function

 

That would give you a biology course covering all levels of organization: intracellular, cellular, individual, and large scale systems.  And if you want to include the body system level, you could do a bit of human biology from the point of view of pollution and what makes people sick.  So this course would cover 3.5 chapters in a 7 chapter book, focusing on what is most important from the point of view of environmental science.

 

If you want more time for research projects.  Do just half of the evolution unit, and only half of the biodiversity unit (bacteria and protists and aquatic life)  This would bring you down to 2.5 units out of 7.  Then you dig deep into that material and really understand and remember it.  However, if she is more interested in how animals respond to pollution, she should exchange Biodiversity or Evolution for Unit 6: how animals work (all the different systems, eg neurological, endocrine, etc)

 

For the first course I outlined, no one can complain when you describe your biology course as focusing on Ecology, Evolution, and Biodiversity, with some time also doing a brief survey of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.  What you have dumped is animal and plant physiology, genetics, and most of biochemistry (replication, protein synthesis etc).  Well, you can't cover everything. No one does.  If she wants another biology course, she can take one. :001_smile:  She is going to find that there is a LOT of biology in environmental science, so eventually she will have to cover all of it, but it does not have to be in her *first* course. 

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

 

 

[Haiku]

Ruth, thank you so much for your enormously helpful replies. I am a humanities girl, myself, so this is new territory for me. My oldest is majoring in biology, but a) she went to school, so I didn't design her classes and b) she has had a hard time articulating what she thinks dd13 needs to do to prepare for a science major. Oldest dd's circumstances are rather unique and don't really apply to dd13, anyway.

 

The university my dd wishes to attend requires the following core courses in the zoology major:

 

BIO/MBI 115 Biological Concepts: Ecology, Evolution, Genetics, and Diversity (4)
BIO/MBI 116 Biological Concepts: Structure, Function, Cellular, and Molecular Biology (4)

 

That eases my mind that even if dd doesn't get a survey course in high school, she will in college for anything we missed or didn't study in-depth enough. I wouldn't have thought to check this without the information you provided, so thanks again. :)

[Saddlemomma]

Wayfarers suggests the following for a discovery-based, rigorous, non-textbook high school science: Bridget Ardoin's Science for High School

 

You can read about it here.  You can also certainly add living books to the course. I'm looking at this or Novare (which integrates maths with science) for when my DD gets to high school.  I may possible do SFHS for Bio and Novare for Physics & Chemistry.

 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Wayfarers suggests the following for a discovery-based, rigorous, non-textbook high school science: Bridget Ardoin's Science for High School

 

You can read about it here.  You can also certainly add living books to the course. I'm looking at this or Novare (which integrates maths with science) for when my DD gets to high school.  I may possible do SFHS for Bio and Novare for Physics & Chemistry.

 

When you say "Wayfarers suggests" what do you mean? What is Wayfarers?  Thanks.

 

The program you linked has always appealed to me too.  I really do like the self-teaching, independent research aspect.

[Corraleno]

I struggle with this so much as well. I kind of hate it, but I don't feel confident to just follow her interests and give my dd a more non-standard high school experience because I don't want to close any doors that way. At the same time, I'm aware that it's entirely possible I'm closing more doors by making her transcript follow a standard course than if we went off the beaten path. If I knew how to make her unique strengths and interests fit neatly into credits, I would do it that way in a heartbeat.

 

Nan in Mass has posted quite detailed info about how she did this for her sons. Transcripts included Peacewalking, Natural History, and other unique credits. One way to "fit interests into credits," which Nan posted about, is to keep a notebook divided into sections for different subjects, and then to record books, projects, activities, etc., in the relevant section(s) as they're done. Then you can retroactively group things into credits. Nan's sons were all accepted to colleges of their choice, the youngest is an engineering student. JennW is another poster whose son had a very interest-led high school education; he's thriving at an excellent LAC. I know someone, who used to post here, whose daughter had a very nontraditional, totally interest-led high school education; she was also accepted to multiple colleges with significant merit aid. 

 

My son's high school transcript will definitely highlight his unique strengths and interests. He will have one "standard" history course, US History (although we've done this in a nontraditional way, without a textbook); his other history/social studies courses will be based on his particular interests. Ditto with all of his English credits. He will have lots of foreign language and linguistics credits, since that's his passion. 

[dovrar]

Nan in Mass has posted quite detailed info about how she did this for her son. His transcript included Peacewalking, Natural History, and other unique credits. One way to "fit interests into credits," which Nan posted about, is to keep a notebook divided into sections for different subjects, and then to record books, projects, activities, etc., in the relevant section(s) as they're done. Then you can retroactively group things into credits. Nan's son was accepted to 7 (I think that was the number) colleges, with merit aid at many, and he's now an engineering student. JennW is another poster whose son had a very interest-led high school education; he's thriving at an excellent LAC. I know someone, who used to post here, whose daughter had a very nontraditional, totally interest-led high school education; she was also accepted to multiple colleges with significant merit aid. 

 

My son's high school transcript will definitely highlight his unique strengths and interests. He will have one "standard" history course, US History (although we've done this in a nontraditional way, without a textbook); his other history/social studies courses will be based on his particular interests. Ditto with all of his English credits. He will have lots of foreign language and linguistics credits, since that's his passion. 

 

Does anyone have a link to this?

[Angie in VA]

Does anyone have a link to this?

 

 

Well, there's this, but search for "peacewalking" posts by Nan in Mass to find more, or PM her. Maybe she'll post here. :)

[dovrar]

I did decide to PM her. I'll post a link when I find it. Thanks.  ; )

[Corraleno]

Does anyone have a link to this?

 

A lot of those threads are archived now and not directly quotable, but here are a few links with C&P quotes:

 

 

Peace Studies 1+2: Mine went peace walking in Euorpe and the US for months at a time. I listed it as Peace Studies 1+2 on the transcript. Native American Studies: He went on a three month sacred run from San Francisco to DC. Japan Studies: He studied some Japanese and went on a peacewalk through Japan for three months. Ham Radio: Got his ham license. Nature Studies 1+2: The first bit was MODG's syllabus but then we continued it. Youngest will have Molding on his transcript. Rock Climbing: Bouldered all over the US. And probably Europe although thankfully I wasn't there to know. Snow Boarding: lessons and then applied his gymnastics and made our hair stand on end. I require some sort of academic componant for each course I make a course and not an extra curricular activity. If it is a PE class, I require that they receive some sort of formal lessons. I decide how much credit to assign by looking at time and intensity and then drastically under-crediting it so I don't have to worry.

-Nan

from this thread

 

 

 

 

My son met some Nipponzan Myohoji monks (Japanese Buddhist Peace monks) when I got disgusted with the whole Iraq war thing and totally uncharacteristically for me, took my children to join a peace walk led by the monks as it passed through my town. My family couldn't BELIEVE it - I'm normally way too shy to go joining strangers like that and I had previously had nothing to do with social activism or peace. The monks asked my son to join them for the rest of their walk (another few weeks) when they heard he didn't have to be in school. That was the beginning of his peace walking. The next year, he walked for 3 months in Japan. Then he did a month in the south east. Then he did a 3 month sacred run, a combined effort of the Nipponzan Myohoji and some Native Americans.

 

Then he walked through Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. And last spring, he sandwiched 3 weeks in France between CC classes and our 2 month show-the-children-the-beautiful-USA cross-country trip (important for him, since he's gotten a massive amount of anti-US stuff peace walking and I want him to love his country, at least the land, if not the current government). He's done a little reading to go along with each walk, and on the last two, he managed to keep a journal. The first walks he was supposed to, but between walking 10 or 20 miles a day and then meeting with locals in the evening, he was just too exhausted to do any writing, hard for him at the best of times. He comes home and sleeps day and night for a week after the longer walks.

 

For the most part, it is hard to see what he has learned on the walks. At first, we just went on the assumption that travelling that much, he must be learning something. As the years have gone by, we've heard bits and pieces of the results. One day, as we are doing Latin, he'll suddenly let drop that he crossed Hadrian's Wall and had to tell everyone in the group why it was important because nobody had heard of it before and didn't know what it was. Or he'll give me a quick comparison of how conflicts are resolved among the Japanese, the Native Americans, and the USers. Or he'll see some graffitti when we're in Boston and tell us how different the two halves of Belfast were, how the graffitti in one half glorified the soldiers and the war and in the other half glorified current peace. Or he'll say, "When we had dinner with the mayor of Dublin..." And we'll say, "What?????"

 

He tells us lots when we pick him up at the airport, and I've brought a recorder and recorded it each time, but his focus, naturally, is not on what-did-you-learn-that-could-be-construed-as-educational. He just tells us his adventures and the things he thinks are cool, like being shown how to use a lariat and taking refuge from a tornado in a tribal police station and playing fireball and how he thought he was going to eat a yummy cream-filled donut and it turned out to be filled with curried meat and how he rescued a kitten and the really cool dragon mural he saw at a temple. It only comes out later that he heard speeches made by the survivors of Hiroshima and other "educational" things like that. I never did figure out how much Japanese he learned.

 

Assessing the educational value of a project is sometimes difficult. This project will be represented on his transcript by 1/2 credit of Japanese Studies, 1/2 a credit of Native American Studies, 1/2 credit of geography (travel + The Geography Colouring Book), 1/2 credit of government (peace activism + reading The Idiot's Guide), 1 credit of Peace Studies I, and 1 credit of Peace Studies II. We obviously aren't doing Carnegie hours for this LOL. He'd have way too many credits on his transcript if we did. Those 4 credits are a pretty meagre representation of the amount of time and energy spent. I don't know how else to do it, though. I've labelled some of them honours because they required travel. Again, rather mingy, but...

I don't know yet what the youngest will do for a project. It isn't something you can choose for the child, I think; you can just help make their dreams happen with money, time, ideas, and discipline, and help add in an academic componant if you are going to count it for school. My youngest dreams of getting his own boat and living on it. He is heavily involved with gymnastics, but doesn't want to do it single-minded-ly enough to aim for the Olympics or something (phew!), and he invents things all the time. We'll look at robotics club for him next year, keep him supplied with building materials, get him some education in electronics and computers somehow, and we're looking for a small sailboat for him. We'll see what emerges there. Or maybe he'll do something having to do with the D+D and strategy games he is so wrapped up in at the moment. I wish we could manage a bit of riding and fencing. He'd love it. It conflicts with gymnastics, though. Or maybe he'll compose lots of piano music and make a CD. Anyway, we're sort of waiting and seeing.

 

My oldest wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail. My middle one wanted to get his pilot's license. Getting certified to do something via the CC is a good possibility. They have everything from vet assistant to cosmotology to xray tech to accounting to graphic arts to airplane pilot. That's the easy way to do a project LOL.

 

I've found that I have to help the interests bubble up to the surface of my children's brains and out as words. I have to keep asking them to dream big. If you could do anything you wanted for highschool, what would it be? If you could learn anything you wanted for high school, what would it be? Who do you want to be when you are grown up? What would you like to be able to do? I am careful to separate that from WHAT do you want to be, a career or a major. This is something extra. I also have to be careful not to make any dreams happen that they want to stay dreams, and not to turn anything that they are liking just messing about with in a low pressure way just for their own enjoyment into "school". Some projects have been smaller ones, too small to count for school.

 

That is the way we've done it so far, anyway. There are all sorts of projects, though, not just the big, dreamy, non-academic sort. I hope other people add to this thread.

 

-Nan

from here

 

 

On Natural History:

If you read the first few pages of Creepy Crawlers and the Scientific Method, it explains how to design an experiment. We did lots of extra observations, since we live and vacation in places where there is lots going on, some year-long, like a weather log and our frost-line experiment, some shorter. Some we made into proper experiments. We did extra reading, too, some whole books, some just bits. In the Shadow of a Rainbow and The Tracker are two which come to mind. We did lots and lots of work with nature guides. I made sure my sons knew how to use Newcomb's Wildflower Guide and some of our winter guides, like Winter Weed Finder, which required memorizing some botony vocab and learning to use a dicotomous key. We read a number of Stoke's nature guides cover to cover, especially the insect, bird, and mammal ones. We did some work with Tom Brown's nature books and Audubon programs. We did a bit of geology, astronomy, and some work with different habitats. We read the photosynthesis section of a biology book. We did some work with pond water and its tiny swimmies, and tidepools. We used a microscope and a telescope. And we did a little bit about vernal ponds. We could have kept on doing natural history for the full 4 years and covered just about everything, but I thought it would be easier to divide out physics (in the form of ham radio and Conceptual Physics), and teach it as a separate subject, and I want my son to have a formal lab experience and some proper chemistry, since it is at the bottom of everything. That also gives him a bit of variety on his transcript GRIN, as if Natural History wasn't varied enough. Not everyone is familiar with the term and what it entails, though. You, of course, don't have to do everything we did. We worked on it for at least two solid years without doing any other science, and are still working on it here and there, because that is sort of what we do now. We do history very lightly. If you are a history family, you might be happy just doing the MODG syllabus.  ;) We live on a lake, sail, and are out in nature all the time, so we do tons. I consider this to be the most important thing to teach my children, other than being strong and good and perhaps communicating well, which in our family are tied heavily in with the natural world as well. But that is our family. Yours, of course, will be different.

Anyway, have fun with the natural history! It is definately lots of fun. Except when you are worried about the baby bird somebody gave you or the squirrel the cat dragged in. But as I said, those things (probably) don't have to be part of your life if you don't want them to be. You can learn a lot from just the MODG syllabus.

-Nan  

here

 

 

 

Natural history is the study of nature. It has elements that are often studied in bio, chem, physics, astronomy, geology, geography, history, anthorpology, sociology, ... It is an easy science to pursue as an amateur. Professionals are hired by Audubon and other places like that. I don't think it is something that I would pick if my children didn't enjoy the hands-on part of science. Its main advantage, from my point of view, was the ease with which the hands-on, being a scientist part could be done in our back yard and our community, and the number of things that are still left to be discovered. I wanted my children to be able to *be* scientists before they had to tackle the nitty gritty of a higher level science class (a necessary evil for developing the rather massive basic knowledge base necessary even to be an informed citizen). I was afraid that if they did regular textbook science first, they wouldn't be motivated to learn science properly and only learn it in for-this-test way. Besides, an important part of being a member of our family is being able to tell poison ivy from sasparilla, knowing which berries are edible, having some idea of which clouds lead to which weather, knowing where the frost line is, knowing what each animal does to survive the winter, knowing the life cycle of the mosquito and the fish, knowing how a bird flies, knowing what fishers or dragonflies eat, knowing how things depend on each other, and all the rest of the endless amount of local knowledge that makes living in New England easier and more interesting. The skills involved - using nature guides, using binoculars, drawing, being observant, etc., are ones that my family consider a necessary part of being adult, and the underlying concepts (all materials are recycled, the concept of an interdependent ecosystem, etc.) frame a way of looking at the world that my family considers fundamental. That was all a complicated way of saying that for my particular family, natural history is fundamental, more important than math, and worth devoting some high school time to, despite the if-y-ness of having to record it on one's high school transcript for college admissions people to judge. (It looks like biology-lite lol.)

Have you looked at the posts from people who have studied science through a history lens? If science isn't something your children like or are interested in, natural history might not be what you want. It covers a LOT of basic science, both content and skills, but it doesn't do it in the most effiecient manner. A textbook would be a more efficient way of checking off that box on the requirements list. If, on the other hand, you are trying to find a way to make science more pertinent (sp?) to your children's lives, more applied, you want a focus on what scientists do rather than on studying classroom science, you don't mind putting in the extra time, and you aren't worried about having a non-standard looking transcript, natural history might be a good option.

 

here

 

[Angie in VA]

Thanks, Corraleno!

[chanda7]

I have rarely used a textbook up to high school level, but there gets to be a point where it is time consuming and/or too expensive to find detailed resources. We are using Campbell Concepts and Connections for Biology 1, and my daughter loves it. She can hardly read a page without saying, "Momma, listen to this. This is so cool!" This is coming from a kid who didn't even want to take biology. I've learned textbooks aren't always a bad thing!

[Penguin]

Loving this thread! With special shout outs to the science experts.

 

I was going to use Miller-Levine in the read-the-book-take-notes manner, but I think this will be soul-crushingly boring for my son.  I took notes on Chapter 1 to model the notetaking, and I can't imagine us doing this week after week, chapter after chapter.

 

I like the way Ardoin's (linked further upthread) curriculum sets up research questions instead.  It reminds me of Creek Edge Press Task cards and also of doing science the WTM way - The Study of Scientific Principles part.  

 

I am not going to ditch the textbook, but I am going to revamp how we are going to "do" our textbook. I still have about a week to completely rethink it without stalling the schedule too much.  :eek:

 

Meanwhile, DS is reading (and enjoying) E.O. Wilson's Letters to a Young Scientist and doing labs.

[mom31257]

Dive Science has a plan to use all Internet sources along with the audio lectures and workbook. All the suggested Internet reading is listed here.

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zzLqbBa0Log0ILx8AFxSig0S_ck6JCP8vDiuFBknX6Y/mobilebasic?pli=1

[AppleGreen]

Loving this thread! With special shout outs to the science experts.

 

I was going to use Miller-Levine in the read-the-book-take-notes manner, but I think this will be soul-crushingly boring for my son.  I took notes on Chapter 1 to model the notetaking, and I can't imagine us doing this week after week, chapter after chapter.

 

I like the way Ardoin's (linked further upthread) curriculum sets up research questions instead.  It reminds me of Creek Edge Press Task cards and also of doing science the WTM way - The Study of Scientific Principles part.  

 

I am not going to ditch the textbook, but I am going to revamp how we are going to "do" our textbook. I still have about a week to completely rethink it without stalling the schedule too much.  :eek:

 

Meanwhile, DS is reading (and enjoying) E.O. Wilson's Letters to a Young Scientist and doing labs.

Please come back and share how you decide to "do" the textbook. I am waiting for some other resources to arrive, so we are going ahead with the more traditional approach I initially wrote just to keep moving forward, but I am still pondering and thinking how to use the textbook as a tool rather than the focus. 

[Saddlemomma]

When you say "Wayfarers suggests" what do you mean? What is Wayfarers?  Thanks.

 

The program you linked has always appealed to me too.  I really do like the self-teaching, independent research aspect.

 

Wayfarers is a new curriculum by Barefoot Ragamuffin (Kathy Jo Devore).