allymom Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 My 7th grader has decided she wants to go into nursing and she has requested a more rigorous science course. Preferably, we'd continue it through high school. I'm really only familiar with Apologia and I know it's very popular among Christian homeschoolers. We are Christian, but I am not opposed to secular curriculums either. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedClams Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 IMHO, BJU is super solid. I know it'll get torn up around here for it's worldview, but the general science is fabulous. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allymom Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 Thanks, I'll look into that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Look on the high school board. There are threads with huge lists of curruculum per subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 I'm doing biology this year (per their request) with one kid who wants to be a physical therapist and one who either wants to be a doctor or an engineer (they're 8th and 7th grade). We ended up using Holt Biology (like $5 used on Amazon) and I bought Campbell & Reece's Biology: Concepts and Connections to use for additional reference...or we could use that one later. Holt Biology is used in high schools, but it seems to be a little on the easy side for them. They are learning stuff from it, though (especially terminology). It's enjoyable for them to read at their stage, too. The Campbell book was a little too much reading for them right now. Holt Biology has some labs in it, but they're more for school environments. We've done some of the labs in the book and we've gotten several ideas just from searching online. We threw together a mold lab today just from stuff we found online. I also plan to try Froguts' virtual labs this winter. I also looked at Apologia biology (just really not for us), BJU biology (was afraid it would murder their love of biology -JMO), Science Shepherd (very seriously considered this one, but was turned off by bad reviews about errors in the text), Rainbow Science (expensive, but we might actually try their chemistry), Miller-Levine Biology (looked good, too)... Other programs that were geared for homeschoolers just don't look rigorous enough and some honestly kinda look boring (BJU looked really dry - and I have a degree in biology). Biology is such an incredibly fun field to explore - it doesn't have to be dry! *sigh* Have you seen the Biology 101 DVD set? That looks like an interesting supplement...not sure how good it is, though. It gets good reviews. I'm not sure if it's Old Earth, Young Earth or whatever... There's also this website (looks pretty good!): http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/science/biology/biology_home.html I really wish there was better science on the market for homeschoolers. I feel like I've looked at everything out there, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allymom Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 Thank you for all of these ideas! I'll look into them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 I will chime in to say that it might not matter as long as you teach her to think critically and to study. My dd hasn't declared nursing as her major but is strongly considering it. This is the child who always told me she didn't want to do anything medical or science related. I worried that she wouldn't be prepared at all. She did make a 35 on the science section of the ACT, though, so that gave me hope. She is taking the chemistry class required for the nursing program and is doing great! In fact, people are coming to her for help and telling her she explains it better than the teacher. Here is her science sequence. As you can see it was basically science at a minimum. 7th: Year 1 of The Rainbow 8th: BJU Life Science 9th: DIVE Integrated Chemistry and Physics with BJU textbook 10th: Apologia Biology 11th: Apologia Chemistry 12th: Astronomy (put it together from several resources) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threedogfarm Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 I will chime in to say that it might not matter as long as you teach her to think critically and to study. I think that this is the most important thing to consider. The material itself doesn't matter much at this point, but she needs to learn good study skills, be able to digest material rapidly, and take tests (especially multiple choice tests). Thinking critically, however, will be more important when working in medicine than when going through medical/nursing school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I have a science degree and dd is planning to major in nursing (next year). We have used a variety of science resources both secular and Christian. Most of them are found in the listings pinned at the top of the high school board. BJU is much more rigorous than Apologia, but their tests tend to mire in minutia. DIVE with BJU is a really nice option. I only use secular science texts for Biology. Current Biology is completely based on evolution and I think any text that teaches Biology without the pervasive influence of evolution is missing the mark. I don't care what you believe about evolution, but unless she is planning to go to a Christian college, a good prep for college Biology should be secular (evolution based). That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of kids that do all Christian science in high school and do fine in college, but it will put her at a disadvantage. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 She also needs strong math. I've just watched some friends go through nursing school and it was LOT of chemistry and math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest2 Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 Kolbe has a great reputation, and they offer live classes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 Make sure she's solid in basic math and algebra. My remedial algebra classes at the college are full of students who want to be nurses and so many of them have to change majors because they take multiple attempts to pass math classes and the nursing school isn't interested in them. Everyone else has already talked about biology so I'll let that be, but some early exposure to anatomy and physiology would be a good thing as well. After math, this is one of the biggest weeder subjects for pre-nursing students. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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