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If you liked Derek Owens Physical Science, what did you do next?


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Since no one else has responded, I'll offer 2 options. 

 

One would be Derek Owens Physics.  I'll post my review below. 

 

Second option is ChemAdvantage.  I have no experience with this, and it is only AP from what I understand, but I have only seen positive reviews for the class. 

 

re:  did my dc like it?  My dc was a bright but unmotivated student and did not particularly like many of the academics he encountered.  Thankfully, this has improved in college.  I will say that DO Physics in 9th grade prepared him well for Physics 1 at a STEM school.

 

HTH!

 

A little background on our middle school science studies:  We used a combination of Science Explorer, Exploration Education, and TOPS attempting to create a balance of textbook reading and hands-on experiments.

 

For 9th grade, we used Derek Owen’s Physics class for distance learners.  The website is www.derekowens.com.  The cost of the class was $58/mo with a $15 registration fee.

 

Pros:

  • Even before payment, sample lectures and syllabus are available on the website.  The syllabus provides clear assignments and deadlines for the entire year.
  • User-friendly and well-organized website.
  • Able to access the entire year’s course with first payment.
  • Videos provide instruction with an electronic blackboard, Derek’s voice is very pleasant, and some of his graphics are amusing.
  • Student Workbooks are filled in as student watches the lecture, keeping them engaged.
  • Homework, labs, and tests are emailed/faxed in and graded by someone other than mom.
  • Homework, labs, and tests are returned to student and parent generally within 24hrs along with cumulative grade report.
  • Only one lab item, an equilateral triangular prism, had to be ordered.  The rest of the lab supplies were on hand or easy to find locally.  10 labs total.
  • Instructor generally answered questions via email within 24 hours.
  • The course is based on Giancolli’s Physics text (usually used for AP Physics B), but adapted to be more accessible for those who want to study physics at a high school level (ie, not AP level).
  • Regular and Honors options available.  The student is allowed to try out the Honors option for a month or longer, and switch to the Regular option if desired.  Ds took the Honors option and it was challenging for him.  With 20/20 hindsight, it might have been better to stick with the Regular option for 9th grade.
  • Monthly payments (as opposed to payment in full in spring for fall start).  We were able to pay for August through November, take December off, and January through May.
  • Nearly secular.  Section 10.5.3 (The End of the Universe) makes it not 100% secular.

 

Cons:

  • Solutions to the practice problems and tests are available to the student on the website.  I would prefer that they were available to the parent, but not the student.
  • Test review would be helpful.  Test review was provided for the 2 semester exams.  I re-used (or pre-used) these problems for the chapter tests.

 

Overall, I found Derek Owens pleasant to work with, professional, and accommodating.  For example, with the first payment, we were able to access the entire year’s course including the tests.  Having the tests easily accessible made me uncomfortable.  When I approached the subject with Mr Owens, he offered to make them unavailable for my student.  Occasionally, Mr Owens would send a video with the solution to a particularly challenging homework problem (after homework had been submitted and graded).  At times, my son was given the “opportunity†to re-submit homework and re-take (alternate version) tests.  I highly recommend Derek Owens high school Physics course.

 

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Thanks, Sue!

Dc thinks Derek Owens Physical Science is her favorite science so far. We plan to do DO Physics the year after next. I don't think I want to do them back-to-back.

 

So maybe biology? I'm not sure what biology is good for kid that likes Derek Owens, though.

 

Since we'll probably do AP or Advanced Biology later, I was thinking of pairing Biozone NGSS with Bozeman biology videos, and maybe SWB's Story of Western Science for a last year before "textbook" high school science.

 

I've looked through the Biology thread, and they all look so...serious. Dc has done a lot of nature study and life science, etc, so she's ready for biology, I guess, but I hoped there was something DO style out there.

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