Miller&Levine, Campbell etc: How did you decide which topics/chapters to cover?

[Aludlam]

Please send me links if this is answered elsewhere!

 

If you are using any of the College level (for lack of better description) science text, how did you decide which chapters/topics to cover.  I've seen several times mentioned that you should not attempt to cover the entire text.  How did you make the decision of what to include?  I'm especially interested in Biology for a soon to be 9th grader.

 

Any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

 

[EKS]

My preference for high school biology is to cover biochemistry, cell biology, genetics/inheritance, evolution, and ecology.  I consider plant, animal, and human anatomy and physiology to be superfluous (with human A&P being least superfluous).  

[AEC]

I don't know that Campbell would be considered a 'college level' bio text, and I'm certain that MLBio isn't (much as I love it).  Many people seem to use the Campbell text for AP Bio, but ML doesn't really cover even that.

 

We're doing ML Bio this year (the macaw book) w/ an 8th grader.  It's our token 'high school level' course to make sure we can handle doing this for HS.  We're doing the whole book - it's not THAT hard.  1 chapter / week, plus an extra week / unit to study for the unit test + do some labs or a project from that unit.

 

The PS's around here seem to also use that book.  Based on DS's conversations w/ his friends it's clearly they aren't going to cover the whole book.  I've heard suggestions that they plan to skip unit 7 (that's what http://staff.bbhcsd.org/rundol/Ac%20Bio%20Notes/Ac%20Bio%20Lecture%20listing.htmis doing, I think) or that they skip most of unit 8 (human body)...both of which seem ridiculous to me.

 

IMO - do the whole book.

 

 

[Dmmetler]

There are at least four Campbell texts-a high school Campbell, an AP Campbell, a non-major college Campbell, and a major college Campbell. From what I've seen, the first three are subsets of the last, which usually is a 2 semester class at the college level.

[Luckymama]

We're doing all of Miller-Levine in one semester. It's doable because dd already has a lot of background knowledge, thanks to a rigorous middle school life science and many years of related Science Olympiad events.

 

I would not call M-L bio college level.

[happypamama]

We have the Dragonfly edition of the M-L book, and in the front, it lays out three courses of study, for regular, something else (basic?), and honors or advanced. It tells which sections and chapters to cover for each.

 

I went with the M-L, for the record, because when I sent DH the link from this forum with the big list of science programs, he liked the looks of M-L. Then I found that there is a lot of support here and online for it, AND I scored an incredible deal on the text, full teacher edition (very helpful for me, since I had honors high school bio twenty-some years ago and am not a science person), and some supplemental stuff, which made the decision very easy. It looks like a thorough but readable book. I think DD will like it (she IS more into science), and it seems pleasant enough that I will not mind it.

 

It did not seem college level to me, but I'm not an expert. It looks like solid, even honors level, ninth grade biology, and that's really all I wanted.

 

(Also, for labs, there are a ton listed in the book, plus a separate lab book that has more labs, and then there is at least one website that has corresponding labs, which was also a big plus. I asked here, and people told me just to pick and choose the ones that looked interesting and doable, from among the many. I haven't gotten to that yet, but I have a while.)

[Penguin]

Agreeing with the others that M-L is a high school text. Our umbrella school wouldn't even let me list it as Honors Bio, which I disagree with. Plenty of high schools use it for Honors Bio.

We are using M-L to thoroughly cover Biochem, Cell Biology, Genetics and Evolution. DS is adequately covering human anatomy in a simultaneous health class, so we will skip that unit.

For variety, we are covering Ecology outside of the text with fieldwork, documentaries, and living books.
Whatever time is left will go to animal and plant physiology.

 

ETA:  My bio course includes field work, expository writing, lab reports from scratch, and case studies.  Somewhat at the expense of covering material, but I'm OK with that.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Penguin

[Aludlam]

Thank you all SO much for writing.  8 years homeschooling, and I feel like a newbie all over again entering high school for the first time.

 

I made the leap to "college text" because on the pinned list of biology text it has the comment about not attempting the entire Miller-Levine book for reg. bio.  I just assumed that it was a college text that was being used for high school.  I do now see that it is listed under public school books.  

 

So much to learn!

 

thanks again for all of your time (and for answering the other newbie questions I'm sure to ask in the future!  LOL)

[Reefgazer]

I quickly scanned ML at a friend's house and it seemed comparable to Campbell. Campbell is a non majors college text, and we used it at our college for a while. It is not a for majors text, though Campbell does have a textbook for majors.

 

I plan to use ML for DD and will skip the human anatomy chapters since I consider them specialized in that they are specific to human biology and not *general* biology, and these should be covered in an A+P course instead. I skip them when teaching general biology at the college where I teach, as well, for the same reasons.

 

 

I don't know that Campbell would be considered a 'college level' bio text, and I'm certain that MLBio isn't (much as I love it). Many people seem to use the Campbell text for AP Bio, but ML doesn't really cover even that.

 

We're doing ML Bio this year (the macaw book) w/ an 8th grader. It's our token 'high school level' course to make sure we can handle doing this for HS. We're doing the whole book - it's not THAT hard. 1 chapter / week, plus an extra week / unit to study for the unit test + do some labs or a project from that unit.

 

The PS's around here seem to also use that book. Based on DS's conversations w/ his friends it's clearly they aren't going to cover the whole book. I've heard suggestions that they plan to skip unit 7 (that's what http://staff.bbhcsd.org/rundol/Ac%20Bio%20Notes/Ac%20Bio%20Lecture%20listing.htmis doing, I think) or that they skip most of unit 8 (human body)...both of which seem ridiculous to me.

 

IMO - do the whole book.

Edited November 26, 2015 by reefgazer

[Alessandra]

My ds used ML Macaw for honors biology in ps. They did not do the entire text, because classes were disrupted for 3-4 weeks due to PARCC testing.

 

Fwiw, kids had had a rigorous bio course in 7th grade, using Holt Science & Technology as the text.

 

The school uses Campbell for AP Bio.

 

ML Macaw is available as an iBook. Highly recommend this. And check out the EO Wilson 7 volume, free iBooks, at a similar level to ML.

 

ETA. After looking at Reefgazaer's post, I realize that I do not know why the human anatomy was gone over briefly. Maybe they were going to skim over it anyway?

Edited November 26, 2015 by Alessandra

[Mom22ns]

DD did all of M/L in a semester. I found a syllabus from a nearby public high school. They did the whole book for honors Biology, and skipped some chapters (I don't know which) for standard level bio.

 

With ds, I skipped a few chapters, I believe the unit on ecology (he'd covered it in 7th grade life science). I don't remember if we skipped anything else.