Janeway Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 (edited) No one talks about this biology. He does not want to dissect. He has ASD. He is quite smart, but has not been looking forward to biology. He will be in algebra 2 as a 9th grader. He did Foersters Algebra 1, Jurgenson's geometry, and next will do Forester's for algebra 2. I hope to get in AoP Statistics at some point before fall, but do not know if that will happen. He looked over the book and says he hates it. I thought maybe if I sat with him, we could get some place. BUT..back to the point of the post...I had narrowed down to Miller-Levine (2014), Oak Meadow (used Holt 2012), and Science Shepherd. I decided to ask him his opinion and described them. I mentioned that OM has no dissecting in the labs and will come with the lab set. The other two programs would have a video of the labs and we could skip over the dissecting. He says he really wants to do labs but does not want to do dissecting so he wants to do OM. Does this sound good? I am hoping to ignite some sort of joy in this topic. I get that dissecting is not acceptable for him. I hated it myself in school and my lab partner did it and I just looked away and called in sick a lot when I was in school during that time, LOL. Is there any reason I should say no? I kind of seriously considered Science Shepherd as I am a bit of a Creationist (my husband is not) and I figure this would be his last chance for a Christian science. I also seriously considered Miller Levine, but mostly because everyone else seems to love it and gives it great reviews. Edited March 24, 2016 by Janeway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 I think OM Biology is on the light side which may be why it isn't very popular here, but it sounds like a good fit for your ds. There is nothing wrong with it and if you've got buy in from an ASD guy, I'd go for it. (from the mom of an ASD guy) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Oak Meadow is mostly paper labs, which are okay, but not very exciting. I understand an ASD kid wanting to avoid dissections. I'd still suggest supplementing the OM paper labs, just because they're boring (according to my younger daughter!) and there are LOTS of cool things you can do for biology labs that don't involve dissection! Maybe check out the Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments. I think I remember the author saying here that he doesn't believe dissections are necessary for a first year high school biology course. He sells a lab kit to go along with the book on his website. I'm planning on using his chemistry materials next year with my son. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 Oak Meadow is mostly paper labs, which are okay, but not very exciting. I understand an ASD kid wanting to avoid dissections. I'd still suggest supplementing the OM paper labs, just because they're boring (according to my younger daughter!) and there are LOTS of cool things you can do for biology labs that don't involve dissection! Maybe check out the Illustrated Guide to Home Biology Experiments. I think I remember the author saying here that he doesn't believe dissections are necessary for a first year high school biology course. He sells a lab kit to go along with the book on his website. I'm planning on using his chemistry materials next year with my son. If most of the labs are just paper labs, then I might be wasting my money on the program. It is $310 and they said I will need the teacher guide too to do at home so that is another $55. They have a 20% off sale in May, so that brings down the price. What do you think? Is it a waste of money? Should I just pick whichever program I can find on sale at the used book store and then supplement with the experiment book you are suggesting? Their lab kit is $120 so I thought there would be more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 (edited) Personally, I was really disappointed in the OM lab kit. It's been a few years now, but as I recall, it included some goofy stuff, like straws, along with a cheap stopwatch and a couple of little glass beakers. I'd bought it for my second kid, and my oldest had used Miller-Levine and the Biology BK-1 lab kit from Labpaq. That was BEAUTIFUL, and included all kinds of specialized equipment. The Labpaq was my favorite lab kit purchase by far, and I think I paid about $200 for it. #2 still ended up using OM, but I bought the Biology lab kit from Quality Science Labs to go along with it and supplemented with some extra reading and documentaries. The teacher guide was only useful for the answer key. I ended up passing it along to a friend when we were done with it. My son is using the Biology text from CK-12 this year and he's really enjoying that. The student text, workbook, teacher edition and test book are all available for free, and they're very well done. My personal preference is to just use the CK-12 text, pick up the book and kit that I recommended (you can check out a PDF copy of the book at the author's website!), and create my own schedule. I'm pretty comfortable teaching high school biology now though, after three times through. It's definitely easier to have it all laid out and scheduled for you the way OM does it, so I guess it really just depends on what you're comfortable doing. If you can find OM used, it's a good deal, but I don't think I'd pay that much for it new. Edited March 24, 2016 by ghostwheel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kassia Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 I think OM Biology is on the light side which may be why it isn't very popular here, but it sounds like a good fit for your ds. There is nothing wrong with it and if you've got buy in from an ASD guy, I'd go for it. (from the mom of an ASD guy) We are planning on using OM Biology, but doing a lab intensive with Landry Academy since we read that OM's labs aren't thorough. Do you think that will be enough? I've read good things about the course. Erica Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal_Bear Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Just in case dissection of actual animals is an issue, this is a viable alternative that provides models. You just pay the shipping to send it back. http://www.navs.org/education/alternatives-to-animal-dissection 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 We are planning on using OM Biology, but doing a lab intensive with Landry Academy since we read that OM's labs aren't thorough. Do you think that will be enough? I've read good things about the course. Erica They have changed their labs. From what I have seen, it appears to be much better than it used to be. And we do not intend to do dissections anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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