caedmyn Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 I'm considering using Rainbow science for DD next year when she'll be an 8th grader. It's a 2 year program, and I'm wondering whether I can have her do just the 2nd year of it (because the first year covers chemistry and physics and she's done an introduction to those last year and this one). Or is it possible to supplement the 2nd year enough for a biology credit in 9th? I was thinking it might be possible to add in some of Guest Hollow's biology recommendations... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted March 7, 2019 Share Posted March 7, 2019 IMHO, the physics and chemistry are the best parts of Rainbow Science. I would use something else for bio. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristin0713 Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 I'm using Rainbow Science for my upcoming 8th grade DD next year and I'm going to have her do it all in one year. I've searched the forums here and even emailed them, and it is apparently not hard to do in one year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TX Native Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 I agree that doing it all in one year is very doable, especially for an 8th grader. We are doing year 1 for my 7th grader, but it isn't a priority subject so it is taking the whole year to do year 1. Glancing through year 2, I do not think it is enough as a high school biology credit without a large amount of supplementing. The biology portion is one of 4 sections of the entire book and is meant to take up one semester of the 2 year plan. Take this with a grain of salt since I am 2 years out from planning a high school biology course, but I can see the biology section being a good spine if you want to round it out with videos, extra reading on each topic, and some higher level labs. I am just not sure how much you would need to beef up since I haven't planned out high school science yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 (edited) I looked in to this previously. I spoke with the people who make the program. They did say the biology portion is strong enough to be the 1 credit of high school biology. I would just do it over two years. Edited March 8, 2019 by Janeway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristin0713 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 16 hours ago, Janeway said: I looked in to this previously. I spoke with the people who make the program. They did say the biology portion is strong enough to be the 1 credit of high school biology. I would just do it over two years. The authors do say that, but in asking around here and looking into it further, it is not enough for high school biology on its own when you compare it to high school level programs. And really if the whole two year program can be done "easily" in one year by a middle schooler, how could a quarter of it be equivalent to a year long high school course? I'm excited to have my DD do the course for 8th grade but I definitely would not use it for high school unless it was significantly beefed up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caedmyn Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 On 3/7/2019 at 8:19 PM, TX Native said: I agree that doing it all in one year is very doable, especially for an 8th grader. We are doing year 1 for my 7th grader, but it isn't a priority subject so it is taking the whole year to do year 1. Glancing through year 2, I do not think it is enough as a high school biology credit without a large amount of supplementing. The biology portion is one of 4 sections of the entire book and is meant to take up one semester of the 2 year plan. Take this with a grain of salt since I am 2 years out from planning a high school biology course, but I can see the biology section being a good spine if you want to round it out with videos, extra reading on each topic, and some higher level labs. I am just not sure how much you would need to beef up since I haven't planned out high school science yet. How long is it taking your 7th grader to do it each day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 On 3/7/2019 at 4:44 PM, klmama said: IMHO, the physics and chemistry are the best parts of Rainbow Science. I would use something else for bio. This. So much this. FWIW, we did the first year & didn't touch the second after looking through it. It wasn't even that good of a Bio program (& now somewhat out of date, but you could supplement to add new stuff). It just isn't worth getting it for the Bio. Spend your money elsewhere. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TX Native Posted March 10, 2019 Share Posted March 10, 2019 6 hours ago, caedmyn said: How long is it taking your 7th grader to do it each day? It doesn't take long at all, BUT this is only because he isn't doing the program to its fullest. He reads a chapter twice/week (about 15-20 min) and does a lab once/week (about 30-45 min from start to finish including set up, clean up, and answering the lab book questions). He does the lab write-up and we talk about the results (the teacher's guide is very helpful for this). Ideally, he would spend a longer time on each reading assignment, we would discuss the questions in depth, I would make sure he understand it all to mastery, and I would do the test at the end of each section. If we did the latter, I would guess he would spend about 45-60 min/day 3 x/week. We haven't been that formal or gone in depth for content mastery in science yet. Most of his science in the past has been nature readers, documentaries or educational shows, some living books about scientists (he's a big reader), going to science museums, and reading through some of the Mr. Q elementary science series. I am just using the Rainbow Science for my son to be familiar with the science terms, have a more compact overview of how science "stuff" works, and do some straightforward, practical labs. He watches videos on the topics every now and then. If we do the year 2 biology and applied science sections next year, I'm planning to require more work and demonstrate more mastery. Still deciding if I'm going to repeat Physical Science with a high school text for credit in 8th grade OR if I'm going to have him finish the Rainbow Science program without an early high school credit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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