What counts as high school lab besides bio, chem, and physics?

[Kassia]

Dd is a rising senior who really doesn't want to take physics w/lab next year for a number of reasons.  She took biology w/lab at home, then elementary chemistry with lab at the community college.  She's a full time DE student.  Her top college choice likes to see 3 sciences with labs but I'm not sure what other science options there are for her. Many of the classes at the CC list labs but I don't know if they are *real* labs.  For example, dd took Ocean Science there last year and it was an online class with a lab but there was no lab work involved.  

Any ideas?  Or should I tell her to just take the physics and get it done?  Dd doesn't like any science but she's very strong in math so I think physics would be fine for her but the class time isn't good for her and the professor is known to be a nice guy but not a good teacher with confusing tests.  

[freesia]

Ds did Astronomy but without lab work.  One of my dd’s may do Marine Biology.  The other may do environmental science. There’s also Earth science.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

My kids both did AP Environmental Science with lab. They didn't have any push back from colleges about counting it. That said, neither was trying to be accepted as a STEM major.

[teachermom2834]

My oldest did AP Environmental Science with a lab. My third is doing Earth and Space Science as a de course and he has a required lab time on campus in addition to his lecture time. 

[Melissa B]

Astronomy w/Lab is good for students with strong math skills. As DE students my girls have taken Botany w/Lab, Earth/Space Science w/Lab, Oceanography w/Lab, and Marine Biology w/Lab.

[GoodGrief]

If it is just the specific class that is a problem, I’d identify a different class. It doesn’t have to be the most challenging version of physics you can find. 🙂 My engineering-at-Princeton daughter (who also earned a full ride at Ga Tech) did Apologia physics with a co-op lab. It was fine. If she is really not going into STEM, then there are other options, of course. One of my daughters did geology with lab. But if she can manage physics, I’d do that.

[Lori D.]

I haven't heard of a college double-checking whether or not a DE course that is labeled a lab science actually *checks* to see if labs were done or not... Otherwise: Usually 4- or 5-credit courses have labs. (Rather than 3-credit science courses, which don't.) Also, she can look for a syllabus for each specific Science course of interest, or try and contact the instructor,  to see if the course legitimately has labs.

Or, chose from other college natural science courses that are likely to have labs:
- Geology
- Astronomy
- Meteorology (possibly)
- Anatomy/Physiology
- Marine Biology
- Botany / Plant Biology
- Zoology (or other Animal-based Biology)
- Biology -- other life-science specialized courses
- Chemistry -- other specialized Chemistry courses

Edited June 7, 2019 by Lori D.

[Kareni]

My daughter took several Geology classes at the local community college that had labs. I believe the Environmental Science class she took there also had a lab.

Regards,

Kareni

[katilac]

5 hours ago, Kareni said:

My daughter took several Geology classes at the local community college that had labs.  

We did geology at home with labs and it was a lot of fun! And my dh loved the geology classes he took in college. 

But I would let her choose her favorite from any that say "with lab." That's all the colleges are going to look for. It's not on the student to judge whether the labs are frequent or rigorous or imaginary. She signed up for a lab class, she did her part. 

[Kassia]

Thanks so much everyone!  Dd decided to pass on physics and do environmental science with a lab instead.  The instructor looks good and the times work for her.  🙂

[domesticidyll]

Would this also be a place where the counselor letter could (indirectly) address rigor? If you as counselor write that she selected courses from the most rigorous load available, or something of that sort, that lets the admissions office tick off their little "didn't take easy classes to coast" box. I know public school students occasionally have to choose between AP options sometimes to make their schedule work out; this feels very similar.

[Kassia]

6 minutes ago, domesticidyll said:

Would this also be a place where the counselor letter could (indirectly) address rigor? If you as counselor write that she selected courses from the most rigorous load available, or something of that sort, that lets the admissions office tick off their little "didn't take easy classes to coast" box. I know public school students occasionally have to choose between AP options sometimes to make their schedule work out; this feels very similar.

 

We're not homeschooling anymore.  Our state (Ohio) has free DE for public school students but not for homeschool students so we enrolled dd in ps for junior and senior year.  

 

 

[katilac]

18 hours ago, Kassia said:

 

We're not homeschooling anymore.  Our state (Ohio) has free DE for public school students but not for homeschool students so we enrolled dd in ps for junior and senior year.  

I call shenanigans 

 

[Kassia]

56 minutes ago, katilac said:

I call shenanigans 

 

 

Me too!  Ps students get funding for up to 30 credits a year plus textbooks.  Homeschool students receive funding for 4-12 credits a year (seniors get 12, juniors get 8, everyone else gets 4) and have to pay for textbooks.  It's so unfair. 

 

 

[Mom0012]

I think if the CC calls the oceanography class a lab class, then it is a lab class as far as admissions is going to be concerned, 

[ScoutTN]

Someone I know here has had a high school student do Ornithology, using the Cornell course as the base and local hands-on work (banding songbirds, assisting in research at an owl sanctuary, etc.) for the lab.