Science for high schooler that makes sense

[Based on Faith Academy]

Good morning everyone!!

My dd is in 9th grade. Science to her just does not make sense. I was a great student in school, but the one subject I just could never wrap my mind around was and is science.  I'm currently using Abeka. It isn't that it doesn't make sense. It is just alot of information for a person who just doesn't get it. I want her to get through school and have some understanding of what is happening all around her. Any curriculum that you can think of that is written for people such as my self and my daughter?

 

TIA

Christina

[Lori D.]

I'd suggest making your own foundational Science course this year. Call it "Integrated Science", and use materials that will help both of you connect to and understand basic Science processes. I'd suggest using several resources combined to make a very complete high school credit (roughly 180 hours). Since Science is a weak area for you both, it is very okay to spend more time on it than your other high school credits. It can be fine to continue into the summer to finish without rushing, as another option. JMO, but it seems to me that goal would be to get comfortable with Science, and to build a solid foundation for future high school Science credits -- and to use whatever will do that for you.

Suggestion for a "Do It Yourself" Integrated Science:
- Great Course series: The Joy of Science (60 30-minute videos) -- watch 2 videos/week for 30 weeks
- Exploration Education = (40 hours of labs) -- plan to work on this for 1 hour/week ; the weeks you don't have videos (above), you can do a second hour of this program
- Joy Hakim's The Story of Science -- spend 2-3 hours/week (or whatever is needed for spreading this out over 1 year -- or longer); more of a middle school program, but it sounds like you both need a more gentle and story-like approach to science to start with

Doing all 3 resources in their entirety is probably too much for 1 year / 1 credit, but maybe do 2 of the 3 (Great Course videos + Exploration Education) or (Great Course videos + Story of Science) ?? Or substitute some of Exploration Education for activities in Story of Science? Or use something else to plug in as the occasional hands-on if using the Great Course videos + Story of Science...???

Just brainstorming here! BEST of luck in finding what fits best for your family, and helps you all gain a good foundation of Science. Warmest regards, Lori D.

[SilverMoon]

I really like Lori D.'s advice. 

The Hazen author in the Joy of Chem Lori linked also co-authored a textbook, The Sciences: An integrated Approach, with James Trefil. It's general, foundational science and referenced in the guidebook to the Joy of Chem series. If this one seems too complicated a step back would by the book Science Matters by the same authors. 

 

If she does better with a hands on approach perhaps the middle school Rainbow set from BeginningsPublishing.com done in one year. It's listed as grades 7-9 and designed so middle schoolers can complete it in two years. 

[Hunter]

7 hours ago, SilverMoon said:

 If this one seems too complicated a step back would by the book Science Matters by the same authors. 

 

I really like to use this book as an outline for ME and to use other resources written directly to students at the middle school level.

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Matters-Achieving-Scientific-Literacy-ebook-dp-B002CFQ6WC/dp/B002CFQ6WC/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1601604813

I find the videos that were written for a general education credit at a community college to be exactly at that level, despite the popularity of using this for students younger than it was designed.

The introduction to the first edition of the above book calmed me the muck down when I was teaching highschool science. Many many students arrive at the highschool age, without having mastered the elementary and middle school levels of science. I find skipping that material to move onto even more abstract topics to be inefficient.

The $10.00 paperback works as a "highschool" level text for the paperwork handed into the school and gives me some guidance.

For labs, I make sure the student has mastered the ESP method before moving onto to more advanced labs.

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/esp.pdf

These worksheets start at the grade 1 level if you need to take a student that far back.

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/sciencewise.htm

The lab on page 7 has been a big hit with students being introduced to ESP labs.

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/ESParentChapter1.pdf

For more ESP info Google 

site:eequalsmcq.com ESP

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/parent lf Intro plus chap 1.pdf

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/parent 22.pdf

http://eequalsmcq.com/parent 31.pdf

Edited October 2, 2020 by Hunter

[Based on Faith Academy]

These are exactly what I am looking for!! These are some great ideas. The only one I probably wouldn't delve into is the Great Courses series for the simple fact it is outside of my budget. 

Any place to watch labs being done? If I remember correctly, one of the suggested programs actually sends you the materials to do labs.

[Hunter]

Does your library have access to any streaming video?

[Hunter]

Free streaming video about the study discussed in the introduction of Science Matters.

https://www.learner.org/series/a-private-universe/1-a-private-universe/

[SilverMoon]

2 hours ago, Based on Faith Academy said:

These are exactly what I am looking for!! These are some great ideas. The only one I probably wouldn't delve into is the Great Courses series for the simple fact it is outside of my budget. 

Any place to watch labs being done? If I remember correctly, one of the suggested programs actually sends you the materials to do labs.

If you learn well audibly you can get the Joy of Science on Audible for one credit ($15). It comes with a pdf of the GC guidebook. 

And the Rainbow one I mentioned has a full lab kit option. 

 

(No one pays full price for Great Courses! They run deep discounts all the time, and the courses without video are almost always on Audible.)

Edited October 2, 2020 by SilverMoon

[SilverMoon]

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson might be a good one to have around too. It's a book book, and above Science Matters in depth and content. There's also an illustrated version, a children's version (that I find rather enjoyable to read myself), and it's on Kindle and Audible. 

[Hunter]

The students in the video above that are from "a nearby high school" are attending a selective school that they started at in the 7th grade and is more rigorous than the surrounding middle schools. And still, the students cannot answer the material in the first few lessons in any standard elementary school geography textbook from the 1800s.

[Clemsondana]

You've gotten some great advice.  One other thing that you might want to think about is exactly what you mean by 'Doesn't make sense'.  I didn't figure this out until partway through college, but different sciences need different approaches and if you pick the wrong one it's a disaster (some day I'll have to share my story about freshman chemistry...).  Every science class seems to have some vocabulary that just needs to be memorized, and with some classes and topics that may be as far as you need to go - labeling parts of a plant, defining the types of chemical bonds, knowing the types of rocks and how they are formed, that sort of thing.  You could actually learn a ton of cool things about lots of topics by doing short courses because you could stay mostly at that level - astronomy, botany, cells, ecology, meterology, geology, anatomy, and other often-ignored science topics might fit the bill for 1/2 credit courses where facts are learned but there isn't a lot of application.  

In most subjects, once you get deeper into them, they become more like math classes in that they are approached more as problems to solve rather than facts to learn (my failure to understand this explains why I was acing biology and struggling with chemistry at one point!).  Equations in epedemiology, chemistry, physics and genetics problems (which most of my students love, but some find confusing) all fall into that category, but so do things like ecology once you move beyond ecosystems.  

I don't know whether this is helpful, but I wanted to point it out in case a change in approach might be useful or it might help you think about which classes might lead to the highest chance of success (and maybe even being useful and interesting). 

[lewelma]

On 10/2/2020 at 3:37 PM, Hunter said:

I

Hunter!!! Glad to 'see' you. I feel like I haven't read one of your posts in forever.  Hope all is well.

Ruth in NZ

[Hunter]

20 hours ago, lewelma said:

Hunter!!! Glad to 'see' you. I feel like I haven't read one of your posts in forever.  Hope all is well.

Ruth in NZ

Life continues to get exponentially more eventful. I have just changed my definition of "well" and learned to surf the waves like a pro. LOL. Yup, I am well!

[Based on Faith Academy]

Sorry for the delay in responding more to what each person said. I was able to read your responses from my phone and look up the books as I had a chance. I am finally delving into each of the recommendations. My question to those of you that suggested a book is are they founded on the theory of evolution and the big bang theory or do they leave that open to interpretation? 

 

TIA,

Christina

Edited October 7, 2020 by Based on Faith Academy

[Based on Faith Academy]

On 10/1/2020 at 3:29 PM, SilverMoon said:

I really like Lori D.'s advice. 

The Hazen author in the Joy of Chem Lori linked also co-authored a textbook, The Sciences: An integrated Approach, with James Trefil. It's general, foundational science and referenced in the guidebook to the Joy of Chem series. If this one seems too complicated a step back would by the book Science Matters by the same authors. 

I really like these books, but I am confused about which one is really geared towards high school and which one is before.

From what I was reading, it looks like they would go in the opposite order of what you are saying or am I losing it?

 

[Based on Faith Academy]

On 10/2/2020 at 2:38 PM, Hunter said:

Does your library have access to any streaming video?

No, unfortunately not.

[Based on Faith Academy]

On 10/2/2020 at 3:04 PM, SilverMoon said:

If you learn well audibly you can get the Joy of Science on Audible for one credit ($15). It comes with a pdf of the GC guidebook. 

And the Rainbow one I mentioned has a full lab kit option. 

 

(No one pays full price for Great Courses! They run deep discounts all the time, and the courses without video are almost always on Audible.)

 

On 10/2/2020 at 3:11 PM, SilverMoon said:

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson might be a good one to have around too. It's a book book, and above Science Matters in depth and content. There's also an illustrated version, a children's version (that I find rather enjoyable to read myself), and it's on Kindle and Audible. 

This is a great idea, but unfortunately we are book people. We like to read about what we are learning. 

The other unfortunate thing is that I don't have a subscription to Audible,

[SilverMoon]

19 minutes ago, Based on Faith Academy said:

I really like these books, but I am confused about which one is really geared towards high school and which one is before.

From what I was reading, it looks like they would go in the opposite order of what you are saying or am I losing it?

 

The Sciences: An Integrated Approach is a textbook. Science Matters is a book-book,; it isn't nearly as thorough as the textbook, but it covers the major bases. 

[Based on Faith Academy]

2 minutes ago, SilverMoon said:

The Sciences: An Integrated Approach is a textbook. Science Matters is a book-book,; it isn't nearly as thorough as the textbook, but it covers the major bases. 

Oh, okay. Thanks!

[Hunter]

Science Matters is written to the general public, not students. If the material in the chapters in not a review, it probably needs to be supplemented. I found that easy to do even when in deep poverty. I scribbled the titles of the resources we used in the margins of the book. When we understood a chapter we were done with that topic.

I am not the fan of the videos that I am of the cheap little paperback. Sometimes less is more.

[Based on Faith Academy]

I am so excited!! I found every book that was suggested here in the public libraries around me. There are a few in stacks. I hope they are able to get them for me. 

[Hunter]

Oh, sorry. The video course is definitely secular, and teaches that faith and science are separate in a way that is not an attack. I forget know how much of that is included in Science Matters, the general public paperback. Because I used the paperback primarily for ME, I chose the resources for the student.

[Hunter]

Some libraries even have the video series on DVD.