Add labs to DO Physics?

[TheAttachedMama]

Hello,

My son is taking Derek Owens Honors Physics course this summer.   The class includes 8 labs.   Is this enough to call this a "lab science" on his transcript?  It seems rather light to me.   I am wondering if I should add in some more labs?

FYI:  My son will probably go into some STEM field in the future.   This is also just his first introduction to Physics; he will take it again at a higher level before he graduates.  

[mlktwins]

2 hours ago, TheAttachedMama said:

Hello,

My son is taking Derek Owens Honors Physics course this summer.   The class includes 8 labs.   Is this enough to call this a "lab science" on his transcript?  It seems rather light to me.   I am wondering if I should add in some more labs?

FYI:  My son will probably go into some STEM field in the future.   This is also just his first introduction to Physics; he will take it again at a higher level before he graduates.  

I believe there are 10 labs (looking at the syllabus) - the last 2 require some type of specialized equipment though.  Lab reports will be completed and turned in.

My guys are also starting the Honors version sometime this summer and this is what I was told when I asked about labs.

Yes, this counts as a lab science.  I think 10 labs is plenty and probably way more than public schools do.  

Edited March 12, 2021 by mlktwins

[cintinative]

I find the number of labs in science issue confusing too. Our homespun Bio class will have over 30 labs. It seems strange to have 10 for physics, but I don't know how long the physics labs take to implement.  I assisted in a Chemistry lab a few years ago and some of the labs took several hours. So maybe there are less labs but they take longer?  I am such a hands-on girl, I want to have lots of labs, but I can see where that isn't always practical or even helpful. 

I already own the QSL Physics kit so I was wondering about using it in addition/instead of the DO physics labs. I guess I will have to see what the labs look like and go from there.  We are planning to do self-grading for DO.

 

[mlktwins]

6 hours ago, cintinative said:

I find the number of labs in science issue confusing too. Our homespun Bio class will have over 30 labs. It seems strange to have 10 for physics, but I don't know how long the physics labs take to implement.  I assisted in a Chemistry lab a few years ago and some of the labs took several hours. So maybe there are less labs but they take longer?  I am such a hands-on girl, I want to have lots of labs, but I can see where that isn't always practical or even helpful. 

I already own the QSL Physics kit so I was wondering about using it in addition/instead of the DO physics labs. I guess I will have to see what the labs look like and go from there.  We are planning to do self-grading for DO.

 

Wow!  That's a lot of labs :-).  That's great if you have the time.

Our Honors Biology did about 10 and our current regular Chemistry will have 8 9 (although our chemistry kit has 17 labs).  I'm very sure this is at least as many as public schools get.  For us, schedules get jammed packed as it is, so this works for us 🙂, especially with SAT prep getting added to the mix.

Edited March 12, 2021 by mlktwins
Corrected # of labs for Chemistry to 9

[8filltheheart]

Honestly, the labs in DO are minimal, but definitely sufficient for an alg-based physics lab cr.  My 9th grader is taking DO honors right now and will be receiving lab cr for it.  My ds who is a physics grad student had lab cr for physics for virtual physics labs (Kinetic Books).  

 

[Farrar]

If you want more labs, you could add the QSL kit and then in your course description, you could emphasize that it was a lab heavy course. If you did the whole QSL kit, I think you could give it another half credit if you wanted to. But honestly, I agree that this is enough to call it a "lab" science with honesty. Ten labs is a lab a month, which is definitely on par with schools. Not that you need to do what schools do or "settle" for what schools do, but you definitely aren't required to surpass what schools do in order to honestly claim a credit or a lab course or whatever.