Athena's - Story of Science?

[kristin0713]

Does anyone have experience with these classes?  I think Athena's might be a good fit for my very smart and challenging 13yo.  They have classes for Joy Hakim's Story of Science, which I was considering for DS next year as a history course. But they start back August 9th and I'm not sure if that would go over well here.  DS might even be doing week of camp in August.  But if the class would be amazing for him, I would definitely consider it.  I am going to outsource as much as possible for him next year to increase the level of accountability. 

[Farrar]

No experience with that particular class, but I can comment on their classes in general. Lots of gifted kids, lots of kids of different ages, good interaction in the forums. Classes tend to be relatively high level content without a lot of pressure. The ones we've done don't have a grade per se. Like, there's assignments and you can track them, but no firm grade. No tests. Online G3 has a similar vibe in some ways.

[SoCal_Bear]

I'm going to answer this question based on pre-Covid experience. Last year was really weird across the board in terms of online classes getting flooded with public school kids, so there was unusual stuff I observed going on as the student population changed.

Our family has done the Athena's and Online G3's classes. IME, 13 would be on the older side for that class series. It's grouped with their Jr. High classes which usually means you are getting on a lot of kids between 7 to 11. Usually look at the grade range and think minus 1 to 3 grade levels. So if the class says 6 to 8, you are getting a lot of chronologically 3 to 5 graders in there at the beginning of that 3 class series. The class ranges describe the level of the material...not the age of the students. These gifted kids are working 1 to 3+ above grade level. Beyond 10/11, that's when students start looking at some of the upper middle school offerings and starting to go looking at the high school offerings at Athena's or have started classes over at OG3. 

Hope this helps!

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by calbear

[kristin0713]

10 hours ago, calbear said:

IME, 13 would be on the older side for that class series. It's grouped with their Jr. High classes which usually means you are getting on a lot of kids between 7 to 11.

This is great to know, thank you!  

[Farrar]

Athena's has added a lot more high school courses, but I agree on the age ranges. 

[Dmmetler]

Disclaimer for those who don't know-L teaches at Athena's as a junior instructor, and I moderate those classes and discussions.  We've been an Athena's family for about a decade, going back to when "Headmistress Athena" was the only instructor. 

 

I would agree as well with the caveat that in Herpetology, we've had kids from 6-16 in the same class, labeled "middle school", and often we find out only when a student mentions their birthday or that they just got their driver's license.  Dragonology has been similar.  On the student side, one of the big benefits of Athena's here was that on the internet, no one knows how old you are, and therefore it was possible for L to take classes that were at the right level without feeling self-conscious (to the point that when "Alli the Reptile Overlord" joined the teaching staff as a JI, Kirsten was the ONLY instructor who knew that "Alli" was 12 at the time-most assumed several years older). So, while the age will likely skew young, it won't be terribly obvious if a student is the oldest in the room, and usually it doesn't change the discussion much. It is a totally different dynamic than having the same range at a homeschool class locally or an on camera online class like Outschool.  I'm kind of interested in seeing what happens with the dinosaur class, since the expectation is that it will be for the 5-8 yr old or so age group, but we know of several older students who have registered due to enjoying other courses with L.  Since there are more elementary classes starting, it is possible that the youngest end of the age group will peel off into those and get their first intro to online learning there, which may make the middle school ones skew a little older.  

 

I also will suggest-take reading levels as the bottom required. In general, Athena's kids are advanced in reading, so materials will tend to skew on the hard side. For the Story of Science, you can assume the books are the baseline level, and that supplemental materials will likely be harder. Instructors do try to include a range (for herpetology, it is entirely possible to have a Wild Kratt's episode, an article from Scientific American, and a Journal article listed as supplemental about the same topic, specifically so there are multiple levels to choose from). 

 

Because Athena's now is accredited, there are more assignments that get feedback, and many instructors will give a letter grade if requested (although only a few do so by default-high school courses that students are going to need to transcript, like the AP and pre-AP English, for example), which has been a change over the last few years. Having said that, the structure of a lot of input and limited output and LOTS of options remains, and is one of the reasons why it was such an awesome resource for us for years of homeschooling.  I usually added additional writing to Athena's classes to bring them up to the level of output I felt was reasonable for my child. 

 

On the scheduling. If your DS has done Blackboard classes, he probably can skip the first week and not miss much. A significant part of every first semester Athena's class first class (less so for second semester) is getting new students set up and actually able to hear, participate in chat, etc. I do suggest doing the introductory assignments because most of them are to give the instructor an idea of what students are participating and lets them customize the class a bit. 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Dmmetler