EKT Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 One more question about lab sciences: How many credits should be awarded for a typical lab science? This year, my daughter and I are doing biology with lab, all at home (for 9th grade). This entails: reading from the text, taking thorough notes, watching selected The Great Courses: Biology videos (lots!) and selected Amoeba Sisters videos (YouTube), and doing selected writing and discussion activities from the Oak Meadow Biology coursebook. On top of that, my daughter will complete 18-20 labs from the QSL Biology Lab Kit by the end of the year. I think it's been a very thorough biology course/lab. I was planning on assigning 1 credit for all of it. However, now that I'm looking at the WTMA site, I see that their lab sciences count for 1.5 credits. (1 credit for the full-year course, .5 credit for the one-semester lab.) My questions: Have I been calculating wrong? Is it typical to calculate 1.5 credits for lab sciences? (I think we're definitely putting in that much work time-wise, but I didn't think it was typical to add the extra .5 credits.) I signed my daughter up for the WTMA Chemistry full-year course (for next year). As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am probably going to get the QSL Chemistry Kit and do 15-20 of those labs on our own at home, to complement the online class. The full-year Chemistry course is 1-credit on its own, but I was planning to still issue just 1 credit for the online course and our home labs combined. (I was just going to let it be a very generous 1 credit.) Now I am a little confused about WTMA's labs. On their plan, I thought students were supposed to take the main, one-year course, and then one semester of lab for a "complete" high school lab science. Are you "supposed" to take BOTH semesters of the lab for a complete high school lab science? Would love to hear advice from the credit experts. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSera Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 I awarded one credit for all high school sciences with lab. That included dual enrollment sciences with lab as well. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 I don't know if I'm a credit expert, but my 10th grader is doing WTMA chemistry right now, and did one semester of lab in the fall. I know they say it can count as 1.5 credits, but I'll probably just put it on his transcript as 1--just so it looks more like a regular high school lab science credit. I think the description suggests both semesters of lab for STEM focused students; we thought one was fine for my very non STEM focused kid. If I were supplementing with additional labs on our own, though, I might count it as more. That's a lot! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted March 11, 2022 Author Share Posted March 11, 2022 8 minutes ago, kokotg said: I don't know if I'm a credit expert, but my 10th grader is doing WTMA chemistry right now, and did one semester of lab in the fall. I know they say it can count as 1.5 credits, but I'll probably just put it on his transcript as 1--just so it looks more like a regular high school lab science credit. I think the description suggests both semesters of lab for STEM focused students; we thought one was fine for my very non STEM focused kid. If I were supplementing with additional labs on our own, though, I might count it as more. That's a lot! This is helpful, thank you! (My daughter is likewise not STEM-focused. She loves biology, but she's not interested in pursuing science as a college major.) If there's anything else you have to share about the class, I'd love to hear! (General feedback, etc.) Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 I have awarded one highschool credit for a highschool science course with lab. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 We did biology labs at home, alongside, but not coordinated with, an online biology class. I just awarded one credit. Lab classes and literature classes are high time investment classes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 (edited) Agreeing with previous posters = 1.0 credit for the Science with labs. However, if quite a lot of extra time and work went into the labs and the scope of course went beyond what a typical course contains, feel free to label your course "Honors." Additionally, if desired, you may weight Honors grades. The typical weighted grade scale: regular . . Honors . . AP/DE A = 4.0 . . . 4.5 . . . . . 5.0 B = 3.0 . . . 3.5 . . . . . 4.0 C = 2.0 . . . 2.5 . . . . . 3.0 D = 1.0 . . . 1.5 . . . . . 2.0 Edited March 12, 2022 by Lori D. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted March 12, 2022 Author Share Posted March 12, 2022 1 hour ago, Lori D. said: Agreeing with previous posters = 1.0 credit for the Science with labs. However, if quite a lot of extra time and work went into the labs and the scope of course wentbeyond what a typical course contains, feel free to label your course "Honors." Additionally, if desired, you may weight Honors grades. The typical weighted grade scale: regular . . Honors . . AP/DE A = 4.0 . . . 4.5 . . . . . 5.0 B = 3.0 . . . 3.5 . . . . . 4.0 C = 2.0 . . . 2.5 . . . . . 3.0 D = 1.0 . . . 1.5 . . . . . 2.0 This is a great idea; I'm not sure why I hadn't considered it before. I guess I worry that designating some of her courses "honors" might somehow call the quality of the other courses into question. (Could make admissions wonder: Why did they put great effort into biology and not world history? Was their treatment of world history subpar?) By the metric of effort, extra time spent, passion for the subject, in-depth discussions, special projects, etc., I feel like I could absolutely designate this year's English, biology, art, and health courses all "honors." (All of these have been done at home.) My daughter is a great student and produces great work, but I'm not sure we poured honors-level love into Algebra I or world history. But...those courses certainly weren't neglected, either; we're doing really good work! So I guess I worry if I label certain subjects "honors," it will make Algebra I and world history look bad. And then there's my daughter's French class, which is being taken through WTMA. I think it's been a challenging, rigorous class and she's loved it, but WTMA doesn't designate it "honors," so I'm not sure where to put that one on the scale amongst the others. I want my record-keeping and my grades, etc. to be rock-solid, but in my effort to do things well, I tend to think everything to death. Thank you for the suggestion and for sharing the typical weighted grade scale! That is super helpful information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted March 12, 2022 Share Posted March 12, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, EKT said: ... I guess I worry that designating some of her courses "honors" might somehow call the quality of the other courses into question. (Could make admissions wonder: Why did they put great effort into biology and not world history? Was their treatment of world history subpar?) ... but I'm not sure we poured honors-level love into Algebra I or world history. But...those courses certainly weren't neglected, either... So I guess I worry if I label certain subjects "honors," it will make Algebra I and world history look bad... ...I want my record-keeping and my grades, etc. to be rock-solid, but in my effort to do things well, I tend to think everything to death... I think you way over-thinking this. 😉 Colleges do NOT expect that a student is working at Honors level -- or AP level, or DE level -- for every.single.course. [And, sort of like in the movie of The Incredibles: "And when everyone is special... NO one is." -- Similarly, if "every class is Honors level... the designation loses its meaning or impact."] On the flip side, unless there is something especially challenging,or additional material beyond the typical scope of a typical high school course, I would NOT award Honors, just because it takes the student more hours to do it. Honors designation usually refers to higher-level classes that move at a faster pace, cover more material, and have more advanced projects or output. 4 hours ago, EKT said: ... I feel like I could absolutely designate this year's English, biology, art, and health courses all "honors." (All of these have been done at home.) ... And then there's my daughter's French class, which is being taken through WTMA. I think it's been a challenging, rigorous class and she's loved it, but WTMA doesn't designate it "honors"... Yes, English and Biology, and possibly Art could be designated Honors. I would NOT designate Health as Honors, even if you put 2x the work into each, because it is not typical for those types of courses to be Honors courses, and that definitely could start looking like an inflated transcript. Health -- I would not call it Honors, because Health tends to just be a high school graduation requirement and colleges don't care about Health. I also would not designate the French as Honors, because it would have to be pretty extraordinary to be labeled Honors -- like a trip to France for a month of immersion study, or covering a significant amount more of material at a faster pace or have a significantly advanced project. Edited March 12, 2022 by Lori D. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 We are awarding one credit for lab classes, but when I was in a public high school, lab classes got an extra half credit (and we were in class longer). It might just be a holdover from the ways things were done in years past. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 4 hours ago, kbutton said: We are awarding one credit for lab classes, but when I was in a public high school, lab classes got an extra half credit (and we were in class longer). It might just be a holdover from the ways things were done in years past. One credit at my high schools. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 When dd was in 8th grade, I was able to attend a college fair hosted by the local public schools. I wanted to talk to college admissions counselors so that I planned high school properly. Honestly, they wanted homeschool transcripts to look like those of public school kids as far as the required credits in our state. They suggested if my student did do anything unusual or extraordinary, that I include it in the portfolio (all our state four year college require that for entrance from homeschoolers) rather than pack the number of credits. Saying that, I gave my kids 1 credit for each science in high school regardless of the number of labs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted March 13, 2022 Share Posted March 13, 2022 It's not unusual in some states for students to get an extra half credit for labs. It really is fine to do it that way. Colleges are fine with it if it really represents a half credit more work. But that said, it's also fine and is usually simpler to just give a credit. Seconding what Lori said about not overthinking it. I do not label home based courses as honors for some of the reasons that you say though. But there are different approaches on this that can work. It just depends. Also, you don't have to decide now! You can decide later on. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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