Biology: Potter's School or Dual enroll???

[Guest kacifl]

Any advice? Thanks, K

[Michelle in AL]

Hi Kaci, I guess it would depend on what level of biology you want. Potter's uses Apologia, which is high school and I assume a cc would use an entry level college text. College biology covers an extraordinary amount of material nowadays (is that a word?).The Potter's school instructor may even add more than the text teaches, I'm sure others here may know.

 

My dd is taking biology with Scholars Online which uses a college entry level text. She does fine with it because she likes the challenge. My other dd who is probably smarter IQ wise would suffocate from the workload, so we'll use a high school text/class with her.

 

Do you know anyone who has taken the cc class? CC difficulty can vary greatly and that may affect your choice.

[Guest kacifl]

I've read on this board that many have used Potter's School. However, it is expensive. I'm going to check out Scholar's on-line. Thanks, K

[Moira in MA]

If it is for 2009-2010, another option to consider is the PA Homeschooler's AP course.

 

My dd wanted to take it this year in preference to Scholars Online but the instructor is taking a sabbatical to rework the syllabus. Dd was sufficiently interested to postpone Biology to next year in order to take this course.

 

HTH

Moira

[Michelle in AL]

I think Potter's & Scholars Online are about the same price. The text for Scholars will cost around $80 if I remember correctly, I'm not sure about Apologia's texts, but at least you can get that used.

[TRILLIUM]

If you chose dual enrollment for Biology be careful in selecting the class. Many college science courses expect the students to have taken a year of the science in high school. Although they will start at the "beginning" they will move very fast. My dd took General Chem this semester. She really needed to work hard to begin with to get up to speed. I know two other local kids who dual enrolled at another cc who ended up dropping the class after the first test. One had even finished Apologia.

[G5052]

I'm a long-time CC adjunct, and personally I would not enroll my own children in a CC science class unless they already had a very strong background in the subject and unless they had already taken something less demanding at the CC. Science as a first CC class can be overwhelming for many high school students. That said, the top May graduate from the campus where I work was a girl who used the CC as her last three years of high school and got her homeschool diploma and associate's on the same day with a science major. She started out at 15 with just an English class though.

 

I'd also ask around about professors. The CC where I work has a pretty nasty physics professor that I never recommend for dual enrollment.