Tiramisu Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Dd13 will be doing biology next year. She's going through a general science textbook this year. I've noticed that there's a lot more chemistry in biology now than when I took it 20 plus years ago. What chemistry topics are necessary to succeed in today's biology, in a college prep not AP course? Also, I was able to borrow a Holt Modern Biology book. It is over 1,000 pages long. How do I decide what topics are the most important? Thank you!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Trying again:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in MO Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Dd13 will be doing biology next year. She's going through a general science textbook this year. I've noticed that there's a lot more chemistry in biology now than when I took it 20 plus years ago. What chemistry topics are necessary to succeed in today's biology, in a college prep not AP course? Also, I was able to borrow a Holt Modern Biology book. It is over 1,000 pages long. How do I decide what topics are the most important? Thank you!!! But yes, there is definitely more chemistry in biology than when I was in high school! We used Apologia (primarily because it is written to the student and easy for them to read/understand). My oldest did Biology in 9th grade, then Chemistry in 10th. This year she's enrolled in a regular high school, and they're using Campbell's Biology: Concepts and Connections (hers is the 3rd ed., but it appears that there are at least 4th-7th editions also available). At her school, the course is called Advanced Biology, but the teacher does not count it as an Advanced Placement course unless the students do extra work (which she opted not to do). All of the students are struggling with the class; the material is very challenging, and much detail is given to microbiology. She is doing better than most of the students in her class, but I believe that's partially because she did Chemistry last year. I can't help you with other choices regarding chemistry, because I'm hopelessly ignorant about other options. I think the one piece of advice I could pass along to you is that before tackling a book of this nature, it might be advantageous to have your child do regular biology and then chemistry first before tackling a college-prep. type course (or, possibly an AP course). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in MO Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Sorry! Double post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 Thanks for your response and suggestions.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I will chime in that my son did a dual credit geology course for *non-majors* a couple of years ago and it *still* had a lot of chemistry in it! I think everything does now! I have heard that Conceptual Chemistry is good, as is Conceptual Physics. There are different levels of both available, I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Dd13 will be doing biology next year. She's going through a general science textbook this year. I've noticed that there's a lot more chemistry in biology now than when I took it 20 plus years ago. What chemistry topics are necessary to succeed in today's biology, in a college prep not AP course? Also, I was able to borrow a Holt Modern Biology book. It is over 1,000 pages long. How do I decide what topics are the most important? Thank you!!! I have an older copy but it's a concise Biology review course. If you look at the table of contents maybe that will help - it's for New York's test. I'm not in NY but was given a copy of this book and like it. http://storesense.megawebservers.com/HS106/Detail.bok?no=10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 The amount of chemistry that one sees in a modern biology course came as a bit of a shock to me. It seems that most students walk into biology with minimal chemistry--pretty much whatever they had in their middle school physical science courses. Even if students had taken chemistry, they would find the biochemistry in a book like the big Campbell text to be quite different than that which they studied. No way around it. I think this shows that it is important for kids to learn some rudimentary chemistry in middle school grades, material beyond fiddling with baking soda and vinegar. Students should know how chemical bonds work, the nature of water, a bit about carbon. Example of something we parents as educators can do: teach proper vocabulary. Even in basic biology, proteins are discussed at the atomic level and will be described as polymers. Every kid has either played with Silly Putty or made "goop" out of corn starch and Elmer's glue, that is, fiddled with a polymer. Students who learn the correct lingo at an earlier age will not be as overwhelmed later. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 This is why my 13 yo is going to do Conceptual Chemistry next year rather than Biology. However, if you can fit it in, RS4K now has a Chemistry II which could really help bridge that gap. Dd plans to do this right before Conceptual Chemistry--it's more of a gr 7-9 level, but not enough for a high school Chem course. She just wants to do it for fun (she wants to major in biochem.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Thanks for these responses, and for the link, Michelle. Conceptual Chemistry seems like an interesting option. Thanks for the suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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