What are you using for Jr. & High school level science?

[Closeacademy]

For those of you who have children accelerated in math are you matching science to math? exp. algebra = biology, geometry = chemistry, etc.

 

What have you used or thought about using that you believe preps a child for a science major?

 

Thanks.:bigear:

[Mrs Ives]

My eldest stayed with Biology through college-level before doing any other science, because that's what he was interested in. Once he was done with Biology he did the same thing with Chemistry, but he started college before he got to Physics.

 

My non-math geek daughter is much more wide-ranging in her science choices although she's definitely working at college-level. Her main textbook is Marine Biology, but she's also reading Chemistry and Biology because she keeps running into questions from her Marine Biology text that requires those two subjects. You would think that college level science would require something beyond Algebra, but so far she hasn't had any problems. Chemistry is bound to trip her up eventually though, so that should give her the motivation to go back and work on math again.

 

My 10yos, who's almost done with Intermediate Algebra, is only on high school level science textbooks, but he's the one that likes to build stuff and figure out how things work, so we're both quite content to have him spend most of his time that way.

 

For science we only read through the high school level stuff without doing any of the work. That takes 1-2 months depending on whether or not they find it interesting. Then we switch to college level textbooks for the real learning. The Benjamin-Cummings college textbooks come with CDs that have self-grading chapter tests and cumulative tests! They just keep on each chapter until they can pass the tests at 95% or better. When they're done with the book they can easily pass the corresponding CLEP or AP exam. Keep in mind that those college level textbooks are intended for 2 semesters - that's 2 years at the regular high school pace. We also use Thinkwell CDs, and distance learning lectures.

 

The Thinkwell CDs have great experiments and demonstrations on them. They're pretty cheap via eBay, and I even got a free software upgrade on the Thinkwell site to run this on my new MacBook.

 

There are lots of college lectures available online. I just found an Introductory Biology course from UC Berkley that uses the Campbell's Biology text that we already own. Woo-hoo! My daughter's going to check it out as soon as she's over the flu. MIT also has online lectures, and I'm sure there are lots more out there. It's getting easier and easier to homeschool college. At the very least, having a couple of AP/CLEP exams will give a real backbone to a high school transcript.

 

My eldest started college with almost all of his General Ed requirements already done. It not only saves money, it gives them something new to learn while you're waiting for them to be old enough to go to college.

 

--Mrs Ives

[Colleen in SEVA]

We are using Prentice Hall Science Explorer for middle school level science. It is schoolish and textbooky, but seems to cover a lot of science SKILLS, not just content. We are adding in higher level videos and online research following his interests. I am still working out the kinks for math, but I *think* we are going to do a combo of Singapore NEM and LoF Algebra for math this coming year (which sounds weird when I type it out... ).

 

As for high school level stuff.... who knows. My official plan at this time is :lurk5:

Edited April 7, 2009 by Colleen in SEVA

[Closeacademy]

Thanks. :001_smile:

[Mandy in TN]

Right this minute I have no plans to line up math and science. Throughout elementary school I plan to keep it broad.

 

Saxon 65/ HOD Bigger's Living Book Science and nature walks

Saxon 76/ Self-Created Earth Science, Glow-In-The-Dark Fish (technically a Bible study), nature walks

Saxon 87 or CD Pre-Alg/ BF History of Science, Queen Homeschool's Nature Lessons for Copywork, and nature walks

CD Alg1/ TC's Joy of Science, Our Place in Space (technically a Bible study), and nature walks

 

After this I have a general plan to do a Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics sequence, but that could change depending on his interests. So, another- :lurk5:.

 

Mandy

[Jenny in Florida]

For those of you who have children accelerated in math are you matching science to math? exp. algebra = biology, geometry = chemistry, etc.

 

I haven't really put a lot of thought into keeping those aligned. My daughter did algebra before she began high school science. The remaining years looked like this:

 

Geometry = Biology

Algebra II = Astronomy

More Geometry = Chemistry

 

My son is completing algebra this year and will begin high school science next year. He'll be doing geometry and biology (or maybe earth and space, if we can get him placed in an FLVS class).

 

What have you used or thought about using that you believe preps a child for a science major?

 

Prepping for a science major wasn't in the cards for my daughter. She's quite good at math and science stuff, but has no interest in pursuing either as a career.

 

She did geometry, algebra and chemistry through FLVS. For chemistry, we supplemented with the C3000 kit from Thames & Kosmos.

 

For biology, we used the old Holt Visualizing Life text with labs I put together on the side. That was a great year. My daughter loved the text, and we had a great time with the labs.

 

Astronomy was Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe by Pasachoff. That was a stretch for her, much mathier than we anticipated and just really chewy for someone who wasn't particularly interested in the subject. We ended up breezing through some of the text. She also did the online labs at the publisher's website.

 

For her last year of math, we floundered around a bit. As I said, she doesn't love the subject and had no interest in doing anything in college that would have required much. She flirted with statistics but hated it, spent about a week trying to get up to speed in the FLVS pre-calculus course but was miserable, and ended up earning half a credit for working through Advanced Euclidean Geometry from Key Curriculum Press.

 

My son's a different animal. He may be interested in engineering and so will need to have a solid math foundation. At the moment, he's finishing the University of California College Prep open access algebra course. We're hoping he can do the FLVS geometry class next year. If not, we're leaning toward MUS with the honors supplement and possibly Life of Fred alongside.

 

I'm not sure where we'll go after that on either the math or science front for him.

[Heather in WI]

Oh, I hope we get some more responses to this! I am completely torn about what to do for science with my oldest next year.

 

This year we paired Saxon Math 65 & Singapore 4a&4b with NOEO chemistry for him.

 

We enjoyed NOEO chemistry (we have two weeks left of it), but if we do NOEO Physics next year like we're planning, we wanted to use it as an add-on to another program.

 

At that point, he'll be doing Saxon 76 with Singapore 5a&b. I'm torn whether to add Rod and Staff Science 4 (he'll technically be in 4th grade) or Apologia General Science (to match his math level) or ???

 

I can't wait to hear what others who have already traveled this path have done. :bigear:

[Closeacademy]

Heather it sounds like you are doing this year what we are looking at for next year.

 

Singapore 4a/b with Chemistry but we are are also going to mix in physics topics.

 

Starting with Singapore 5a/b, I really don't know what we want to do and is the main reason I posted.

 

Do we do Singapore Sciences and start with interactive?

Do we do Bob Jones and do Grade 6 with PM 5a/b?

Or do we play with high school texts until she is ready for biology and then use college texts for the traditional high school sciences?

 

I've just wondered what works. How do we prep for high school work so that she can be preped for a science major?

 

Would love to hear more.:bigear:

[galtgrl]

Generally, yes, we're matching them. This year: Sxn Alg. 1 & Apologia Phys. Sci.; Next year the *plan* is to do both Geometry(not sure which one) and Sxn. Alg. 2 & Apologia Biology. After that we'll have to see where we are. My oldest 2 are working at the same level, which helps MY sanity :001_smile:. They're in 6th & 7th.

[Mothering7]

For science we only read through the high school level stuff without doing any of the work. That takes 1-2 months depending on whether or not they find it interesting. Then we switch to college level textbooks for the real learning. The Benjamin-Cummings college textbooks come with CDs that have self-grading chapter tests and cumulative tests! They just keep on each chapter until they can pass the tests at 95% or better. When they're done with the book they can easily pass the corresponding CLEP or AP exam. Keep in mind that those college level textbooks are intended for 2 semesters - that's 2 years at the regular high school pace. We also use Thinkwell CDs, and distance learning lectures.

 

 

--Mrs Ives

 

Please share the Benjamin-Cummings textbooks that you use. I'd like to see if they would work for my older children.

 

Kelli

[Nissi]

Ds. did Apologia Biology while he did Foerster's Algebra I, Apologia Chemistry with Jurgenson & Brown Geometry and Apologia Human Anatomy. Next year he plans on Apologia Physics and Foerster's Algebra II/Trig. followed by AP sciences ( Bio, Chem, and Physics) with Precalculus, Calculus and Statistics in 9 to 12 grades. Instead of AP Bio. or AP Chem. he might choose to do a college course.

HTH!

[Hoggirl]

I plan to use the "regular" (not advanced) Apologia courses for grades 6, 7, & 8. He is currently in grade 6 and is about to finish up Chalkdust Geometry and Apologia Biology. Next year for Grade 7 we will do Chalkdust Algebra II and Apologia Chemisty. Grade 8 will (hopefully) be Chalkdust Pre-Calculus and Apologia Physics.

[Nan in Mass]

But remember that mine aren't brilliant, just brightish, so these might not work for you...

 

Middle school: Singapore Interactive Science, then Hewitt's Conceptual Physics (the high school version - along with NEM1), then Conceptual Chemistry, which we are only going to finish a piece of, due to other projects

 

High school: Natural history, then CC chem (two semesters), then CC physics (three semesters)

 

I'm making no effort to align the math and the science, except that he hopefully will be taking the CC physics concurrently with CC calculus. There is an extra semester during which I'm hoping he can do a "fun" science like astronomy or electronics or something.

 

-Nan

[HeatherInWI]

We're planning to do The Teaching Company's Joy of Science lecture series along with the recommended text, The Sciences (Trefil/Hazen), next year. My children will be officially in 6th & 7th grade, but their work will be all high school/college level.

 

My husband is a science professor and we can't find anything designed for high school that's reliably scientifically accurate, so we're using this as a holding pattern to allow the children to take a little more math before using college level texts for the usual high school science sequence (Earth/Space, Biology, Chemistry, Physics). Ideally, we'd like them to at least be in advanced algebra before the start of the sequence so that they will have had calculus/trig before Physics.

 

It's amazing what high quality used college science texts, and even instructor's editions, can be found inexpensively on used book sites.

[asta]

It's amazing what high quality used college science texts, and even instructor's editions, can be found inexpensively on used book sites.

 

Yes.

 

DS used "Exploring the Way Life Works" by Hoagland (a college level, non-Bio major text) for Biology along with labs that I came up with and the Digital Frog series of discs. We also used the various DVDs from HHMI.

 

For Chemistry, he will be using a Dickerson/Geis college textbook called "Chemistry, Matter and the Universe" from the seventies (it is fab - it is designed for the visual learner) along with the online component designed from it. I also have the Teaching Company Chemistry series.

 

I'm still at a loss for Physics, but I am leaning toward "Principles of Physics" by Kinetic Books. Kolbe offers that one.

 

DS is doing

Geometry / Biology

Alg 2 / Chemistry

Pre-Calc / Physics

Calc / Meterology/whatever

[Corraleno]

DS used "Exploring the Way Life Works" by Hoagland (a college level, non-Bio major text) for Biology along with labs that I came up with and the Digital Frog series of discs. We also used the various DVDs from HHMI.

 

For Chemistry, he will be using a Dickerson/Geis college textbook called "Chemistry, Matter and the Universe" from the seventies (it is fab - it is designed for the visual learner) along with the online component designed from it. I also have the Teaching Company Chemistry series.

 

I'm still at a loss for Physics, but I am leaning toward "Principles of Physics" by Kinetic Books.

 

I'm planning almost the EXACT same sequence for DS11. I absolutely love the Hoagland book, and I have the Digital Frog and Cell Matrix software. I was planning to use a slightly different chem text (Chemistry: Matter & Its Changes), which is the one recommended in the Teaching Company course. I will look into the text you mentioned, though, as DS is definitely a visual learner and if it also correlates with the TC course that would be perfect. And I've been planning on Kinetic Books physics as well. I think it's really interesting that 2 people would choose almost the exact same set of slightly unusual and unrelated texts!

 

Our math/science pairs will probably be:

Alg II & Biology

Geometry & Chemistry

PreCalc & Physics

Calculus & Geology/Paleontology

(I might reverse those 2 and do Geo/Paleo with PreCalc and Physics with Calc)

then CC courses in Calc, Physics, & Chem for 11th/12th grade

 

Jackie

(also a Hesse fan...)

[asta]

I think it's really interesting that 2 people would choose almost the exact same set of slightly unusual and unrelated texts!

 

Jackie

(also a Hesse fan...)

 

You want even weirder? I am *also* planning on using those Teaching Company Chemistry lectures! I don't know if they will exactly correlate, but I'm not too worried about it...

 

 

asta