Anyone skip Apologia General or Physical Science?

[Marcie in GA]

Did any of you with older children skip General Science or Physical Science to start Biology? Any regrets? I have an upcoming 7th grader who will start Alg 1 by 2nd semester and has desires to do advanced level sciences in high school. Trying to map out a plan. (until now she has been reading Apologia elementary sciences by J. Fulbright)

 

*older sister (completed General in 7th and Physical this year for 8th) will be starting 9th in the fall with Biology....should I put them together?

 

Maybe have upcoming 7th grader read General and Physical through the summer without doing written work or labs?

 

I hate the idea of skipping books, they really helped her older sister prepare for high school, although she is not a "science" person.

 

How else will my 7th grader get to the advanced level courses? She has possible career goals in engineering or medicine.

 

Thanks in advance for your help...

 

Marcie

[Brigid in NC]

If you are interested in offering your 7th grader the opportunity to "get to" advanced science classes in high school, community college classes help with that (if you have that option). You may have a very advanced student, who will be ready for high school biology in 7th grade. If so, go for it!

 

This is what has worked well for my math/science-oriented 11th grader (and my 8th grader is on the same schedule):

6th Apologia General Science

7th Apologia Physical Science

8th Apologia Biology (with paid lab)

9th Apologia Chemistry (with paid lab)

10th Apologia Physics (paid class and lab)

11th College Chemistry (2 Community College semesters)

12th Calculus-based Physics (2 CC semesters is the plan)

 

I would suggest that you plan to do ONE of the two Apologia texts in 7th (I would choose Physical, but I think either would be great). That way, your student will be familiar with the Apologia-way of doing things. I think you will find you'll have a much more pleasant and successful year of biology that way.

 

You will want your student to be at least IN Algebra 2 by the time you start Chemistry. If your 7th grader does Algebra 1/Physical Science in 7th, Geometry/Biology in 8th and Chemistry/Alg 2 in 9th, it seems like the math would match up well. (Of course you could rearrange your math and do Alg 1 and Alg 2 back-to-back in 7th and 8th. That's another way to stay on track with biology in 7th and chemistry in 8th.)

 

Just my .02. Best of luck to you!

~Brigid :)

[FloridaLisa]

My oldest and science-oriented ds has done a schedule similar to that of Brigid's dc:

 

6th: General

7th: delight-directed studies

8th: Biology w/ lab

9th: Chemistry w/ outside lab

10th: AP Bio (Fla Virtual School)

11th: next year will be either Physics or AP Chem

12th: either Physics or an AP, depending on how 11th pans out. :)

 

Biology isn't conceptually difficult; it's just a lot of memorization and, for my ds, one of his first true text-based classes. Chem was hard; AP Bio is really challenging him.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[Jan P.]

My ds followed SWB's suggestions for middle school. I believe that he studied chemistry using the Janice Van Cleave books on chemistry during 7th grade and then he studied physics using her books in 8th. I also bought some kits that he used to take things apart, roll them down inclines, etc. It was pretty laid back.

 

I did try starting him with biology using first the Self-teaching Biology book by Wile. That wasn't self-teaching for my ds, so I picked up BJU's biology text. This one was way over ds's head, so I quit with biology freshman year. I really don't think my ds was ready for the language of biology (huge new vocabulary). During his 10th grade year I transitioned over to Apologia's biology book.

 

It probably would have helped if I had my ds do the General Science book and Physical Science book before biology. However, after 10th grade my ds did fine with the rest of his science books. Here is what he took:

 

11th -- Chemistry with Zumdahls Introduction to Chemistry: A Foundation (or some title like that)

 

12th -- Hewitt's Conceptual Physics (high school book not college one)

[Julie in GA]

Just keep in mind that taking Biology in 9th grade can still work well for a math/science person. Here's what I did in high school:

 

9th - Honors Biology

10th - Chemistry

11th - Honors Physics

12th - no science-- but if I was a science type I could have taken advanced biology, along with Calculus, and been in great shape for college.

 

Of course, today there are more options in the field of technology (programming, etc.), and you may want to double up on science and/or math in order to fit those in, which is why I think Brigid's plan of beginning with Physical Science in 7th is a good one.

[Lori D.]

Not big textbook fans here, so we put off Apologia until 9th grade this year using Apologia Biology. No regrets. Hasn't been a problem to wait this long to do textbook style science. Personally, I don't care for the "chatty" tone of the Apologia text. May consider using Prentice Hall Biology for the next son next year; he's definitely not fond of textbooks -- much better with lots of hands-on and seeing the principles in action. : )

 

In middle school we've used the Reader's Digest "How...Works" series as our spine, along with TOPS units and other books and kits that match up with the science topics. That worked well for us.

 

Best of luck in finding what works best for your family! Warmly, Lori D.

[gardenschooler]

You will want your student to be at least IN Algebra 2 by the time you start Chemistry. If your 7th grader does Algebra 1/Physical Science in 7th, Geometry/Biology in 8th and Chemistry/Alg 2 in 9th, it seems like the math would match up well. (Of course you could rearrange your math and do Alg 1 and Alg 2 back-to-back in 7th and 8th. That's another way to stay on track with biology in 7th and chemistry in 8th.)

 

I like your plan, Brigid, and it looks similar to my goals (except we're leaning towards more biology classes and less on the physics). Right now, though, we're in 8th doing Biology & Algebra 1. I'm a little confused by the math levels matching up to the science. Jay Wile says to do Algebra 1 alongside Biology -but I've heard a few times that it is recommended to be in Alg II during Chemistry - so where does that leave the Geometry year? Or is this mainly set up for a Saxon sequence?

 

We were planning on Chemistry next year, although I'd be happy to wait. Dd is eager for it, though, so I was going to try to accomodate her, but the math needs to match.

 

Help!

[StaceyinLA]

Oldest dd did the general, but Jay Wile said neither was necessary if you were planning to do the other courses since all the material would be covered again. It has worked fine for us.

[Brenda in MA]

Jay Wile says to do Algebra 1 alongside Biology -but I've heard a few times that it is recommended to be in Alg II during Chemistry - so where does that leave the Geometry year? Or is this mainly set up for a Saxon sequence?

 

 

I would guess that this comment is based upon the Saxon sequence. To do Chemistry, you don't need any more math than Algebra 1. So if your child has finished Algebra 1 before starting Chemistry, she should be all set.

 

For the OP -- my ds used Apologia Biology in 9th after using Rainbow Science in middle school. The General & Physical courses are not required prior to Biology.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[Beth in Central TX]

Hi Stacey--That's good to hear. I plan to skip both courses and go straight into Biology in 9th grade too.

[Brigid in NC]

I was mistaken in what I said about the science/math match up. It is physics that matches up with Algebra II, not chemistry. With chemistry, it is good to have had Algebra I under your belt. I don't know that you have to have algebra II to be successful in physics -- but the math and science match up well. Sorry for the mis-information earlier. The old memory is not what it used to be. ;)

~Brigid