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Kristie 4
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Looking for ideas.....
(I am not going the Apologia route....I have checked out heaps of books from MacBeth's opinion and my ds really enjoys them, but I need a way to make a sort of cohesive plan otherwise my distracted mind will take over!!)
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teachingmyown
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No new ideas, we are doing Apologia Physical Science.
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Martha
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prentice hall physical science as suggested by Kolbe.
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Kristie 4
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I am leaning that way Martha, but am nervous as we have never used a text for science and just done lots of living books so far. Maybe we will use it and just stretch it over 2 years if needed...
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Kristie in Canada
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Martha
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I had never used much by way of text prior either.
It is challenging, but we are slowly but surely making progress thorugh it. The lesson plans are well worth having too, btw.
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Willa
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Kristie 4 wrote:
| I am leaning that way Martha, but am nervous as we have never used a text for science and just done lots of living books so far. Maybe we will use it and just stretch it over 2 years if needed... |
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We did that (with Apologia, but I'm not using it anymore) -- we just broke up the text work with living books and field projects, etc. So 3 years of highschool science took 5 years for firstborn, and so on.
Another nice resource is MODG's Natural History syllabus. All my older kids have enjoyed this in 9th grade.
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Lisa R
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teachingmyown wrote:
| No new ideas, we are doing Apologia Physical Science. |
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Same here. 
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Kristie 4
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Hmmm, my son would really like the MODG Natural History I think. He loves anything written by Fabre and is better suited, I think, for the Natural History scope of science.
What science did you cover after 9th then Willa? Did you move into Biology then?
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StephanieA
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With my with 4th who is 9th grade this year, we are doing Apologia....the only Apologia text we use. In my opinion, it is the "best" of his texts. (We tried bio and chemistry and General - which we really disliked).The three older boys used this in 8th grade. The weather section was pretty good and a few other sections were also well done.
Then we move on to Kolbe's Biology, then Brown's Chemistry with Thinkwell lectures. Physics, I put together because 2nd son didn't like Saxon. Don't know what I will do with son #2 with Physics yet.
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Kristie 4
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Without starting an arguement with people who love Apologia, one of my problems with these texts is that the author really frowns down on the 'environmental movement'. His keynote address at our last conference, which I must admit I didn't attend (I also have not read his books so I am the first to admit I am coming in with much ignorance), was 'The myth of Climate Change and Environmental something or other" (my paraphrase!).
Do you know if this opinion plays out alot in the Physical Science text??
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Carole N.
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Kristie, we have also used MODGs Natural History for 9th grade. My dc really like the course. My ds moved into biology after that using MODG All Creatures Great and Small. Next year we are doing chemistry using MacBeth's reading list.
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I just spoke with ds last night about what he thinks he'd like to do next year. For science he wants to continue the marine biology we started, really getting into it deeply (no pun intended, though he also will be getting SCUBA certified soon, which should help!LOL!). We will be using the Seaside Naturalist and supplementing with lots of local field guides, and trips to various sites such as the sea turtle hospital and the dolphin research lab, along with plenty of exploration of beaches, mangroves, islands, reefs and open water.
Also, he is interested in human anatomy which will dovetail nicely with his interest in Leonardo DaVinci. I foresee some drawing, painting, and sculpture in our future! Should be great!
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Willa
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Kristie 4 wrote:
Hmmm, my son would really like the MODG Natural History I think. He loves anything written by Fabre and is better suited, I think, for the Natural History scope of science.
What science did you cover after 9th then Willa? Did you move into Biology then?
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Sigh, I typed out a post and lost it....
My oldest did Biology before NH, but the others did it afterwards. We used Apologia, but I've gotten rid of it. So I'm in the same boat as you, Kristie, since I have an 8th grader. I have to figure out what to do with him. I would like to use books from MacBeth's list and something like "Biology the Easy Way" but I'm not sure yet if that's what I'll do.
Chari and I were discussing Biology while she was here since she has a high school age daughter. Two possibilites we talked about were Prentice Hall, and Oak Meadow's 10th grade syllabus which uses Holt Biology
Seton uses this Christian Biology resource -- I am afraid it might irritate those who were irritated by Apologia's young-earth perspective.
This biology textbook gets good reviews here
I am not personally familiar with any of these, though. Just a few places to look!
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Kristie 4
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I also was thinking along the Oak Meadow lines...may do their 8th grade text with dd after our foray into Marine Biology.
Looks good to use MODG Natural History next year then- DONE! (I am talking to my other me there- the one that will want to look into more things right through the whole of next year...so much easier than actually teaching it!)
I will look at those links Willa.
Carole, that sounds like what we would like to do...
Theresa- sounds great! Just what we would do if we were still on the ocean- but alas, we are surrounded by prairie!
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Bookswithtea
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Sigh...It is so hard to put together good science...Well, except for my mom friends who are already science bent.  I am seriously science challenged, and on top of that, I don't particularly enjoy it. I prefer for my kids to either unschool science or have materials and local teachers that are inspired by the subject.
With my first high schooler, we used Apologia's Physical Science (yes, he does not accept the idea of climate change/global warming and it does appear in the physical science text). We didn't mind the text so much, but really disliked the tests. Then we used MODG's Natural History. Two thumbs up! Ds learned a lot, took real pride in his 12 week project, and all the books were living and real. The only thing I didn't care for was that there was no answer key for all the questions in the books, which required me to read each chapter in order to check ds's work. Ds also had fun poking at the drawing book (Claire Leslie Walker) which encouraged him to, "sit next to the plant and talk to it."  Then we used MODG's biology syllabus using Biology the Easy Way and All Creatures Great and Small. We really disliked this. The answers to the questions were often difficult to find in the texts, and some of the answer keys provided in the syllabus weren't very helpful for us.
I am reluctantly going back to Apologia for physical science (knowing that this child is not destined for a career in science) but we will probably find other ways for assessment rather than using the tests. I have no idea what we will use for biology when the time comes. Maybe we will use Apologia Biology if doing physical science with an alternative assessment method works for us? I will probably use Natural History again.
As an aside, I know MODG encourages the use of Natural History before studying biology. How important do you think that is?
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Kristie 4
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Hmmm... I think that Natural History is very important, especially as science without it appears to me to be missing alot of the heart! But I think, in my humble opinion, that casual Nature Study, good books, trips to the wild, and an environment that supports and appreciates this in the younger years would do much to satisfy this need...
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ALmom
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Kristie:
We really disliked Apologia Physical Science - way too agenda driven for us and I don't have enough science background to even know whether it is good science or hokey. It also had the typical slam against the Catholic church and the Galileo affair. I would not use Apologia physical science - I think it was the worst, followed by Biology in terms of agenda. The others above that seem less agenda driven. I'm not qualified to say how good they are science wise. They are more readable than Prentice Hall.
We will be finishing the second half of Prentice Hall next year. The first half is the hardest to get through (on chemistry stuff so if you can get some help on that to start with that would be great). The second half takes half the time at least. Kolbe's lesson plans helped a lot - and being able to call them for help when I got stumped. Give them more information on scientific notation (isn't enough in the book or Kolbe plans to really cover it systematically). Basically the text reads like it was written by a committee of scientists whose communication skills are not quite there. I did get a tutor for both my children to work one on one with them through the first half of these texts. We'll be fine for the next half.
I am planning to have my son finish up Prentice Hall physical science for 9th and then we will finish out the year with MODG Natural History (my son hates experiments and drawing so I expect a bit of balking but this will be good for him kind of thing) but I'll have some flexibility if it turns out to be truly not suited to him.
With Prentice Hall you really do need someone with science to eliminate some of the ridiculous quantity of work/ concepts covered to get down to something more sane. Ie - who really needs to do nuclear chemistry in a physical science course. Kolbe plans eliminate this whole chapter for both regular and honors track students. They also give a good summary of the chapter so the kids get a better overview and know what things to emphasize and what things are just a bunch of incidental vocabulary jargon dropping  . We followed the regular track and I decided I wasn't as concerned about memorizing some things in 9th as later in chemistry when it was used more and understood at a bit deeper level. Talking to real science teachers helped a lot in terms of making this doable (and not all the science teachers were in full agreement on how important memorizing some of those chemistry tables were - those ionic compounds). Anyways, no way would I have gotten through the first half of this on my own with my children. Also, PH does sell an additional math practice book. It would be helpful to reinforce if they have any trouble with some of those things as there really aren't enough practice problems in the text itself unless you have folks who pick it up easily.
I'm not saying this is ideal science - just that it is the best that we can do considering my lack of science background. Kolbe's plans, imho, are essential to this course unless you have a tutor who will be tayloring it themselves. You will get lost in the jargon and quantity of info if you don't have someone or something to help sort out what is simply stuff designed to trigger interest, incidental gee this is how it is used and what is really basic scientific information critical to further understanding. The text is visually cluttered - kind of like Usborne which is overwhelming visual input for some of mine.
Janet
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Kristie 4
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Ugggh.....can't stand the visual clutter in Usborne!
Thanks for the info Janet. I will maybe stretch it to a year and a bit and then also finish up with the Natural History (as my son has read all the books a few times he might not need all the time for the Natural History...)
I do have a science background, and frankly, I found my highschool science useless when I went to university. We basically went through all of it again...
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Meredith
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Willa wrote:
| Another nice resource is MODG's Natural History syllabus. All my older kids have enjoyed this in 9th grade. |
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Is this online somewhere to see before purchase, I haven't looked at her stuff in a while, but am now planning ahead for highschool
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You ladies have peaked my interest in the Natural History of MODG. Meredith I only found one sample page online at the MODG website. I was hoping to find more samples too!
We have signed up with Kolbe, we did it through middle school. My dd did the PH Phys.Sci book last year. She liked it. We thankfully had a homeschool co-op teacher who offered Phys.Sci. using the PH book.
Kolbe requires 3 years (for the magna diploma at least) of lab science. I have been thinking I'd like for my dd to take 2 of those at the community college, but she won't be of age (16) until after her 10th grade year. She just entering 9th this upcoming year. So I was wondering/deciding/figuring out was it necessary for her to have a true blue lab science in the 9th grade then. This Natural History seems like it good be a good one to do this year.
Thanks for the nudge ladies and here's to hoping there are more out there who have done MODG Nat.Hist. too.
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Topic: What are you using for 9th grade science?
