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Martha
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| Posted: July 08 2009 at 10:24pm | IP Logged
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I will second everything Janet said about PH Phy Sci and Kolbe. We are going v-e-r-y slow in it. Because by goodness I have it and I will. not. buy. more. curriculum.
Unless it's this apparently awesome MODG thing everyone is talking about.. that sounds good.. and maybe that biology.. 
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Martha
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 11:18am | IP Logged
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Hmmm, decisions, decisions...I thought I was done with it for this. But now a I am thinking that my child may need the Physical Science before Biology in 10th?? Maybe he could do PS in 10th and push Bio and Chem. back? Maybe skip the PS? YIKES...this all sounds so complicated 
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Kristie in Canada
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 11:19am | IP Logged
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Thinking out loud, I like the look, from what I see, of the MODG Natural History as this year in 9th will be his first year of meaty papers in History and LIt and a more formal schedule and adding a possibly challenging text to that could floor him....
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Kristie in Canada
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Red Cardigan
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 12:43pm | IP Logged
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I'm so glad this topic has come up! I've had the Apologia books recommended to me, but was already  by an 8th grade book we used for insisting that Catholics don't believe in evolution!! 
With the exception of Biology, I'd rather use "secular" science books and add in the faith concepts than use "religious" science books that push an agenda. Won't have to worry about Biology until next year but I can see the point in using pro-life, sensitive materials esp. when delving into human reproduction.
But I was considering the PH physical science, and it sounds like it might be too much for a lit major mom and a daughter who told me candidly about last year's sort of "pre-physical science" book that she studied hard to get good grades on the test, but feels like she really doesn't understand all that "stuff" because her brain doesn't work that way.  Chip off the old block, I'm afraid.
Will be watching this thread for more recommendations--though the MODG Natural History sounds intriguing...
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Martha
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 1:37pm | IP Logged
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You might like this link for non-text book style science
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 1:40pm | IP Logged
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I think physical science hard. Its not the earth science component, its the beginning physics and math that twist the brains in this family.
MODG recommends their Natural History syllabus for 10th grade. I like to start high school science in the 8th grade. The Apologia Phys. Science is recommended for 8th grade but counts for high school, too, so we did that first. Now you all have me wondering if it would be better to do Natural History in the 8th grade? But I thought there were components in the NH (questions to be answered) that I thought required some deeper thinking than the average 8th grader is used to.
I would *really* like to give MODG's Earth Science a try but I'm not sure that most states still cover Earth Science anymore? Seems like Physical Science is the norm now, and I think the first half of physical science (at least in the Apologia text) is basically an abbreviated Earth Science course.
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 1:45pm | IP Logged
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I'm on my way out to 4h judging (sewing this year) in a few minutes, but couldn't resist a quick peek at this, first. It looks very interesting to me! I want to revisit this blog post and follow up on the specific resources. I really like her idea for a year on Farm Science in particular (though I realize its non standard). I am envisioning a course in mini farming...
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 1:50pm | IP Logged
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Can one proceed into Biology and Chemistry etc. without the Physical Science text??
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Lauri B
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 2:09pm | IP Logged
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We're also doing MODG Natural History for 9th Grade Science this year.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 3:16pm | IP Logged
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If anyone lives near the ocean or has fairly regular access to it (say, perhaps a monthly field trip) I wouldn't mind getting a syllabus/booklist together for our Marine Biology studies and sharing it on a blog (I envision something similar to the handbook of nature study blog).I am going to be doing the planning in the next few weeks anyway, so I may as well share.
It will be high school level, hands-on, with weekly labs and lots of fun! It would be great to have company!
Let me know if there is any interest!
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ALmom
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 4:38pm | IP Logged
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The Prentice Hall Physical science is basically half chemistry and half physics. It is supposed to be an introductory year - but honestly I think PH chemistry portion covered more than my high school chemistry.
Technically you could skip Physical Science and just do Chemistry and Physics but then the texts assume you've already had an introduction and they jump around, race even faster, etc. I don't think I'd skip physical science entirely - but you can expedite it somewhat in areas knowing that you will re-see some of this again.
I really liked having a real, enthusiastic tutor. My child just was not learning from the text and needed someone to get her started with a big picture and making connections. Once someone had walked with her through the first half of the book, she is really doing fine on her own with the second half.
I'm hoping some of Chemistry will go faster - but we did compromise on our dislike of Apologia and are doing an Anatomy course with a co-op (around here in the Bible belt, Apologia is about the only text the classes use). This particular teacher is a chemist and has offered to help my dd out if she gets stuck on any of her chemistry - so for one co-op price (and putting up with a less than favorite text)and helping clean up while she is in this class, we also have tutoring for our other science course - and then we are done with formal science with her ----- Yipeee, Yipeee. I've ordered some other things to have around for her to peruse at will and according to interest. I figure we've done our duty by doing our best to provide 4 high school level science courses (keeping options open and doing her 4th course in an area of interest) and the rest will have to be interest driven. I will continue to have materials and things to strew - but it is all going to be self-directed from here on out. If she doesn't do another thing in science - well, she at least has a fundamental base of familiarity with some of the concepts and vocabulary and can build on it later. Life isn't all about science - despite the fact that I live in an area where science is God and no one is allowed to major in anything less than microbiology, pre-med, engineering or astro-physics. We're just mavericks, I guess.
As far as the MODG syllabus. I'm borrowing it from another mom - so it is free to me. I cannot stand Apologia Biology so I'm stuck with Prentice Hall again. Only next year, I'm going to do a bit more expediting and covering things I think are more important than evolution ad naseum (pro or con). I think the MODG Natural History is more suited to what I really want to do with Biology. I'd rather the children observe and notice structure, behavior, etc. of plants and animals. We have access to dissection, but I really like observing live animals and habitats as well. I think it is ultimately more productive. This will be our next science course for our 9th grader so easing into it with Natural History will be a great advantage. Plus I really need to build on this child's visual strengths. By the end of a half year with Kolbe, hopefully he'll be a lot more comfortable with writing.
Janet
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Red Cardigan
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 4:56pm | IP Logged
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A math-minded friend has recommended this program. Has anybody here ever used it?
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Erin
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| Posted: July 09 2009 at 5:21pm | IP Logged
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Singapore Science. I buy ours directly from Singapore.
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sewcrazy
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Red Cardigan we just finished the Rainbow program with my now 15 year old and loved it! It is written in a very conversational manner, the labs are easy to do and everything you need is included. I love the way the labs are written, each one ends with "put everything away properly"
We are using Apolgia Biology this year, mostly because I have it and CAN NOT BUY ANYTHING ELSE. I will doing it in a co-op with 5 other Catholic families
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Faithr
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| Posted: July 10 2009 at 6:06pm | IP Logged
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I have a friend who uses Rainbow Science and they also love it.
I got the Natural History curriculum from MODG and my son did some of the readings but then we petered out with it. This is the second MODG high school science program we've done and I just find MODG science very soft and more geared to writing than to actually learning science in any meaningful way. I don't know, maybe it is just us but I think that program is really weak in science.
My rising 9th grader wanted to do Earth Science so we went with K12's high school Earth Science which looks absolutely fantastic but it is very pricey. I tend to like to do science in co-ops or outside classes because it just seems to fall off the radar for us.
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: July 13 2009 at 12:02pm | IP Logged
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Hi Faith. How in the world do you find info. on the K12 site? I guess I am not very techy but would love to see the course outline etc... Thanks (from my scrambled tired brain!)
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Faithr
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| Posted: July 13 2009 at 1:07pm | IP Logged
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Hi Kristie,
I, too, found the K12 website a bit hard to navigate. What I did was go to the sample lesson for Earth Science which is a middle school level and my son went through that sample lesson. Then we went to the sample high school science class (I think it was the high school biology) and looked through that to get a taste of what was required at the high school level, even though it was in a different type of science.
I have an aquaintance who uses a lot of K12 so she kind of briefed me on it all. The best thing is to e-mail them and leave your number and a rep will call you and walk you through the website.
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: July 20 2009 at 5:07pm | IP Logged
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Anyone made any decisions yet? I am actually re-considering my plans for 9th. I am just dreading doing Apologia's Phys. Science. I mostly like MODG science. I don't think that writing instead of testing is an indication that its weaker on science, and I really appreciate that they have non textbook options. I do think that her syllabi follow the educational philosophy of slightly less material with a slightly deeper focus (reminds me a bit of the philosophy behind the elementary Apologia texts). We did have some issues with difficulty with the Biology using All Creatures Great and Small. But now that I think about it, the problems were less than what we had with Apologia, and probably doable to fix for future children.
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Faithr
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| Posted: July 20 2009 at 8:15pm | IP Logged
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No, no, I don't consider the science weak because MODG has one write instead of take tests. It just seems to me to be more concerned about writing than actually teaching science in a meaningful way. For example, the Earth Science program we did 4 years ago used workbooks and the student had to answer the workbooks and then write up essays from what they'd answered. And they had to be long essays, so even after you'd finish regurgitating what you'd just filled in (in these very dry workbooks) you'd still be floundering around because the essay wasn't quite long enough. I guess you were supposed to be doing extra research to fill in the holes. Except the dryness of the workbooks used did nothing to inspire wanting to learn more about Earth Science. Maybe if the student was already interested or very science inclined, it could work, but we found it dry, choppy and my daughter retained zilch from it and in fact, learned to hate writing in such a forced way.
The Natural History syllabus is based on living books, of course, by Fabre and others, so it at least had a better base for learning but most of the syllabus was 'work on your project.' I didn't feel it was worth the money I spent on it.
I am pretty unschoolish when it comes to science in the younger years but in high school I want something that is cohesive and gives the high schooler a good introduction to the challenging and fascinating body of knowledge in the different fields of science. I wanted them to have a solid and systematic exposure to the subject material. Neither of my two high schoolers are particularly science oriented, so I wanted to get something in solid now, because I don't know how much they'll pursue later. Writing and research are great, but there are a lot of concepts and information to learn in science and I don't feel MODG goes very deep at all into it. It might just be the particular syllabi we followed. We used A Beka for both Biology and Chemistry in a local homeschool high school class. Both classes had extensive labs as well. My kids really learned a lot of science. They were both very challenging classes. They learned a ton! I am so grateful we found these classes because I sincerely thought I couldn't homeschool high school! Science was the thing I feared the most!
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: July 20 2009 at 8:40pm | IP Logged
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Hmmmm... did you find the Abeka digestable?? I haven't looked at their stuff since the early years.
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: What are you using for 9th grade science?
