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ALmom
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 2:16pm | IP Logged
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In an earlier post asking for help, you wonderful ladies came up with a suggestions for science to get away from the horrible standard textbook, answer questions, take a test routine that I know doesn't work but which I always fell into because of my lack of confidence and knowledge in science.
Well, one suggestion was to find a good spine textbook and spend a day reading and summarizing the chapter, then have time for reading better things. My biggest trouble is that I have not seen a science textbook that really seemed organized enough to use like that. Then in answering some questions about math and how the texts seem to be getting more and more disjointed and disorganized and how I like older texts - well I thought
Is it possible to use an old science text as a spine?
I have an old Biology book sitting on my shelf (1967). I love the way it is organized. I love its tone, its respect for the readers ability to observe and investigate. I love its respect for the historical developments and scientists who came before and how each generation builds on the work of previous ones. I love how it gives enough information that it is clearly trying to help you follow the work of past generations to be able to grapple with current debates more effectively and I love how it uses lots of diagrams and digs into observable features and structures of living things systematically. It emphasizes the things I think more relevant to study in depth and barely touches on things like evolution (which I would handle in my own way anyways). The main area I am aware of that would have to be updated would be taxonomy but the way this text seems to handle it, it is mostly something that I think wouldn't be too hard to do as long as I had a really good print source to tell me how things are organized now. (A really great poster would be wonderful).
So here is my question for you science folks - would this work? What specific things would I need to be sure to supplement with updated info? How much has really changed when what you want to do is really just cover foundational Biology and this text seems to be doing just that - trying to give the overall foundation/background in development in Biology. They give a lot of historical background in how things developed and talk about some of the advances (which are still true, just I'm sure there are some more advances since 1967). Most of my remaining children are probably headed into fields in science/engineering/astronautics. Will this provide sufficient background for a high school course for them.
Here are things I want to cover well:
What Biology is all about, how it has developed, etc. (historical overview) briefly and scientific method as it relates to Biology (technology plays a big impact in what is known here).
Microscopes and how to use them (obviously we have much better microscopes now and a good lab supplement should cover what is outdated in my old text here).
Characteristics of living things (the text I have spends a lot of time outlining the debate between spontaneous generation and biogenesis but the discussion to uneducated me sounds very relevant today since it sounds like a lot of folks are going back to theories of spontaneous generation which were supposed to be disproven? (Am I off base here?) It also outlines .
Chemical Basis of Life - How much has changed here? It includes a nice list of elements essential to man. Has this been expanded more recently? They actually picture a variety of carbon sugars, define carbohydrates, glycogen, fat, oils and related substances. Of course they talk about protein and amino acids and the role of enzymes. Nucleic acids - DNA and RNA
Then there is a lot on cell structure. There are comparisons between plant and animal cells. I'm sure some of the methods for seperating parts of a cell and studying them have changed. It actually gives descriptions of how scientists came to a number of these conclusions - ie the observable evidence even though we wouldn't have the equipment to replicate this, at least it is being described and you are given the information. Tissue, cell specialization, permeability, diffusion, active transport. All these things are explained in ways that seem to make sense (enough detail that I wouldn't feel like it was a total memorize routine). Older texts really do give much more information on what they do cover. These topics are covered in 2 chapters.
Then there is another chapter relating to cells - on cell nutrition. There is a lengthy - I mean multi pages - description of photosynthesis. It does speak of bacteria that does not rely on photosynthesis and refers to chemosynthesis
Another chapter covers cell metabolism
Another chapter is on cell growth and reprod* - meiosis, mitosis are included.
The text has an entire unit on heredity and begins with Mendels work with garden peas. The thing about old texts is that they give you so much more background and description and in such a systematic and organized way.
The book kind of follows a historical sequence as they develop this area. So the next chapter is on Chromosome theory and how it developed. In the process they describe this. But they also talk about how Mendel's paper on the law of segregation was missing for so many years when it would have been helpful to scientists who actually observed things Mendel was unable to see and how the gene hypothesis developed and how Mendels paper helped the scientists and the combination of new equipement and rediscovered work of Mendel set off huge advances. They went into a great deal of detail on the work with the Drosophilia ...
They also discuss gene mutations and causes and the usefulness of a common mold in furthering this study of genetics.
Another chapter dealt with the application of Mendels laws to human inheritance (I'm sure there is probably a ton of advances in this area but how much of this is necessary for a good basis in basic biology). There is some discussion of the inheritance of blood type, multiple alleles, Rh factor, and s* linked genes. Also discussion of eye color, skin color. It is obviuos that at the time, scientists were beginning to look into inheritance of disease, intelligence and mental disorders. At the time this was an open question - not sure what has been developed since then - except that they do have evidence that inheritance seems to play at least some role in a lot of this. They use old terms for Down's Syndrome and PKU. I'm sure we could we add in a mention of discovery of some babies who lack enzymes to digest lactose and the testing they do on newborns to prevent the problems associated with this.
There is another chapter on applied genetics - in this text this is plant and animal breeding.
There is one chapter on evolution. A chart of periods (don't know if this has changed or not) discussion of evidence for common ancestry outside of fossils.
homologous structures, vestigal organs, embryology, similiarity in function. Then there is a historical outline from Lamarck's theory to Darwins' theory of Natural Selection, and some discussion of possible mechanisms for evolution. The whole chapter is written as an open question still to be studied (I really liked that part). I understand what I have read in more recent things more clearly from having read this text. They mention Adaptive Radiation. They also discuss convergent evolution.
The next chapter is on the science of classification and it is in a chapter entitled The Diversity of Life. It starts with outlining Linenaeus and the basis for scientific classification. Of course the text only speaks of Animal, Plant and Protista so their modern classification of organisms would have to be viewed as part of the historical development - and expanded to more current ways. But this is all done in such a historical outline of the development of biology that you don't necessarily feel like you are reading an outdated text. In a subheading Problems in Classification, the author states this, "As you examine various biological references, you may wonder at teh wide variation in the classification systems. How many kingdoms do we recognize today? How are the phyla of living things placed in these kindgoms and on what basis are these distinctions made? As we attempt to classify the diverse forms of life, from the simplist bactria and protozoans to seed plants and comples veterbrates, we must remember that any system of grouping is purely man-made. We divide living things into classification groups for our own convenience." They address that most recent research is focused on simpler forms of life. They discuss some systems placing blue green algae in a kingdom called Monera. It seems to me that the wording of this whole text is so refreshing - respecting the science of the past and its underlying importance in the ongoing development and study of living things with an openness to newer discoveries and theories. It seems like it would be easy to simply tell my children that this was the developement up to the 1960s and then pull out another reference for the current Modern taxonomy which is being debated. (Any ideas on a good print resource for this. I want something with the same kind of respect and openness - a willingness to openly discuss the grounds for doing what they are doing.
Unit 3 is on Microbiology. There is a wonderful little chart comparing sizes of various viruses.
Chapter 15 is all about viruses
Chapter 16 is bacteria
Chapter 17 Infectious diseases - it is mostly Koch's and his devolopements, spread of disease and body's mechanisms for fighting disease. There are some discussion of immune therapy and chemotherapy - as well as the development of antibiotics. Obviously more has been done in these areas in more recent years. I know we'd have to at least mention autoimmune diseases, antibiotic resistance, etc. but I'm not sure how much depth you'd have to go here. I would think it would be fun to read about some of the latest advances in cancer research.
Chapter 18 is on Protozoans with wonderful drawings of ameba, parmecium. They ask you to look at and compare the two. The only thing I don't have a clue about is where these things are divided in current taxonomies and I'd want to correct any errors that are mentioned in this section. There is a chart comparison of 3 protozoans: Ameba, Parmecium, Euglena.
The chapter (in the unit on disease) is primarily looking at pathogenic protozoans.
Chapter 19 is on fungi- I know some things have changed here. Molds are included in this - are they currently viewed as fungi? It also speaks of mildews, yeasts, and mushrooms
Chapter 20 is on algae
Then you move on to the next unit - Multicellular plants beginning with mosses and ferns, moving to seed plants, and then getting more specifically into root structure and function, stem structure and function, leaf structure and function, repro* in flowering plants.
Each of these has an entire chapter devoted to it with wonderful diagrams and detailed explanations. I know when they mention phylums etc. these may have changed. How do I modify my text for this or is it too hard to do?
Unit 5 is invertebrates (again the chapter headings are following the taxonomy that was in existence in 1960 or so) but the information is so organized and complete. It is everything I want a science text to be.
There are chapters on Sponges and Coelenterates, worms,mollusks and echinoderms, anthropods, insects.
Actually insects are given more than 1 chapter with a huge chapter on insect diversity.
Unit 6 is Biology of Veterbrates - subphyla of the chordata(There are a few potential problem areas that even in my ignorance I'm aware of like fishes).
There are chapters on fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. These have some wonderful full color pictures, those diagrams of internal organs and structures - some with the clear, layered overlays. There are details of special adaptations - very detailed diagrams to include comparative heart structure, cerebrum etc.
Unit 7 - starts with a chapter on the History of man - which is mostly historical theories related to man's development, fossil dating, etc. Most of this stuff is probably outdated or skippable but I might pull out a point or two. It does what seems to me to be a great job of indicating that Darwin simply noted similiarities between primates and man - but others extrapolated from there and attributed to Darwin things he never claimed. We would focus most heavily on church's teaching here (Humanis Generis) and maybe read some current arguements in the debate. But the rest of the chapters in this unit are great chapters on human anatomy with some great diagrams showing ligaments, bones, muscles, joints. There are 3 color photomicrogaphs of skeletal, cardiac and smooth muscle.
There is a section on nutrition which leads into a discussion of the digestive system. Each major body system is covered - again with real images, diagrams and lots of good stuff including a layered overlay of human (anatomical transparencies).
These are not cursory chapters; neither are they over complicated with specific chemical reactions. They are a perfect, detailed, understandable overview that would allow plenty of room for a more in depth study from other sources if desired. I have current anatomy books if someone were so inclined.
There is a chapter at the very end that we would probbly skip on Alcohol, narcotics and tobacco. If we needed something on health, I'd do this one myself - most of the stuff in this chapter is such common knowledge now that it is pretty big waste of time to read it.
Unit 8 is on Ecological relationships. - water cycle, carbon-oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle, It touches on the study of plants and animals in societies together.
Chapter 49 is on habitat, chapter 50 is periodic changes in environment (mostly daily rhythms, seasonal changes, migration, hibernation, lunar rhythms, annual rhythms, periodicity - some things on succession in various kinds of environments.
Chapter 51 is on biogeography - biomes,
Chapter 52 soil and water conservation
Chapter 53 Forest and wildlife conservation
There isn't a thing in here on tropical rainforests, but I'd have no problem picking up a book to read on this as we went through the last section on conservation.
I guess one of the things I've been really thinking about is what do my children need as a good foundation and what do I "have to do" to honestly count something as a good high school biology. My current highschooler will probably only do what is assigned. My 13 year old will branch off all over the place. My 13 year old who branched off all over the place in his study of chemistry had no trouble figuring out things from really old texts (I was so ignorant, I really didn't know that the periodic table had grown  .)
His comment to me was that older chemistry texts had much more detail in them so he could understand things better and then tackle more current material. I'm thinking this would be true of Biology as well. The one thing my 13 year old insisted on was current taxonomy.
Can I use this text? How hard will it be to update taxonomy? What other things would have to be at least mentioned or updated. It seems to me to be easier to use an older (though outdated text) that is organized than the newer, cursory texts that tell you nothing but throw out more vocabulary than Webster's. I expect to have to supplement here and there. Can someone tell me if my idea is off base, if my text is way more outdated than I think, if it is too complicated to update info. I'll need some good sources of current information in areas where I need to update. Is there some topic I am totally overlooking that really must be covered?
Janet
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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 4:58pm | IP Logged
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Dear Janet
I am not a science expert - and deciding what to do for High School Biology has been a very long process with lots of research and discussion and review. It has been one of the hardest curriculum decisions for us to make. Not sure if this will answer your questions but thought I would share some of my findings:
We wanted a traditional approach to biology - solid grounding in the facts with labs. We wanted to cover all of biology including human anatomy and physiology - and evolution. We wanted a pro-life but not a "young earth with no other discussion" view - nor an overwhelming evolution only view. A pro-life Catholic text with living books and interesting labs would have been our ideal choice - but as far as I know there is no such thing. The main choices we saw were:
Apologia - easy to use for homeschoolers but omits human anatomy and physiology and also very strongly creationist/young earth with no discussion of any other possibilities.
Abeka - more rigorous than Apologia with a pro-life stance and creationist view.
MODG syllabus with Natural History and Insect study - we like this 8th but did not see it as rigorous enough for 9th
Biology A Self-Teaching Guide by Stephen Garber - I really like the sound of this - but have not seen it and do not know anyone who has used it.
BJU and Alpha Omega - both unacceptable for us as Catholics especially BJU
Prentice Hall - Kolbe's recommendations
Castle Heights Biology - labs only
We have decided (I think!!) to go with Prentice Hall biology but use the Castle Heights Biology Labs. We will also be reading Catholic materials Evolution and Creation such as Pope Benedict's In the Beginning, Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe, Humani Generis by Pope Pius XIII. I am hoping to look at the Garber book at a conference tomorrow.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 5:00pm | IP Logged
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Well, that's a tough one, Janet.
My honest opinion is that a biology text of that age is going to be seriously outdated. Biology these days has just changed soooooo much. I mean, we are talking over 40 years here, right? Developments in cellular and molecular biology alone have really transformed the whole field and I'd hate to see your science-minded kids get left behind. You would have to do an awful lot of supplementing and corrections if you use a text that old, and are you really wanting to have to do that? Seems like an lot of unnecessary work to me.
I do understand your need for a useable, readable text. However, I feel the need for the latest information is vital, and if you can find a way to combine the two by locating a more readable modern text it would be well worth your effort.
Have you explored all avenues available to you for newer used textbooks? College castoffs are often the best source as some of these are turned over on even a yearly basis.Used bookstores often have these texts for sale very cheap (because they really don't sell well) or thrift stores have them a lot of times.
Pore through as many as you can, check the pub dates, and just see if you cannot find something more recent that is also well-organized and readable. I really like the Campbell/Reece/Mitchell series published by Benjamin Cummings, and they are pretty easy to come by.
But, then again, that's just my opinion.
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Theresa
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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 5:17pm | IP Logged
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In my list above I forgot to mention Holt Biology that has been recommended to me - not sure if you have checked that out Janet.
The Campbell texts are good - but I think they are very tough - maybe college level - but then may be ok for very science minded high schoolers.
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 5:22pm | IP Logged
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Theresa:
Thanks for your input. My problem is that I have not found a Biology text acceptable and organized. This is the first Biology text I've seen that is really organized. I would prefer to have a modern text organized in the same way as this text. I just don't happen to buy the current empahsis on things that are beyond a highschoolers comprehension anyways. Modern texts come across as agendas - let me tell you what you are supposed to think and here is the vocabulary you must memorize. The explanations are either non-existent or so disjointed, you'd be hardpressed to follow them. I will note your recommendation and see if I can find something around - but I'm really frustrated. I HATE SCIENCE right now! I could enjoy it with an older text.
I tried to use Kolbe Prentice Hall Biology with our daughter (mind you she hated science at the time and this text just about did her in. We struggled through it for over a year and the one thing she finally learned from it is memorize and regurgitate to pass the test and get the check mark on the transcript. I do not want to repeat this with my son.
My highschool son is not particularly interested in Biology - he is all about flying airplanes. He is extremely systematic and I don't see him doing well with this Kolbe text.
Good luck to you Marilyn - I hope you have better luck than we did. We used PH combined with a co-op lab that was very good when our dd used this text. The lab was great - everything else was a disaster. The text just seems so sporadic - barely touches on taxonomy or structure of animals ..... I really hated it. I still have it.
So what I hear is that I'm back to ground zero. I'm afraid if I don't find something, we'll be back to the standard read, answer questions, memorize to get the darn thing over with and hope we never have to look at it again. I really, really do not want this at all.
HELP!!!!!
Janet
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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 5:36pm | IP Logged
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Oh dear Janet - I am now wondering about PH. I have only looked at the online pages - I was going to look at it in detail tomorrow. I was excited as it was the first thing I found that might work. I certainly do not want my dd to just memorize, cram and pass tests. Maybe I will try and look at Holt as well as the teach yourself one.
Have you looked at Apologia? I don't know why I am so reluctant to use it when most homeschoolers like it. I wonder about doing Apologia Biology together with their Human Body in a single year?
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 6:32pm | IP Logged
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Marilyn:
I'm sorry. If I find something better, I'll mail you my PH to look at before you buy.I did contact a Kolbe advisor about how to reorganize the text and have some suggestions which we will follow if I do have to fall back to this text. The PH text at least never says anything in direct contradiction - it alludes to need to consider ethics and doesn't go into obnoxious and inappropriate detail so in that sense it is one of the better secular high school texts from what I hear. Let me know what you find out about Holt. Thanks.
The first over half the book is heavy into chemical cell processes and evolution. They start out saying things that sound great - but then basically follow CA standards so they have to cram in a ton of info on evolution that takes up way more time than it is worth. The taxonomy they do is mostly - oh by the way this critter which we once thought was this is now this - but without any explanation about the grounds for making this decision. I spent months on line willing to be educated - looking at taxonomy charts trying to find someone willing to say what drove the changes. I didn't find anything and Theresa kindly filled me in on some of it. We so bogged down that by the time we got to anatomy, we rushed through it as this science course was already about 2 years doing. AT that point we both didn't care - just wanted the whole thing over and done with and she passed the tests. I know she has retained close to 0% from that one. She has taught herself other things in her own way after going to a tutor.
I have used the Apologia text. They will spend half the book telling you why certain kinds of evolution are wrong (honestly have no idea if I agree or disagree but the book was not scientific - just agenda) and global warming and fear of greenhouse gases is bogus. At least that is what we understood from the book. I ditched it fairly quickly - though my oldest that was the only science she could finish, so we finished it. You know that transcript check mark thing I hate. It was at least a bit more systematic - just came across like an evangelical giving you Biblical proof arguements - but these were crouched as scientifically based without me being confident that there was any science behind anything they said (could have been, I don't have enough knowledge, but my instinct said that they were force fitting things to match their understanding of the Bible). There was an entire chapter on how the Grand canyons could have been Noahs flood or some such.
This was a long time ago and my only other options were Abeka or coops using BJU or Abeka with a lot of young earth advocates either dictating what could be said in the class or teaching the class. Or texts like Speares - or secular high school texts that were terribly obnoxious. We had no choice but to bungle around on our own. I'm thoroughly sick of bungling.
Janet
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AtHomeScience
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 9:08pm | IP Logged
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My kids are not in high school yet, but I have taught a high school homeschool biology course using Apologia. I don't recommend it. It is very popular among homeschoolers because it is idiot-proof--read the (simplified) chapter, do the experiment, do the study guide, take the test. It is clearly slanted and will not prepare students for Evolution material on SAT/ACT. It also leaves out A&P so it is not as rigorous as other porgrams.
BJU/Abeka as mentioned are both well-known anti-Catholic companies.
I don't have experience with Pren Hall or other very expensive high school textbooks. I guess I'm not being much help other than being negative 
Here are a couple of things to look at, though I have not used them (I hope to teach another class using them.)
HippoCampus Biology has a lot of great animated lessons and, if you scroll down and look to the left of the large Featured Article box you'll see a link to a complete online textbook from Maricopa College (or you can click here.
Kimball Biology Pages are a fabulous hyperlinked online Bio 101 course (for college.) The link brings you to the page that lists topics in the manner of a traditional textbook. May be a bit too much detail but gives you an idea of what is covered and what is current.
BTW, you may want to consider reading Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller for an excellent comparison of the various challengers and defenders of Evolution, including Behe, and where they fall short or go too far.
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 10 2010 at 11:46pm | IP Logged
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You know what, Janet. I am going to take some time and really think about this. You have definitely hit on a real need in the homeschooling community--an agenda-free, science-based, modern biology text at the high school level. I'm not sure if it is out there but I am going to do some hunting and see what I can find out.
In the mean time would you consider taking a more piecemeal, living books approach if we could find some things which in concert would cover the ground you need?
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Theresa
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Angel
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lapazfarm wrote:
In the mean time would you consider taking a more piecemeal, living books approach if we could find some things which in concert would cover the ground you need?
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I was thinking about this as option, too. Like... could you use the organization of the old textbook as a spine so you knew what order in which to do the topics, then locate newer resources (living books, magazine articles -- like those from Scientific American, etc -- church documents, perhaps even Montessori taxonomy charts, etc) to cover the topic? Then if you added a decent lab guide, you'd probably have an excellent biology course... but it would take legwork. But you could probably delegate a portion of that legwork as "research", I would think...
Or possibly (if your kids are interested in science, as you mentioned) you could take a project approach, in which you encouraged them to read a few general books in order to define a project and then let them do a fair chunk of research on their own, with support from you.
Or maybe instead of using a high school text, you should look at introductory college texts? You can often get last year's edition very cheaply used on amazon.
Just brainstorming a bit... I haven't done high school biology with anybody yet, but have been thinking about our general plan for a while... so all of my ideas are strictly theoretical. 
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Angela
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 7:57am | IP Logged
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Angel wrote:
| Just brainstorming a bit... I haven't done high school biology with anybody yet, but have been thinking about our general plan for a while... so all of my ideas are strictly theoretical. |
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Ditto.
My planned approach thus far is to use a text as a spine to ensure good coverage, but to cover material through living books.
I had already shared this book list with Janet because it's a starting point for me, but I'll drop it into the thread and maybe we could brainstorm around this list...without losing sight of the fact that Janet has really asked for a workable text to use as a spine. I sure hope Theresa can come up with an idea...because I've searched high and low and Janet's right - the pro-life, non-agenda driven, non-young-earth, non-evolution-stuffing text for high school Biology does not exist. 
This list isn't yet sorted - I'm just gathering ideas since we'll approach Biology next year in the 10th grade. Perhaps we can edit and add to this list! It would be a great resource if this were really fleshed out! (note--some of the books I'm about to list do contain evolutionary theory.)
Biology
Texts and Labs
The Way Life Works -- evolutionary content, good images
Biology the Easy Way by Gabrielle Edwards (second edition)
Biology: Inquiry Into Life by Claire Taschdjian and Reverend J. Bernard Hubbert -- copyright
1961, outdated, but good presentation of material.
Experiences in Biology -- labs by Castle Heights Press
Life, the Science of Biology by Purves, Sadava, Orians, Heller (sixth edition) -- this is a college text , in depth info, would make a good spine. does contain evolutionary content.
Living Books
The Man Who Found Out Why - the Story of Gregor Mendel by Gary Webster
Confessions of a Medical Heretic by Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D.
The Human Machine by R. McNeill Alexander
The Journey: An Inside Look at the Human Body by Lawrence E. C. Joers, M.D.
The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas (classic!!)
Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif
The Double Helix by James D. Watson
The Cartoon Guide to Genetics by Larry Gonick
Zoology Coloring Book (dont let this deceive you - this is a highly detailed and academic
resource!!!!) by Lawrence Elson
Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary by James G. Harris
Botany Illustrated: Introduction to Plants, Major Groups, Flowering Plant Families by Janice Glimn-Lacy
An Orchard Invisible: A Natural History of Seeds by Jonathan W. Silvertown
Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding by Noel Kingsbury
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas
In a Patch of Fireweed: A Biologist's Life in the Field by Bernd Heinrich
Biology Coloring Book by Robert D. Griffin
Life in the Soil: A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners by James B. Nardi
Life Is a Blessing: A Biography of Jerome Lejeune-Geneticist, Doctor, Father by Clara Lejeune
Experiments in Plant Hybridisation by Gregor Mendel
The Curious Naturalist: Nature's Everyday Mysteries by Sy Montgomery
Scientific American The Amateur Biologist by Shawn Carlson
Of Wolves and Men by Barry H. Lopez
The Life of Birds by David Attenborough
The Life of the Spider by Jean-Henri Fabre
The Life of the Fly by Jean-Henri Fabre
Fabre's Book of Insects by Jean-Henri Fabre
Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration by Bert Holldobler
Microbiology: A Photographic Atlas for the Laboratory by Steve K. Alexander
Guide to Microlife by Kenneth G. Rainis
A Field Guide to Bacteria (Comstock Book) by Betsey Dexter Dyer
Adding a resource our good friend Kym shared - her son is a biologist and is sharing his talents on his blog, which would make a great resource! A Life of Life - A Year's Tour of Biology.
Here is an excerpt from his blog description:
A Life of Life wrote:
| The journey we will be taking will be a survey of the science we call biology, from the microscopic level of biochemistry, through the functions of cells, the integration of those cells into complete organisms, and the interactions of organisms in whole populations and ecosystems. We will observe everything from phenomena explained by physics and chemistry to the complex interactions which must be studied using information theories and the behaviors of organisms as a whole. Through it all we will try to reach beyond the detail and get a sense of the joy of biology the wonder of the study of life. |
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Join in if you can help out! Let's add resources, sort and categorize, and see if we can find a *good enough* text for a spine, or at least give some accurate descriptors of what we can find so families can better exercise prudence in their decision.
Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Janet!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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Angel
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 8:48am | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
I had already shared this book list with Janet because it's a starting point for me, but I'll drop it into the thread and maybe we could brainstorm around this list...without losing sight of the fact that Janet has really asked for a workable text to use as a spine. I sure hope Theresa can come up with an idea...because I've searched high and low and Janet's right - the pro-life, non-agenda driven, non-young-earth, non-evolution-stuffing text for high school Biology does not exist.
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Yes, and it's really frustrating!  I think Theresa should write one.
(Joking, but not really. )
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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AtHomeScience
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 12:15pm | IP Logged
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Finding an old-earth non-Evolution book is a very tall order, and a niche market. I don't get why you would want a textbook without presenting Evolution, though I can understand looking out for Evolutionism whereby authors misuse Darwin's very simple theory by somehow using it in silly metaphysical arguments regarding God.
You may not be aware the the Pontifical Academy of Science had a 2009 meeting dedicated to the scientific evidence of Evolution, and those promoting Intelligent Design were not invited. (I say this in NO WAY to discourage those who pursue ID in their science studies; I say it only to reassure those Catholics who pursue Evolution.)
If you want Intelligent Design, by all means, go for it. The Intelligent Design Network is dedicated to producing ID material for the classroom, so maybe you can find something there.
Another great Catholic science blog is The Deeps of Time. A long time ago, the blogger's mother posted in CatholicCMason that he was planning to write such a textbook, though no word yet.
FYI, it just so happens that The Catholic Laboratory, a site with Catholic Science podcasts, is just starting a series on The Origins of Life.
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lapazfarm
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Kris, I am in total agreement about the church's acceptance of evolution as a valid and acceptable theory. Thank goodness our church does not require us to throw out hundreds of years of scientific thought because of a few simple passages in the old testament!But I am not going into that debate here and now as it is not necessary to this discussion.
I think what the ladies here are looking for is not a biology text "without evolution" (that would be impossible--evolution is THE driving force behind the natural world) but one where the discussion of evolution is not filled with an anti-religious agenda. And those are definitely available. The trick is to try to find one which fits Janet's requirements of being well-organized and readable.
Angela--I wish I could write one, I really do!!!! Anyone want to come clean my house and watch my kids for a couple years so I can get it done???
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 12:49pm | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
| I think what the ladies here are looking for is not a biology text "without evolution" (that would be impossible--evolution is THE driving force behind the natural world) but one where the discussion of evolution is not filled with an anti-religious agenda. |
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Hey, thanks for clarifying, Theresa! 
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ALmom
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Thanks guys. I'm totally willing to branch away from a textbook if someone will work up a plan for me to follow. I'm willing to pay for this - really I am!
Without that I'll be clueless what to test for, what to do for accountability (not so critical for the 13 year old in science - essential for my highschooler and some means to determine a grade for highschool). I'd have no real guide but gut instinct between what is true science and what is a lot of gobblygoop and it seems there is plenty of the latter floating around. Remember how ignorant I am in science and also that I am a very systematic learner (as is the son who will be in high school). I need a big picture and reasons for things.
For my highschooler: Disorder will drive him insane. Not knowing what he must do in order to be done will drive him insane. Being too open ended will drive him insane. I am not the best planner which is why I've always gone with plans and modified. So if someone is willing to suggest a way to keep accountability going - I'm willing to try just about anything. I will not be able to carry on informal conversations with them. They may teach me - but I'll have no clue whether they've grasped anything or not. I have to have a means of knowing that we will actually be able to count this as high school Biology and that I'll have some grounds for giving a grade.
My high school son is diligent and hard working and he will work his tail off - but his goal is to be done with it. Tell me what you want me to do. He'll do that and I cannot count on him actually following any rabbit trails - he'll be glad if he is ahead and done, and then once everything is done for school, he might pursue something if it has truely inspired him. He reads widely and well and is mostly a history and airplane fan. He wants to be a pilot. I will need specific things to read, specific activities to do, some sort of accountability (he hates to talk so other than the oral summary for younger folks, he will like it better if it is some sort of test - and I know I don't want to try and draw up all my own tests unless I have one textbook to pull from) I will not have time to read everyone of these additional resources this summer to organize it all together. (We are still going to the doc - 2 appointments next week to try and figure out what is going on. Her health has precluded us wrapping up her high school and so I'm trying to help her expedite and be done while we try to resolve these very troubling symptoms - honestly, I'm becoming more worried. Thankfully I am finished with my stuff - and it turned out benign - but we still have tremendous amount of work to get our house ready to sell)
I tend to be overoptimistic and with too much open ended stuff, I'll work the poor guy to death - and myself. He'll just do what is required - I'd love what is required to be inspiring and something he will succeed at as that builds confidence and more willingness to investigate further later.
My second son (13) - he isn't going to be much of a problem. Actually he learned most of his chemistry from ancient texts first (they tell you more in much more orderly ways and was off researching what had changed).
His whole approach to learning allows him to use almost anything to learn from - in his own way as long as it is his passion - and science is his passion.
I already own the following:
Botany in A Day
Practical Entymologist
A Field Guide to Bacteria
A+ Projects in Biology
Scientific American The Amateur Biologist
The Way Life Works
Zoology Coloring Book
Anatomy Coloring Book
Holt's Anatomy and Physiology (plus Kolbe lesson plans)
Prentice Hall Biology (plus Kolbe lesson plans)
King Solomon's Ring
Anatomy of A Rose
The Botany Coloring Book (think my 13 already did this one - though he didn't actually color in it).
In addition I own:
Life is A Blessing
All the Fabre Books Jennifer listed
Many, many field guides
At one time I had the Easy Way books - I tried to do physics this way with one of mine. My problem with this text is that it was without much explanation - a lot of exposure was assumed and they were simply trying to refresh. We bungled through this and dropped it. I don't know if I still have this or not or whether it was one of those books I gave away.
I'm willing to order anything I need in science - as far as books. Individual items like an expensive microscope, we probably cannot do this year but we do set aside a significant part of our budget for science stuff to have around for our self taught science fan. I plan to look into the science museum and see if we can rent a really good microscope from time to time. They used to have something for teachers. I do have a number of slides from the lab with Apologia from way back.
I also went on-line and looked at a sample that Kym showed me - I need a print copy. Can you go to his site and ask/pay for permission to print it all out? I just do not do well with on-line. We have an old computer and everyone shares it and it creates a lot of eyestrain in our house. I do love the material though and as a stand alone, it is perfect for my youngers.
I have many models for building - eye, human, ear, brain. I have a microscope, at the time we thought we were getting a good one, but it really is not adequate for high school and has a poor light source in the wrong place - my 13 year old explained to me what was wrong with it. He is wanting a digital or at least duel eyepiece microscope. (Edited to add - oops my fault my 13 yo corrected me. It is not an electron microscope which wouldn't let him see live things. It is a digital microscope or at least a duel eye microscope with a good light source in the right location that he wants). I don't think that will happen anytime soon. I have college grade dissection kit (given to me by someone from Hong Kong) and also the one sold by homescience tools.
I have a thousand books on various living things - but all of them are old enough that they will have old taxonomy.
I did order some stuff from either Montessori or In Print that does have some things about taxonomy but - think it has 6 kingdoms - so not exactly the taxonomy Theresa settled on but similiar to what was in our Prentice Hall text. Seems some of the taxonomy is still in flux at the moment so I don't think using that would be terrible - but correct me if I'm wrong.
I also do remember one of these places giving a book on how to update any old Biology material (Montessori type folks). I have considered purchasing something like that on and off for some time. My only problem is that I'd like to see explanations for the changes - not just what they are and without seeing this, I have no idea what is actually in it.
I have biographies of the following Biology related scientists:
Will and Charlie Mayo Doctor's Boys (1954)
Famous Men of Medicine (1950)
Famous Naturalists (1961)
John James Audobon (Landmark 1954)
Great Men of Science Carl Linnaeus (1969)
Pioneer Surgeon Dr. Ephraim McDowell (1961)
The Discoverer of Insulin Dr. Frederick G Banting (1959)
Louis Pasteur The Germ Killer (1966)
I went to MacBeth one year to try and do this on my own and just floundered. That is when I realized I just needed help and we went to Prentice Hall. I also have that textbook - but it is truely disorganized - badly so. It might be used as a quick reference but really I'm not sure how easy it is to use at all.
Just to give you an idea of my vision so far and some of my wise husband's comments:
I want all of us to be studying basically the same branch of science. Ages are : 16, 13, 10, 7. I want to utilize my science fan (13) enthusiasm to bring us all along. He already has done in depth study (on his own totally) on Botany related things and has a really awesome garden that he has everyone else involved in. My 16 even has a plant or two - really amazing that he got sucked into this. I doubt this 16 yo has a clue about the parts of the plant even (other than stem, flower, seed) but then only in laymens comp. not how it relates to plant reprod* but if he had a chance/assigned to learn more where he wouldn't be directly competing with the 13 yo, he might take off. He will not chance being outdone by younger brother.
I plan to use science as a means to bring out the more introverted 16 and develop some public speaking abilities. So my plan was to have him read and present some sort of summary (also to make him engage a bit in the subject) to the 10 and 7 yo only. He is very competitive so my guess is that he will do a really good job in order to impress his youngest and likes the idea of being "in charge". (I will have to have the 13 yo busily engaged in something else at this time to make it work - if he is there, the 16 yo will clam up because he will not risk it). I was looking for a spine for this that would also serve as a point of reference for areas of study.
I planned to then have additional reading, labs, nature sketching (MODG 9th grade). My 16 yo will need specific things that he must do. My 13 yo would be off into who knows what, and I'd let him run with it as long as I knew I had good resources (ie not something that was going to give him too much info in areas of human s*). He is actually quite discerning in his own beliefs about evolution, etc. He is teaching me more than I ever knew and is rock solid as far as I can tell. (I think I gave him Schonburns book when I knew he was off reading everything science that he could get his hands on and we have definitely discussed contents of Humanis Generis and also have Behe and Creator and Creation). My 16 will do whatever additional reading is assigned - need some sort of study guide and test just to make sure he bothers to learn the vocabulary and make some connections. He is a much more visual learner - so charts, pictures, anything he can see. I plan to put him as 13 lab partner. The 13 yo is hands on learner.
We will all do a once per week nature walk - sketching will be required. My 16 needs this in order to fine hone observation skills - though it will be with resistance and some fear of failure. I'm hoping to provide some art classes to make him feel more capable. My 13 year old already does this on a daily basis almost. My youngers we'll move into it gently but they are likely to imitate olders. They will love to be outdoors and already have been following the 13 around and observing with him.
With my youngers - I plan to either accept the nature walk as science for that week (when the topics in Biology are inappropriate for them)and expand/extend this or we will read from my vast library of children's science books - this is something they will love. I will try to pick these books around whatever we are studying with the olders, but we can take much longer on areas that are of most interest to them. So if they get all inspired by anatomy or something, we may spend the whole year on this with them and that is fine. I have plenty in my house and at this level (10 and 7) I don't think the datedness of some of my material will matter all that much - especially if we have a current taxonomy representation somewhere but I am looking to update and Jennifer's list will be a booklist source. My 10 yo is a very phlegmatic personality - so I'm thinking of just combining him with the 7 yo, keeping it very gentle and then continuing to let him shadow 13 as often as he wants. The 7 yo is all auditory - he'll talk our heads off, which is such a relief to me to finally have a talker besides me. The hardest part about nature walks with him is that he will aggravate someone else by telling us about something he sees and scaring it off. We have lots of woods behind us and have seen bobcat, fox, deer, and an asosrtment of more common things. We have bird feeders and are currently watching the hummingbirds. We also have done some stuff on life cycle - they brought in a caterpillar and grew it to a butterfly and released it. I'm sure they'd love to do the same thing with tadpoles and such. We have lots of old aquariums that could be used for terrariums.
I spoke to my husband about my frustration and he had a few comments. "Look for a more recent text if you want - but use the old one if you don't find something in a reasonable amount of time. You are teaching the class, the real basics don't change that much and at least they will have learned something (anatomy of a frog is not different from 40 years ago, neither is the overview of the body systems)." The text I have approaches the whole field of Biology as a history and in following the history they discuss the advances and end up teaching a lot of big picture stuff. The text will accurately take us to 1967. I can then send everyone off to hunt and find out what has developed since 1967. My husband pointed out that by the time they get to college, new advances will have been made. As long as they have a basic grounding and an interest and know how to learn, they'll be fine. Nothing we learned from the previous years is incorrect because of the whole way this text is worded. When we use this, I simply let them know that this takes us through the advances in science to 1967. When we come across a critter and they talk about its taxonomy, we can wonder if it is still the same and look it up. My 13 yo is totally fine with this. I'm not sure how inclined my 16 yo will be to do any extra work and I'd probably at least need a few books to assign as supplemental to try and bring us to 2010 - but if I had some stuff organized to read with each chapter of my old text to take it from 1967 to the present this might actually work.
One thing about older texts is that they give so much more background. We can read it. It is very, very logical. They give evidence and explain why. They give full explanations. You see the scientific method at work in the development of science. I have never seen a more detailed discussion of photosynthesis. Now, perhaps the modern texts do a lot more chemical analysis of this process - but if my kids don't even know what photosynthesis is, they will truely be lost in a detailed chemical description. Also, we already know that none of my folks learn very well from a preponderance of words - standard textbooks really are not a good fit. The older texts don't seem to try to cram so much in, so what they do cover is actually organized, comprehensible and well represented with enough words and vocabulary - but not overwhelming in detail which really loses my big picture learners. They don't throw in unnecessary pictures just to make the book busy with visual clutter but they do include great diagrams, pictures, etc. that illustrate what they are trying tot tell you. This really helps my children. They are distracted by too much busy picture stuff and overwhelmed by endless streams of words that seem unconnected. As I read this old text, I kept making connections with current debates. I could see myself discussing things - in terms of questions like in the section where they discuss all the work done to disprove spontaneuos generation and how the conclusion of biogenesis was accepted. Is that still accepted? The debates I hear and the discussions of chemicals just suddenly being sparked into life by some agent - have scientists gone back to spontaneous generation for the origins of life? Does that make sense at all? Or do they still accept the biogenesis and a lot of what is being thrown out there is really not science - they aren't even telling you what their assumptions are any more? I would not presume to say I know the answer to this - but couldn't we do science and do some investigating? I know I don't have the tools to do DNA analysis, but isn't there somewhere that we could read about some of this? I could see myself talking about when I studied science in school, there was a debate about whether or not viruses really are living things? What have scientists discovered now that might shed light on this question? I'm sure they can see a lot more detail about these things because the microscopes are so much more powerful. Couldn't we find a book and read about this? In the process we'd be doing science of sorts - the first part of the scientific method is oservation and research - right? to see what others have already discovered. My 13 will most likely form some of his own hypothesis - they may be correct or not, but he'd try to devise ways to test them. That is how he operates all the time in everything he does. He has about 3 science projects going on right now.
The old book highlighted science and the scientfic method with an entire openness and wonder and excitement about what we are discovering. It is very conducive to questioning and wondering more - how have things changed since then. When they talk about Monera - we'd look and find that they are a whole kingdom - right? Well couldn't we then read somewhere about Monera and why someone came along and put them in their own kingdom. I think that would be fascinating.
I really loved the tone, the assumption that every intelligent human being could understand (even if they were not scientists working in the field) and look at the evidence. The scientists who wrote the text seemed to find it their duty to make the great and fascinating discoveries accessable to an educated layman. You didn't get suspicious that they were hiding something in all their words. Honestly, when I pull up textbooks written (by anyone at this point), my warning bells start shouting ding, ding, ding - these folks don't really want me to understand, they just want me to accpet whatever it is that they are pushing. That is not science! I just really loved this old text - even 40 years outdated. When my 13 yo reads it and they claim Darwin didn't say xyz, he is going to go out and want to read what Darwin actually said. Honestly. We are willing to look at modern controversies - but I do want to see evidence. I do want to be given the respect of being told why someone believes as they do - and then let the evidence do what it will. I want to see evidence from all different folks and see intelligent debate. I am not close minded - really.
The text I have is more a history of Biology - and in the process it teaches a lot of basic, big picture stuff. What they are touching on here is more the big picture, not the infinite details. My children are fully capable of being told, this text was written in 1967 so it will take us through the developments in Biolgy through 1967. Some of these things will not have changed much - the big picture in the structure of a frog or a whatever isn't that different from 40 years ago. The smaller the critter, the more we will have to question whether this is still current. But comparative anatomy between cow and human stomach, etc. - those things haven't changed. Granted, comparative anatomy may have been more relevant to scientists in 1967 than today when DNA is more relevant - but what is driving this? I can see us going on a lot of rabbit trails with the 13 yo. But for my children, they cannot replicate or observe the DNA stuff, we can read about it - but they will find the stuff they can touch, see, feel much more relevant and helpful to their own understanding of Biology than jumping to all these modern advances that we have no means of getting our hands on - but these will make more sense after we have a handle on the older stuff.
Technology has changed considerably too - but does it really help a child to study all kinds of things about what is invisible to them and such without a grounding in what came before and what they can see. My science fan is working a lot with older technology - but it is leading him to help him understand. Working with circuits and such that you can see, makes what is happening in a microchip more accessible. Building an old style lightbulb, is helping him ponder modern means to improve efficiency and the different kinds of light bulbs available now and what might or might not make them more efficient. Sometimes I think we lose sight of the needs of children with our modern texts.
The Prentice Hall text spent a lot of time with the chemical reactions of everything and the most cutting edge details - but without explaining it at all and without giving any kind of background as to the big picture. I need the big picture. Also most of my folks who are not Biology fans (everyone here is more the engineering bent except my science fan who likes it all)could care less about most of this, especially when it is way above their head anyways.
I see my husband's point of giving them a good foundational overview is better than boggling them with disconnected vocabulary. He took Biology for his engineering degree and hated it and doesn't remember anything. I guess I retained more than I thought I did - or at least in the things that were relevant to me - human body systems and critters that caused diseases and advances in medicine. Enticing the children to look at things that might be useful to know as a means of digging deeper and emphasizing what seems most essential for everyone is more important to me than whether or not they Ace the ACT/SAT test. My daughter had all kinds of questions on her SAT that were related to things like clairvoyance. Honestly, I really don't care that she never knows what some of that means. Maybe I'm a rebel - but I want my children's time to be well spent. I don't want to memorize only to forget just because it is on some crazy states list. I'm willing to be convinced that something I've overlooked is really important and should be covered, but not just because it is on some NEA list somewhere in some state. If we study something, I want it to be important enough that the children will remmeber it many years from now. I believe the process is way more important. If my children have the foundation, they can dig, they can look up things we maybe didn't get to. If they know how to "do science" they can learn science in a meaningful way. Some of it is about the process.
I didn't learn a lot of science - but I still remember thinking that I wished when we were studing microscopic things, we had looked more at things that impacted health and well being of humans or made that connection. I still remember my anatomy - because that really was relevant to me and when I go to the doctor and they say a child has broken the ulner, I know which bone they are talking about. I have an idea of what a gallbladder does and so forth. Not that other things are not as important because they are not directly connected - but when you are looking at someone who isn't exactly a science fan or a biology fan - it is a way to entice just like I entice my scientist into history - not by giving him all the things I find fascinating but by looking at science and technologies impact on history and letting him expand from there. He at least has learned to "do history", to analyze and correlate what he reads, to make connections, to communicate what he is discovering. He does not have to go off to college with every time period thoroughly studied and with every date on the tip of his head - but he should have a good sense of time and place and anchors and know how to discern, research and study the evidence.
I have been thoroughly frustrated with science - trying so hard to figure out what I'm supposed to do here - and overwhelmed by texts I don't understand or by those that I am suspicious of but don't have the information to even begin to discuss. At least with this 40 year old text, I can envision me being engaged with the children and asking questions. I don't have answers - but I do have a thirst to know the truth and that can take us pretty far. I'm really thinking aloud here, so if I am totally rebelling and off base, I'm willing to be led. I just feel back in the tug between "playing the system" and doing what I think is best. I really don't want to just leave off with totally outdated stuff and I am aware enough of my own limitations to know we won't pick a lot of it out well without help. But if it comes to a toss up between doing a text I don't understand, is disorganized and which children will hate and promptly forget it all and one that is outdated but at least they'll come away with something - well.
I'm still on the fence about high school because high school science requires me to tell some college that we did high school Biology with a lab. I don't want our Biology to be so off the wall that I'd be lying. I guess that is where I'm coming from. I also want a means of providing a fair grading scheme in a subject I'm not particularly up to date on.
I would love, love, love a modern version of my old text. Really - that would make life easier. I know it doesn't exist.
Thanks for your willingness to help in this endeavor. I'm open to all suggestions for a solution. I'm sure there are bound to be at least a few other folks like me out there.
Janet
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AtHomeScience
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 2:07pm | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
Kris, I am in total agreement about the church's acceptance of evolution as a valid and acceptable theory. Thank goodness our church does not require us to throw out hundreds of years of scientific thought because of a few simple passages in the old testament!But I am not going into that debate here and now as it is not necessary to this discussion.
Angela--I wish I could write one, I really do!!!! Anyone want to come clean my house and watch my kids for a couple years so I can get it done??? |
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I don't mean to get into a debate or even discourage ID (sorry) I just wanted clarification, so thank you! BTW, I'd be happy to help you write the book if that same person will watch my kids and clean my house, too!
If I get a chance I will post a review about the online textbook I posted. It has a small section on Evolution and a chapter devoted to taxonomy; combine that with the animations from Hippocampus and I could see that being a very cost-effective and learning-effective Biology course (so long as the material is not too difficult!) I would like to develop a high school biology course with these resources some day but it is at the bottom of a rather large To-Do pile.
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At Home Science
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KASB
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 2:09pm | IP Logged
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AtHomeScience wrote:
Another great Catholic science blog is The Deeps of Time. A long time ago, the blogger's mother posted in CatholicCMason that he was planning to write such a textbook, though no word yet.
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This is my son's blog. He also writes A Life of Life - A Year's Tour of Biology . He is working on a Biology text and will be offering online classes very soon in Astronomy and Biology, with Chemistry and Physics in the future. The Astronomy course will be a short 5 week class, a sort of introduction to his new website CatholicScience.com. It is in its test phase right now, and should be up and running soon. He was homeschooled himself and knows the need for good Catholic science texts, especially for high school. He taught for the past 4 years at a very good charter school and last year was the assistant junior high principal. He has decided not to return to that job in the fall so he can devote all his time writing and getting his online classes going. He loves science and wants to provide a CATHOLIC option for homeschoolers. He would welcome your comments, questions and suggestions! You can contact him through his blog or PM me for his email address.
His blogs and the various articles he's had published will give you an idea of the direction he will be taking in his teaching. Some of his recent articles are -
Why Conception?
Reflections on a Year of Science
Fighting the Wrong War
The Vatican's Stem Cell Agenda
Pope Benedict XVI on Science: A Hymn of Praise
The Sixth Death of the Faith
I know he'd appreciate prayers too as he gets his courses up and running !
Blessings,
Kym
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Angel
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 2:10pm | IP Logged
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Right, Theresa -- we're very heavy into paleontology around here, so it's not evolution I have a problem with, but the politics/atheism that often comes attatched.
(And if you'd pay my ticket to Alaska, maybe I would clean your house! )
Janet -- I had another thought which may be totally out in left field, but... could you combine chapters from various textbooks into your own organizational scheme? What I mean is, say you could use some of the chapters from the old book. You'd photocopy those, then pick and choose chapters from more modern texts to fill in the places where you needed more modern information, crossing out any sections that really seemed to not work at all. So in effect you'd assemble your own textbook.
I'm not sure that would end up being "nicely organized", though.
Or I wonder if you could use the old textbook, but pencil in notes about where things have changed, and where your kids need to do some further reading to find out about the changes. For instance, I do know that in the paleontology/evolutionary biology chapter, the chart of periods would still be basically the same, but... there have been a LOT of new fossils found in the past 40 years and a lot of the old ideas about the actual processes of evolution have changed because of those fossils. (Or, say, the big crater in the Yucatan.) In that chapter, you would have to either introduce some of those new ideas in the lesson plans you write OR pencil in notes along the way. In some subfields of biology, that might become unwieldy.
I'm going to be using the text Faith and Science alongside our science studies. I like this book a lot, as it provides that missing Catholic viewpoint on science. While it wouldn't solve any organizational problems for you, using it as a companion text to secular texts (or, alternately, creationist texts) would provide that perspective that is SO OFTEN missing in science texts in general.
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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Angel
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| Posted: June 11 2010 at 2:12pm | IP Logged
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Wow, I think I was cross-posting with a lot of people! Now I have to read what everyone else said; if my post doesn't make any sense in light of everyone else's posts, please ignore it!
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: high school biology
