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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Jan 19 2009 at 9:56am | IP Logged
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http://www.scienceforhighschool.com/physcisamples.shtml
Has anyone seen or heard or used any of these programs? I am interested in the physical science, but if you've used a different science, I'm still interested in your thoughts. I am going to need a new physical science. I hated what we used last time (Apologia). I want something that is high school level, but I don't necessarily want the most advanced version. I'd like to find something that is not too math intensive, if possible. I do not know enough about physical science to build my own program.
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Lisa R
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Hi Books,
I don't have any experience with these but they do look interesting. Have you found any information on them since your post?
Thanks!
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Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Jan 21 2009 at 4:03pm | IP Logged
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No, I was hoping that someone else would have used it already, but so far, no more information.
I agree, it does look interesting.
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mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Nedra in So. CA
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Bookswithtea
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Nedra in So. CA wrote:
Books! This looks positively YUMMY! Thank you! You may have saved me a ton of work.  |
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You think? I am waffling on it because I want to see more of it first and I can't seem to find anyone who has used it.
What subject are you considering?
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Nedra in So. CA
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Bookswithtea
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I was thinking that maybe having a few interesting books on hand to find the answers to the questions (like DK books?) and then use the net as well? I dunno. I still wish I could see it first. I am hesitant to buy it because so many high school curriculums are just *yucky*. If you decide to order, please tell us more???
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Erin
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Books
We discussed Bridget Ardoin's here before. And I'm still at the same place, vacillating on a science text. 
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Bookswithtea
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Erin that thread was very helpful. I don't know what to think about the difficulty level that was brought up. Honestly, I don't know a lot about high school biology, but we are doing MODG's biology right now, and I don't think it covers everything that was listed as important in that thread, either.
I am looking at the physical science. The author is very much available by email. I have been asking her questions about the math component and she was kind enough to send me samples, which really helped me. Right now, I am leaning toward giving it a try. Honestly, I would rather cover a little bit less material and cover it well than try to hit every subject possible (as many textbook programs try to do) but with less depth. This looks customizable to me. There are only 25 weeks so there would be room to spend extra time on a subject if the child desired or the mom felt it was important.
If you decide to give it a try, please let me know what you think?
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Erin
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Books
There were topics mentioned in the list that I'd never heard of  In my case something is better than nothing, right? I figure if I expose them to a little and they are interested the dc will take it further.
Bookswithtea wrote:
| Honestly, I would rather cover a little bit less material and cover it well than try to hit every subject possible (as many textbook programs try to do) but with less depth. |
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I've been thinking about this all day, this is what CM says regards history, do you know I never stopped to think and apply it to science. 
I was really tempted to give it a go, however with postage it often doubles items also dd said that she wanted questions to answer at the end of a chapter. Mind you I have still not found something that fits.
Love to know what you think of it.
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Lisa R
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Right now, I am leaning toward giving it a try. Honestly, I would rather cover a little bit less material and cover it well than try to hit every subject possible (as many textbook programs try to do) but with less depth. This looks customizable to me. There are only 25 weeks so there would be room to spend extra time on a subject if the child desired or the mom felt it was important. |
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I agree with this and have decided to give Physical Science a try next year with my 8th and 9th graders. I really don't want a textbook approach and this seems very customizable like you said. We'll see how it goes!
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Lisa, married to my best friend, Ray and loving my blessings Joshua (17)and Jacob(15), Hannah(7) and Rachel (5)!Holy Family Academy
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Lisa R
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| I was thinking that maybe having a few interesting books on hand to find the answers to the questions (like DK books?) and then use the net as well? I dunno. |
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Sorry, double posting because I don't know how to double quote.
Anyway, this is what we're planning on doing as well. My dh is a Pharmacist so science is his thing and that will help a lot, too. We also have books like "Biology the Easy Way", "Chemistry the Easy Way, the encyclopedia, etc.
Hopefully it will be enough. We'll never know until we try it though. Neither of my kids are showing signs of being great science buffs either so I think whatever they learn will be enough. If they want more, they've been taught how to learn on their own. 
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Bookswithtea
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Lisa R wrote:
Neither of my kids are showing signs of being great science buffs either so I think whatever they learn will be enough. If they want more, they've been taught how to learn on their own. |
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You know, I think this is a really good point. None of my kids are really science buffs, either, at least at this point. The neat thing about this program is that it really does teach how to find scientific information. That seems like a good thing to me. Dh thinks we should give it a go, so I guess a couple of us will brave the waters! Let's stay in touch on the thread as we have thoughts to share?
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ALmom
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I loved what you said but know nothing of the program. Keep me posted. We are definitely giving Friendly Chemistry a go for the same reason.
I can tell you what has happened with our use of Kolbe Physical Science text (I liked it much better than Apologia but think it still has major problems). The physical science text gives lots and lots of detail - not always in the most organized or coherent manner. A lot they seem to assume is review and only needs to be hinted at OR maybe they assume the teacher will slap up that list of rules again or whatever. They mention significant figures but never ever systematically tell you the rules for indicating them (there are some differing rules for adding than for multiplying and when a zero is significant and when it is not, etc.). None of this is spelled out. I, the supposed "teacher" have vague memories of those high school classes (advanced classes mind you) that I aced but I don't begin to recall these things and honestly a lot of what I did is memorize and bluff which is why I recognize it so easily in the children. Another huge gap in the text is in the chemistry section. They simply don't bother to tell you in any way how they manage to come up with some of the things that use the periodic table and they never ever tell you that you use the highest energy level shell to make the dot diagram. Granted, a chemist would know all these things. Not likely a poor homeschooling mom who happens to have had a high school chemistry course 40 years ago (when everything went by different names - no such thing as a cloud diagram then, we called them energy shells and they were described like satellites orbiting the sun). Anyways without Kolbe to call, I'd be totally lost in the text. I have them send me a summary of rules since I at least have some vague recollection that there were rules for xyz.
This still doesn't get at the heart of the concept, though. Since I have a hard time wrapping my head around it and not enough time in the day to do what I already have to do and children who would simply avoid science if I didn't make them do something - well - science has been a frustrating challenge to tackle at our house. Even the textbooks require a pretty good knowledge of science to use because of all the things they leave out of that grade level. It would take endless hours to piece all the bits and pieces of PH information. IF they explain it in grade 3, they don't tend to do anything but mention it it a cursory way in grade 9. I discovered this when it came to the atom and happened to have a younger grade text on my shelves that I pulled out in order to explain to my daughter about something in her high school text.
We got lucky this year and found a mom to take our highschooler on. She is very hands on, uses real life connections and dd is understanding science for the first time in her life. Because we have the book, we're using it and because of the very hands on teacher, it is working.
For my other two in the book - well_
The 14 yo is a bit more science bent. He is going okay and we are in no hurry. (I plan to utilize whatever dd learns from the science teacher to get the rest of us through any rough spots so we are going a bit slower). We bought various things from homescience tools to go with the text. I would not be writing rave reviews about the text from his experience and if I could get him to do more hands on or even find something fun to read that was more enticing, he'd probably understand it better.
The 11 yo is doing great but he is my science guru and already had concepts mostly down. (He is the one I now ask when everyone else is baffled by the book).
This is the first time he is picking up the textbook from start to finish. He has gone through it numerous times, in total, as a reference and gotten sidetracked to learn about something else. He has already blown up any number of things, and so on and so on. He figured those things out from the periodic table, a dictionary (1800s) and lots of old books lying around that he used as references. Anything from college textbooks to fun books and stories and experiment books served his purposes (think 25cents friends of the library booksales). He mostly had his own ideas from playing in the mud  and only pulled out the books when he was on a mission to find out how to generate electricity so he could put light bulbs in his mud houses or which chemicals would react best in his attempt to have bigger and better booms. I don't think anything would have failed with him. He asked to do this text mostly to learn the math to balance chemical equations - man on a mission again. He is doing a better job paying attention to detail with math now - and even reading directions since he is using this text. It is serving him rather well but not because I think it is a humdinger of a book. I'm in no hurry because honestly I don't know what to do with him when he actually does finish this text. I'm praying God will land a science mentor in our lap by then.
My husband looked through this Prentice Hall text early on and told me that it covered things in there that he never even got until his electrical engineering classes in college. He was not necessarily impressed as he felt a lot of this was information overload. Somehow I don't think cramming all that stuff into a text makes it by default a more thorough text. When your child is a big picture learner or unenthused about the subject, then what happens is that all that detail obscures the whole concept and they revert to the classroom game of memorize for a test and hope I can bluff my way through what I do not know. None of it is retained 30 seconds after test time. Those who do well are those who bluff best, in this case.
I have watched and pondered my science fan. He is the first in the house to get the science bug and his younger siblings are following suit. His older siblings - well, honestly, we are trying to recover from an I hate science because I cannot do science kind of thing. This child had the benefit of a real teacher presenting a few very basic concepts in a science club format. Other than that his science is all self - taught and not using the latest and greatest. It helps that he was a very hands on learner so all his play turned into science exploration and designing his own experiments. If a book experiment didn't work it was fun to find out why (unlike the rest of us who got frustrated and were ready to sling the book across the room). Many of his presentations from teachers were geared to the K - maybe 3 grade level even when he was 11. Those in the targeted age range enjoyed it and basically retained what they learned. This science fan took the K presentation and went off on his own rabbit trails and ended up with at least an upper middle school understanding of the subject.
My highschooler was having trouble grasping science on any level because of the fact that none of the texts ever bothered to give any kind of simple, understandable explanations. Without a base, there was nothing to build upon and things just became more and more frustrating.
I have no hesitation using Friendly Chemistry even if it doesn't cover everything on the list of what must be covered. At least what we do cover will (hopefully) be understood and retained. Then maybe she might even dare to explore and fit a thing or two more on top of it. Without it, she'd be totally ignorant.
That being said, I've ordered Friendly Chemistry and don't yet have it in my hand. I'm going to ask the mom who is working with her and doing a great job what she thinks of the program (she does have a science teacher background but what really impresses me is how real she makes the science for my dd). I am not going to use another PH text with her though they might be fine for my big science fan.
I'd love to hear more about whatever you guys find out about this other stuff. Science is where I need help in our house.
Ok, gotta go after giving my very strongly opinionated 2cents from experience in our house.
Janet
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: newer high school science curriculum...
