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Bookswithtea
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I was browsing the Emmanuel Books catalogue and noticed that these two syllabi for 9th and 10th grade don't seem to use standard texts. I am VERY science challenged and I like the idea of a syllabus that uses real books instead of texts.
Has anyone looked at or used these? I'd appreciate any opinions or reviews.
~Books
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MacBeth
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Books, I don't have the catalogue, but I'd love to hear what MODG uses instead of texts. 
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Bookswithtea
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OK...here's what it says in a nutshell:
Earth science:
Studies 4 main topics (8 weeks per topic) geology, astronomy, oceanograhy, and meteorology. Uses the Miliken Science Series (these looks like mini texts from the catalogue, but its hard to tell). Student summarizes the material in 2 essays a week. One hand's on project per 8 week unit. Also uses Astronomy for All Ages, Jan VanCleave's Oceans for Every Kid and Golden Guides for geology, the night sky, and weather, an audubon society guide to the night sky and a rocks and minerals field guide.
Natural History:
Student is required to keep a nature journal (3 x a week) First semester is devoted to studying the methods of Henri Fabre and Konrad Lorenz. Second semester is involved in a 12 week nature project writing out a proposal, etc. Uses Fabre's book of Insects, King Solomon's Ring, North American Wildlife, Nature Drawing A Tool for Learning, Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study, and the Swiss Family Robinson. Here's a link to a sample page from the Natural History syllabus.
http://www.motherofdivinegrace.org/Catalog/SyllabiPDF/Syllab i%20-%2010th%20Grade%20Science%20Sample.pdf
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: March 24 2006 at 8:43am | IP Logged
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I guess I should add that I feel entirely incompetent to choose living books myself that will cover the basics of high school science, or even what to do with them once they've been read. 
Another option is to take advantage of a local hs teacher who uses Dr. Wile's books to teach high school science. She is an excellent teacher and the kids all love her, but the rest of the week its still "read the text, answer the questions, study for the test." 
I read some reviews in the archives here that suggest that Dr. Wile's books are not really high school level. I know a hs mom with a Chemistry degree who is of the opinion that MODG's science is not up to par, either.
I don't even know where to begin. I have a friend locally who has her ds on the fast track. We were going to have the boys do science and math together until I found out she wants her ds to complete Algebra 1 and Biology both in the 8th grade. I can't imagine it with my ds...he doesn't know what he wants to do for a living yet, but rock star sometimes comes out of his mouth.  Gee, every mother's dream...
~Books
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lapazfarm
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The Earth science program sounds about on par with what material you would get in an introductory geosciences course in high school, but using more interesting texts.
The Natural History, however, is definitely not a high school biology course. It would be more like an elective, and a very fascinating one, but does not cover subjects typical of high school biology. You could, however, supplement their offerings with some more materials to give a more in depth biology course. It would need to include materials on molecular and cellular aspects (such as photosynthesis, respiration, etc)genetics (DNA structure and function, etc) as well as a systematic overview of the many forms of life, from bacteria to human anatomy, to name a few. High school biology is actually one very meaty course. My dd just got through taking it and it was quite a lot to learn. But, these are the basics for life and something I feel all students should learn, whether going into a science field or not.
Just my 2 cents
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As a spine, you might think of using The Biology Coloring Workbook by Princeton Review (I like this one better than the other coloring book series) and then use the suggested living books to supplement. This is actually very similar to what I had planned for dd before she decided to return to public school. I think I was also going to have her read, in addition to the Fabre and Lorenz books, The Diversity of Life by EO Wilson, Journey to The Ants (Holldobler and Wilson), In a Patch of Fireweed (Heinrich) Winter World (Heinrich again)and a biography of Carl Linnaeus. But she is an AVID reader.
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: March 24 2006 at 11:02am | IP Logged
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MODG teaches biology in the 11th grade, after the year of Natural History. I didn't mention it because the syllabus for that course looks boring to me. Sorry for the confusion...
~Books
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MacBeth
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lapazfarm wrote:
| The Earth science program sounds about on par with what material you would get in an introductory geosciences course in high school, but using more interesting texts. |
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That's what I was thinking too. "Earth Science" can vary so much form school to school. I really would prefer way more hands on geology for an intro student...does MODG syllabus provide for that? We have enjoyed the roadside geology book for NY; I'm sure that other states are geologically interesting as well.
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MacBeth
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Bookswithtea wrote:
MODG teaches biology in the 11th grade, after the year of Natural History. I didn't mention it because the syllabus for that course looks boring to me. Sorry for the confusion...
~Books |
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11th grade, huh? What are they waiting for?
Theresa's right...the natural history course would be interesting, but not substantial, as a high school bio course. And she listed all my favorite books  , but we read most before Libby did "formal" biology. Books like Heinrich's and others lay a great foundation for digging deeper into the biological sciences.
Wile does have high school level biology, but it is a text, Books, and if you are trying to avoid the text, avoid Wile.
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: March 24 2006 at 11:13am | IP Logged
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MacBeth wrote:
"Earth Science" can vary so much form school to school. I really would prefer way more hands on geology for an intro student...does MODG syllabus provide for that? |
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According to the description, there's one hands on activity per 8 weeks (a 32 week school year), but I haven't seen it so I don't know what kind of projects they are talking about. I was hoping someone had seen it before and could tell me.
Dumb question: Is Physical Science basically the same thing as Earth Science when talking about 9th grade level? The state I used to live in covered Earth Science in the 9th grade. We moved a year ago and the new one requires Physical Science. I don't even know for sure what that encompasses...
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Bookswithtea
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MacBeth wrote:
11th grade, huh? What are they waiting for?
Theresa's right...the natural history course would be interesting, but not substantial, as a high school bio course. And she listed all my favorite books , but we read most before Libby did "formal" biology. Books like Heinrich's and others lay a great foundation for digging deeper into the biological sciences.
Wile does have high school level biology, but it is a text, Books, and if you are trying to avoid the text, avoid Wile.
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I have no idea why they teach Biology so late. Is that a bad thing?
I dunno...I'm beginning to think I am doomed to science texts for high school since I know so little about the topic.
~Books
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lapazfarm
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Bookswithtea wrote:
I dunno...I'm beginning to think I am doomed to science texts for high school since I know so little about the topic.
~Books |
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Oh, please don't feel that way! Science texts are one of the main reasons people hate science! If I had to choose between going light on content and preserving the love of science or the going the mind-numbing textbook route,well... I think you know which one I would choose!
Besides, there are plenty of folks here that can help!
Physical science, btw is a light form of physics. They study motion, forces, waves, etc. Think light, sound, magnetism, simple machines, Newton's laws, etc. Not the same as earth science.
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MacBeth
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lapazfarm wrote:
| Science texts are one of the main reasons people hate science! |
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Bookswithtea wrote:
Also uses Astronomy for All Ages, Jan VanCleave's Oceans for Every Kid and Golden Guides for geology, the night sky, and weather, an audubon society guide to the night sky and a rocks and minerals field guide.
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It looks like this is where the hands-on part will come from. Sounds like a good mix.
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Mary G
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Bookswithtea wrote:
MacBeth wrote:
11th grade, huh? What are they waiting for?
Theresa's right...the natural history course would be
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I have no idea why they teach Biology so late. Is that a bad thing?
~Books |
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Isn't MODG keyed to the history they're studying -- maybe the bulk of the biology is from that period? Just a guess.....seems like you wouldn't be abe to get into too many colleges with lab science pushed off so late????
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Well, I think the earth science could be considered a lab science the way they have it layed out, but I don't think one lab every 8 weeks is enough. They should be a minimum of weekly. However, I think earth science is pretty easy to find labs for. Rocks and minerals, weather, oceanogrphy, volcanos, etc. There are a million kits out there.
Pushing biology to 11th grade is a bit odd, but not unworkable. As long as there was also a physics and chemistry class taken at some point, they don't really have to be in any particular order. I need to take a look at the MODG program of study, but it seems as if this is not geared toward a child interested in going into a science or medical field, but maybe more of a general ed type of preparation?
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Erin
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lapazfarm wrote:
| As a spine, you might think of using The Biology Coloring Workbook by Princeton Review (I like this one better than the other coloring book series) and then use the suggested living books to supplement. This is actually very similar to what I had planned for dd before she decided to return to public school. I think I was also going to have her read, in addition to the Fabre and Lorenz books, The Diversity of Life by EO Wilson, Journey to The Ants (Holldobler and Wilson), In a Patch of Fireweed (Heinrich) Winter World (Heinrich again)and a biography of Carl Linnaeus. But she is an AVID reader. |
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Theresa
I would be VERY interested in just what you had planned for your dd to read How old was she back when you designed this list.
I have just got my Emmanuel book catalogue for this year and see many of the titles discussed here in this thread. I am trying to balance between hands on and readings.
I am desigining a curriculumn for dd13.6 who is also an AVID reader. Anyone else can chime in, doesn't just have to be Theresa
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We used MODG science for 2 years. DD did the Natural history course in 9th grade. It is wonderful--well, I thought so. SHe hates to draw and doesn't like bugs so she wasn't too impressed. ITs basically a hs nature study course. We also use the BIology, which was a snoozer. (IMO) They do the natural history first because they say they want the student to study living things before moving on to dead things. We skipped the earth science course because the main purpose of it is to learn to write. THey use Millikin (I think its called) which are basically worksheet/overhead type books and they have to summarize what they read in a paragraph. There are a few projects but the focus is on learning to pick out the main idea of a paragraph. I don't think any living books are included.
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Bookswithtea
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LLMom wrote:
| We used MODG science for 2 years. DD did the Natural history course in 9th grade. It is wonderful--well, I thought so. SHe hates to draw and doesn't like bugs so she wasn't too impressed. ITs basically a hs nature study course. We also use the BIology, which was a snoozer. (IMO) They do the natural history first because they say they want the student to study living things before moving on to dead things. We skipped the earth science course because the main purpose of it is to learn to write. THey use Millikin (I think its called) which are basically worksheet/overhead type books and they have to summarize what they read in a paragraph. There are a few projects but the focus is on learning to pick out the main idea of a paragraph. I don't think any living books are included. |
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Thanks for bringing up this thread again!
I'm looking into using the Natural science for 9th grade, too. I'm glad to hear it was a good course. Could you elaborate some on the biology course? I am not science oriented enough to develop my own living books biology curriculum, and it seemed like this might be a little bit more living than a standard biology text with end of chapter questions and tests. I am really looking for more real learning methods for high school science and trying to avoid textbooks.
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I am also interested in a living books biology curriculum. We just started the "The Way Life Works".
Sue
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: MODG Earth Science and Natural History
