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Angel
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 1:27pm | IP Logged
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Trying to come up with a subject line that would fit for this question was tough!
I'm looking for living books for high school level biology that are NOT focused on nature study.
This is for my 15 yo ds, whose first request when we agreed on bio for next year was, "Can I study exobiology?" (The biology of alien life). So you can see what I have to deal with.
Anyway, I think that for his biology we will *probably* be much more focused on cellular/microbiology/genetics than on the more typical natural history Charlotte Mason-style course. But we still want to use books that are interesting to read.
I find I don't have a lot on my shelf (although I do have an exobiology textbook  ), except for Watson's _The Double Helix_. Most of the biology we own seems to be wildlife biology related.
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 1:42pm | IP Logged
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Throwing out a few titles for you to look into, though I don't have time to link right now (sorry!).
Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif - excellent!
The Journey: An Inside Look at the Human Body by Lawrence Joers
The Human Machine by McNeill Alexander
The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas
A Field Guide to Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer
Experiments in Plant Hybridization by Gregor Mendel (is that too close to your request to avoid N/H?)
A Cartoon Guide to Genetics by Larry Gonick (note - pre-read to see if content is suitable for your teen)
Life is a Blessing: the Biography of Jerome LeJeune - Geneticist, Doctor, Father by Clara LeJeune
Are you considering entomology and zoology as part of your course? If so, I have more recommendations for those areas.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 1:51pm | IP Logged
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Did you mean that you just weren't interested in Nature Study type books? You're not going to exclude Botany, are you? At first I thought you meant you weren't going to include all-things-Botany, but after a minute I wondered if you just meant nature study type things. So you wouldn't be interested in The Curious Naturalist (which is extraordinary, btw), but you might be interested in Botany titles? Like An Orchard Invisible?
Let me know how you're treating Botany, if at all.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Angel
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 3:27pm | IP Logged
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Mackfam wrote:
| Did you mean that you just weren't interested in Nature Study type books? You're not going to exclude Botany, are you? At first I thought you meant you weren't going to include all-things-Botany, but after a minute I wondered if you just meant nature study type things. So you wouldn't be interested in The Curious Naturalist (which is extraordinary, btw), but you might be interested in Botany titles? Like An Orchard Invisible? |
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No, I don't think we're going to exclude botany... let me see if I can articulate the difference in emphasis a little better.  My ds isn't the grab-the-binoculars-and-nature-journal kind of biology student, but rather the let's-do-some-experiments-with-fruit-fly-genetics kind of biology student. So books about how to observe birds (for example) would probably not be met with much enthusiasm, whereas a book about the development of carnivorous plants would probably be... er, devoured... (if you can stand the pun that I couldn't resist.  )
Anyway, I *do* expect that he might like some of Farbre's books, for instance, which would certainly be considered nature study/natural history, and entomology and zoology in general would still be of interest (particularly comparative zoology)... but on the other hand, I don't think he would really get into all of Bernd Heinrich's books.
I find that there are quite a few booklists floating around for the Bernd Heinrich sort of naturalist biology (which I will certainly draw from!) but fewer for the weird-bacteria-that-live-two-miles-down-in-diamond-mines kind of biology. I'd like a lovely Charlotte Mason style high school weird-bacteria-and-genetics kind of biology course!
Does that make any more sense?
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 3:43pm | IP Logged
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Yes! Makes perfect sense! This is what I thought you meant. Now....I just wish I knew of some books about weird-bacteria-that-live-two-miles-down-in-diamond-mines!!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Angel
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 4:36pm | IP Logged
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Well, I found one with good potential: Dark Life: Martian Nanobacteria, Rock-Eating Cave Bugs, and Other Extreme Organisms of Inner Earth and Outer Space
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Angela
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 30 2012 at 4:46pm | IP Logged
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Some suggestions of biology books with a "cool" factor:
Animal Investigators: How the world's first wildlife forensics lab is solving crimes and saving endangered species. (Biology and crime-fighting combined)
Wicked Plants: the weed that killed Lincoln"s Mother and other Botanical Atrocities(lots of totally gross and fascinating ways plants can make us suffer. Encyclopedic in format, but still fascinating to just "leaf" through)
The Hot Zone (the classic tale of an ebola scare that inspired all the recent "outbreak" type movies/books/TV shows)
Jurassic Park(genetics experiments gone wrong)
Next (also by Michael Crichton. Genetics, cloning, and who owns your genes. Lots of fascinating moral/legal issues here)
Hope that helps.
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Theresa
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LaPaz Home Learning
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AtHomeScience
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| Posted: March 31 2012 at 1:19pm | IP Logged
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This book doesn't come out until May, but I've heard good things about the Chemistry one, so I am expecting this Bio one to be good as well. It is the Illustrated guide to Home Biology Experiments: All Lab, No Lecutre.
Another you can look at is Biological Inquiries. A few of these are better done in groups but it has a lot of great experiment-based learning activities.
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Kris, Mom to 3 rambunctious boys 
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Living books for hs bio, w/o nat history
