Homeschooling Science in Middle and High School

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Science is often a favorite subject for elementary-aged kids. Then, they get to middle school and high school. Math and complicated scientific notations, along with more formal textbooks, start nosing their way into science and sucking all the fun out of it. At least, that’s what has happened at my house.

Homeschooling Science in Middle and High School

I’m currently trying to figure out how to keep the fun (because, unfortunately, what used to be my kids’ favorite subject is now their least favorite) while still making sure that the kids are prepared for high school science, so that they can graduate college ready.

We’re currently using Apologia General Science. It’s thorough and has lots of experiments, but it’s pretty dry…and I know how rigorous the high school level books get.

I’ve considered both Real Science for Kids and Real Science Odyssey. We’ve used Real Science Odyssey at the elementary level and really enjoyed it. Brianna has used the Real Science for Kids chemistry book and enjoyed it. The only thing that holds me back on both is that neither currently has a high school level. I don’t want to find something we love for now and be back in the same boat for high school (next year for Josh and two years for Megan).

So, if you have any suggestions for high school science, I’d love to hear them! In the meantime, I wanted to share with you some resources that I’m holding on to for high school – and will possibly be trying to work in now to make science fun again (which also may mean going back to the science in Trail Guide to Learning, since the next level is astronomy, which fascinates all of us, and choosing not to think about high school level science until we have to).

Biology

Barb, from Handbook of Nature Study, has a fantastic Squidoo lens on some modifications for making Apologia Biology more Charlotte Mason friendly. The page includes suggestions for including living books and incorporating nature study and art. (Okay, to me, a detailed coloring book for all things biology is art. You’re welcome to disagree.)

I’ve also got this nifty Apologia Biology flashcard app bookmarked. No, flashcards aren’t especially fun, but everything is more fun on the iPad.

Chemistry

Just last week, I saw this great chemical reactions app mentioned on Free Technology for Teachers. I’ve already purchased it. Now, before all the homeschool haters start coming out of the woodwork telling me I can’t possibly base a high school level chemistry class on an iPad app, chill out. I’m not saying it should be the sum total of a chemistry class. I’m just agreeing with the guy who posted it (for classroom teachers) that:

“goREACT could be a great app to use in a science classroom in which you cannot access (for good reasons in some cases) some of the materials needed to make chemical reactions.” – Richard Byrne, Free Technology for Teachers

And, should you need to memorize the elements, this catchy little song should help:

You can even purchase it at iTunes for your iPod.

I’ve also got bookmarked an interactive Period Table of Elements and flashcards from Quizlet.

Science Equipment

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating – it’s very helpful to purchase quality science equipment when you can. I know it can get expensive, but there are some ways to reduce the sticker shock a little. First, we take very good care of our microscope. We discuss how to use it before it is used and it is covered and put in a safe location when it isn’t being used. My plan is to keep it in exceptional condition and sell it when we’re finished.

You could also split the cost with another family or group of families and do science labs together. I’d want to know the families really well if I did that, but it is an idea. This could also be a good time to ask the grandparents to keep school equipment in mind as a family Christmas gift.

We purchase other supplies – like beakers and test tubes – from Homeschool Science Tools. We’ve always been really pleased with them. They even have science kits for homeschool science based on several popular curriculum publishers.

Those are just some of the resources I’ve started accumulating for High School, Round 2. I’d love it if you’d share some of your favorite resources or your science curriculum recommendations. I know I have a lot of secular readers, so it’s worth mentioning that I’m not married to the idea of Christian curriculum, so I’d like to hear your suggestions, as well.

 

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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19 Comments

  1. Hi Kris,

    Some of my friends and their kids are using Bridget Ardoin’s Science for High School. I don’t know anything about it because we went a different route this year (Earth Science with Great Courses videos and a textbook), but they seem to really be enjoying it and think the kids are learning a lot.

    We did some Chemistry last year and one of our favorite things was watching the Periodic Table of Videos from the University of Nottingham. Informative, but very entertaining. I would also recommend Middle School Chemistry, a free curriculum from the American Chemical Society.

    I’m looking forward to seeing what other people recommend, so thank you for posting this.

    Sarah

  2. My daughter also loved science until around 7th grade when it became ”boring.” She still desires a future in the sciences, but, like Apologia- which I used with my son-, her current curriculum is very dull and hard to get into. I’ve been searching for an astronomy curriculum for her for next year (10th grade) because astronomy is her favorite branch of science. She’s also very artistic, and the other day I encountered a book called ”Teaching Astronomy Through Art.” (There are 2 volumes). Although I haven’t tried it yet myself, we are using this next year, so maybe you’d like to consider it, too. Thanks for your blogs! I look forward to them everyday.

  3. We are having the same problem with our science! While I love the thoroughness of Apologia, my kids are dreading science these days. I think for us part of the problem is the bottom-up approach of Apologia. My kids do much better at a top-down approach, learning the big concepts first. I’m looking into do our Apologia Biology backwards, starting at the end of the book and working toward the beginning. I’m not yet sure if this will work. I’m also looking into the new science published by Answers in Genesis. It only goes to 8th grade, but I’m wondering if it could be adapted for high school. I am anxious to see what others are doing for high school science!

    1. I’d be curious to know how the approach of working through biology backwards works for you. If you’re ahead of us, you’ll have to let me know.

  4. Well I’m having the same challenges. First I’m adding this one to my Science curriculum for next year, Uzinggo – https://www.uzinggo.com . We’ve tried Thinkwell and Time4learning (Biology) and found they were the same video teachers. So we went with Thinkwell which is thorough but doesn’t have the labs we wanted. Also, looking at Trivedi Regular Chemistry (https://www.trivedichemistry.com/index.php/high-school-chemistry), PA online Homeschool courses (https://www.aphomeschoolers.com/index.shtml) and DIVE (https://www.diveintomath.com) that can be used with (DIVE text, BJU, Apologia, A Beka, or others)

  5. Yep, same issue here! my oldest is now in 8th grade, but I am planning ahead to next year for Biology. So far, I have the FREE CK-12 Biology books from Amazon as well as a free Origin of the Species kindle book. I have plans to get nitty gritty with our nature studies, and focus on a nearby nature preserve. Not sure exactly how I am going to do it, but I really want a “field-based” approach. We have a zoo and a science museum available for field trips and plan to invest in some science equipment for the field. We will also focus on vocabulary and taxonomy. My daughter is particularly interested in Microbiology, so we will probably do a 6-12 week unit study on that.

  6. You might want to check out this DVD series for Biology and Chemistry (they are working on Physics now.) : https://www.the101series.com. We are doing Chemistry right now. My boys love this book for learning about the periodic table:https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Visual-Exploration-Every-Universe/dp/1579128955/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382986201&sr=1-8&keywords=periodic+table and this book by John Hudson Tiner https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-World-Chemistry-High-Speed-Computers/dp/0890512957/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382986263&sr=1-1&keywords=Exploring+the+world+of+chemistry.

    1. Yes, we have both. 🙂 I should have included them, but we’re just getting started on them, so I don’t have an opinion yet.

  7. Have you checked out guesthollow.com ? Under the curricula tab you will find lesson plans for teaching elementary and middle school science and history with lots of living books. Also, she just put out a high school Biology program with a free textbook and workbork.

    1. I’ve heard of that and I’ve looked at it before, but I haven’t checked it out lately. I’ll have to do that. Thanks.

  8. All the joy has been sucked out of my 9th grade daughter’s love of science last year and this one. Boo! Last year we used Apologia Physical Science, this year I switched to Christian Liberty Press for biology. Instead of investing a ton of money and effort into purchasing all the biology experiment materials (if I had more than one kid at home to use it I would have) we signed her up for the Landry Academy 2-day Biology Lab Intensive. It takes place in early Nov. where we live. I’m hoping it is a fun thing for her as well as being rigorous enough for the credit, which I’m assured it is. Here’s the link for Landry Academy: https://landryacademy.com/lab-intensives.htm

  9. We’ve done lots of different things at lots of different times depending on the kids’ interets. Never did find a programme that we liked enough to follow all the way through. For my science geek (he’s now doing a PhD in chemistry) we liked a lot of the resources recommended in Rebecca Rupp’s Home Learning Year by Year for high school. He also did one of The Great Courses and a free MIT open course. With the advance of MOOCs and Coursera etc there are a lot more opportunties for this sort of learning. For my non-academic “give it to me straight and make sure it doesn’t waste my time” kid Prentice Hall’s Science Explorer was a good fit for middle school – textbooky and solid not spectacular, but quick and straightforward and easy to try cheaply second hand. Another point to consider is that you don’t need to follow the standard science sequence or topics. One of my kids didn’t like science but after stumbling across a free study guide online and discovering the matching textbook in the local library I convinced her to try psychology. She loved it and is now majoring in it at university. My youngest loves birds – we go birding most weeks, she’s participating in an online class, has read lots of living books, scientific journals and other material, has joined the ornithology society and attends their lectures and events, has watched a variety of documentaries etc etc – more than enough hours and learning to warrant a high school level credit in ornithology. I second the recommendation for the American Chemical Society’s Middle School Chemistry – we used it this year and I though it did a great job of building up a solid understanding of chemcial principles. Have you looked at Noeo? If I recall they use a lot of living books which might suit your family. If I came across something I thought my kids would like I’d make use if it and worry about what to do next year or for high school when that time came. At least they’d get a good year inthe meantime. With regards to Real Science Odyssey Level 2 – something I’m looking at for next year – I think they include advice on how to ramp it up a little for high school level.

    1. Thanks for such great suggestions. I hadn’t thought about ramping up Real Science Odyssey. That is a definite consideration and we already know we like their material.

  10. Nova has an app called discovering the elements. It isn’t crazy extensive, but the videos are fascinating and the app lets you “build” some elements. As far as I know it is still free. It was a fun one and definitely got my son interested in Chemistry.

    Thames and Kosmos have so of the best science kits around. They also include instructional softbound “texts” that are highly engaging and centered around the experiments. It is basically a course designed around experiments instead of merely fitting the experiments in here and there. It could definitely be the central component to a high school course with some added information here and there to round it out.

    Other than those two, we’re still working on the same issue. Your thoughts here are very helpful.

  11. We are using trail guides POP and I’m wondering if you have used the science that comes with POP. We weren’t very happy with the physics curriculum in the first half of POP, so we have used a different physics to supplement. We are starting with the second portion and I’m wondering if you like the Biology that they recommend. If you didn’t use POP science, is there a reason why? Thank you for your time.

    1. Hi, Melanie. Here’s a quote from our curriculum page (since that will change when I update and others may have the same question you have): “Although Trail Guide is all-inclusive, I have made the decision to supplement science this year. The only reason for that is high school prep. Josh will be entering high school next year. We tried Apologia’s biology with Brianna and it wasn’t a good fit. Switching science curriculum mid-year caused us to get behind. Because most colleges in Georgia require four lab-based sciences in high school, I don’t want to take any chances on getting behind with Josh. The high school level texts for Trail Guide won’t be available by the time Josh enters high school. Since I still think Apologia is excellent science curriculum, I wanted to see if we could make it work for Josh with some adjustments. So, we’re trying it during his 8th grade year. That way, if we need to make changes, we can make them before he’s in high school.”

      Hope that helps!

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