Jane S.

HI all -
I'm Jane in Maryland... haven't been on this list in a long long
while but I hope you'll address my question with your creative
thinking!

My 13yo daughter wants to earn a Biology 'credit' for high school
which means 120 hours of 'biology'....

What are some interesting ways that she could do that?

Any recommended books (anyone know 'Instant Biology' or 'Cartoon
Guide to Genetics'?, movies, programs, kits, other activities would
be greatly appreciated.... Where we are 'lacking' (if there is such
a thing) is in the area of microscopic stuff.... She's a 'self
teacher' so she prefers to have stuff to do on her own and then be
able to ask me questions as she needs to....

Her horse is about to have a baby in a few months so that'll be a lot
of it. We have animals and, if she had the time between her horse,
working to pay for the horse, karate, swimteam, friends, guitar,
friends, skiing, and watching football (altho that's almost over :),
she'd volunteer at the animal shelter. Then there's the dvds at
Netflix.....any specific titles you recommend?

Thanks for your time and your responses! And, if there is something
here that suggests that there's another view I could use, I'd
appreciate hearing that, too....

jane

Wendy

How about one of those fruit fly kits to learn genetics? I've done those
and I loved it.

On Jan 25, 2008 9:26 AM, Jane S. <janesutcliffe@...> wrote:

> HI all -
> I'm Jane in Maryland... haven't been on this list in a long long
> while but I hope you'll address my question with your creative
> thinking!
>
> My 13yo daughter wants to earn a Biology 'credit' for high school
> which means 120 hours of 'biology'....
>
> What are some interesting ways that she could do that?
>
> Any recommended books (anyone know 'Instant Biology' or 'Cartoon
> Guide to Genetics'?, movies, programs, kits, other activities would
> be greatly appreciated.... Where we are 'lacking' (if there is such
> a thing) is in the area of microscopic stuff.... She's a 'self
> teacher' so she prefers to have stuff to do on her own and then be
> able to ask me questions as she needs to....
>
> Her horse is about to have a baby in a few months so that'll be a lot
> of it. We have animals and, if she had the time between her horse,
> working to pay for the horse, karate, swimteam, friends, guitar,
> friends, skiing, and watching football (altho that's almost over :),
> she'd volunteer at the animal shelter. Then there's the dvds at
> Netflix.....any specific titles you recommend?
>
> Thanks for your time and your responses! And, if there is something
> here that suggests that there's another view I could use, I'd
> appreciate hearing that, too....
>
> jane
>
>
>



--
Peace,
Wendy

Once when John Holt (the father of unschooling) was speaking to a school
audience, describing his views on the their structured curriculum, a student
asked him, "But surely there must be something important enough that
everyone should learn it?" He thought for a moment and replied, "To learn to
say 'I'm sorry', 'I don't know', and 'I was wrong'."

My Blog
http://wendyschewonthis.blogspot.com/

Eat your veggies!
http://www.juiceplus.com/+wm60916
(my home business)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Wendy

And in my search for the lits I found this...I think it's free

http://www.genome.gov/25019879#GetCD

On Jan 25, 2008 9:26 AM, Jane S. <janesutcliffe@...> wrote:

> HI all -
> I'm Jane in Maryland... haven't been on this list in a long long
> while but I hope you'll address my question with your creative
> thinking!
>
> My 13yo daughter wants to earn a Biology 'credit' for high school
> which means 120 hours of 'biology'....
>
> What are some interesting ways that she could do that?
>
> Any recommended books (anyone know 'Instant Biology' or 'Cartoon
> Guide to Genetics'?, movies, programs, kits, other activities would
> be greatly appreciated.... Where we are 'lacking' (if there is such
> a thing) is in the area of microscopic stuff.... She's a 'self
> teacher' so she prefers to have stuff to do on her own and then be
> able to ask me questions as she needs to....
>
> Her horse is about to have a baby in a few months so that'll be a lot
> of it. We have animals and, if she had the time between her horse,
> working to pay for the horse, karate, swimteam, friends, guitar,
> friends, skiing, and watching football (altho that's almost over :),
> she'd volunteer at the animal shelter. Then there's the dvds at
> Netflix.....any specific titles you recommend?
>
> Thanks for your time and your responses! And, if there is something
> here that suggests that there's another view I could use, I'd
> appreciate hearing that, too....
>
> jane
>
>
>



--
Peace,
Wendy

Once when John Holt (the father of unschooling) was speaking to a school
audience, describing his views on the their structured curriculum, a student
asked him, "But surely there must be something important enough that
everyone should learn it?" He thought for a moment and replied, "To learn to
say 'I'm sorry', 'I don't know', and 'I was wrong'."

My Blog
http://wendyschewonthis.blogspot.com/

Eat your veggies!
http://www.juiceplus.com/+wm60916
(my home business)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pamela Sorooshian

Asking, on an unschooling list, how to get a high school "credit" is a
little weird - so it might have helped to explain why she needs or
wants it.

If, on the other hand, you'd said she's interested in biology and
wants to learn more about what it typically includes, we could make
some suggestions.
You seem to have a lot of options already, though, for some great
natural learning opportunities. If you are looking for something that
covers more conventional biology topics, you might get the Standard
Deviants Biology DVDs - you can order them online and I've even seen
them at bookstores. Very traditional material presented in a
slapstick, low-humor way. The content is what is typically included in
an introductory college-level course.

I like the Cartoon Guides, myself. Again, they are just standard
content in a comic strip format - just a little irreverent, enough to
giggle at once in a while.

-pam


On Jan 25, 2008, at 6:26 AM, Jane S. wrote:

> Thanks for your time and your responses! And, if there is something
> here that suggests that there's another view I could use, I'd
> appreciate hearing that, too....



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Jane S.

Hello -
Pam, thank you very much for your ideas! I'll pass them along to
her....

I asked her again why she wants the 'credit'.... she says she is
interested in animal rehab therapy and will need biology for that so
she wants to start now and wants to have the 'documented credit'
believing that that will make things easier later when she goes to
take formal classes in her field....

Thanks!
Jane

--- In AlwaysLearning@yahoogroups.com, Pamela Sorooshian
<pamsoroosh@...> wrote:
>
> Asking, on an unschooling list, how to get a high school "credit"
is a
> little weird - so it might have helped to explain why she needs or
> wants it.
>
> If, on the other hand, you'd said she's interested in biology and
> wants to learn more about what it typically includes, we could
make
> some suggestions.
> You seem to have a lot of options already, though, for some great
> natural learning opportunities. If you are looking for something
that
> covers more conventional biology topics, you might get the
Standard
> Deviants Biology DVDs - you can order them online and I've even
seen
> them at bookstores. Very traditional material presented in a
> slapstick, low-humor way. The content is what is typically included
in
> an introductory college-level course.
>
> I like the Cartoon Guides, myself. Again, they are just standard
> content in a comic strip format - just a little irreverent, enough
to
> giggle at once in a while.
>
> -pam
>
>
> On Jan 25, 2008, at 6:26 AM, Jane S. wrote:
>
> > Thanks for your time and your responses! And, if there is
something
> > here that suggests that there's another view I could use, I'd
> > appreciate hearing that, too....
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Sandra Dodd

-=-My 13yo daughter wants to earn a Biology 'credit' for high school
which means 120 hours of 'biology'....

What are some interesting ways that she could do that?-=-

This part wasn't addressed much.
Do you mean to ask how you can justify "giving her credit" as a homeschooling mom? Or
does she want "real" credit (from a correspondence school or something)?

With school, the goal is grades and credits and certificates, so it is possible to cheat.

With unschooling, the goal is learning, and there is no way to cheat. Learning is learning.

Perhaps you could sign up for an online biology class, and do it together, not for credit (or
without regard to whether she does it alone or you do it alone, or what "grade" you get. You
could learn together and one thing she will learn is that counting hours and "getting credit"
isn't as cool as learning.

Sandra

gailbrocop@aol.com

My 13yo daughter wants to earn a Biology 'credit' for high school
which means 120 hours of 'biology'...w


___

We didn't pay much attention to "credits" the past few years unschooling.
However, when Brenna decided to apply to some colleges we needed to make a
transcript so that she might qualify for some Florida scholarships especially
one that could pay 100% of her tuition if she goes in state.

She needed three sciences and two of those with labs. Florida has a website
where you can research the accepted high school classes and we looked
through them and found several that she could use just from some of her interests
the past few years.

She built a compost system for our family and planted an organic garden last
year. She spent way more than 120 hours buying seeds, building raised beds
from wood, and then working on her composting and garden through the spring
and summer. She learned way more than the objectives listed for the subject
"Environmental Science with Lab" so it was very easy to count that as a
credit. The cool thing was that she didn't do it to earn a credit. It was all
because she thought it would be fun. She loved every little plant that
sprouted and we now have a little garden area and compost system....and she in a
roundabout way it paid for itself and way more if she decides to use that
scholarship money. The value of it was in the learning for her and our entire
family as well as the enjoyment of eating the food she had grown.

We found that we could do this for many things. We included some narrative
descriptions as well as a letter of our unschooling learning approach. It
took some time and creativity but it was well worth it.

She's been accepted at her two top college choices plus received the full
tuition scholarship as well as some others.

If your daughter wants to explore Biology, I'd recommend watching some
DVD's or just looking at the areas that Biology encompasses and see if some of it
does interest her. Branch out from there and something might just be a
spark that leads to other things. 120 hours is not much if she finds something
she enjoys and loves learning about . Don't obsess about the hours So many
things to explore and learn about under the very broad topic of Biology.

Gail

http://gail-hummingbirdhaven.blogspot.com/




**************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.
(http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025
48)


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