Science Help Please!

[Tiffini]

First, I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Now that the dishes are done, my thoughts are back on my current dilemma and I'm hoping someone can help me out here.

Here is the situation: With my oldest dd being the first one to go through high school and trying to familiarize myself with how this should all go, I think I've messed up the science portion.

She did Rev2Rev last year as a 9th grader and did the EE Kit with lab which counted as Physical Science high school credit. (In my state, this is considered elective credit rather than a science credit). Typically, as a 10th grader, she should be doing Biology this year. But for some reason, I didn't get the pieces all figured out correctly. She moved into the World Geo guide this year for 10th grade and is doing the Science as written there which is IPC. I am now realizing that she really doesn't need two high school credits in Physical Science and that she will be behind now in getting in all the desired sciences for high school.

My question: Can I add to the IPC course (she is 12 weeks in) - either to the Physics part or the Chemistry part to count it as either a Physics Credit or a Chemistry credit (rather than IPC credit)? (If I did that, I would leave out the 6 units of the IPC course that we weren't focusing on). Or should I just ditch it right now and go to a Biology course and just go through the summer with it so she can have Biology done before 11th grade? She feels like she has had a lot of the IPC stuff already and is really interested in Biology. She is not heading towards a science career path. My state only requires 3 science years for credit (one IPC/Physics/Chemistry, one biology, and one other approved science).

Also, with the lab portion added into the IPC course scheduled in the Geo Guide, can this be counted as more than just IPC? She is doing the full lab portion as scheduled.

I hope this makes any sense at all! If you can help me, I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

[Tiffini]

I have been doing some more thinking about this and wanted some feedback. Would it be feasible to focus only on the Chemistry chapters of IPC (we would use the quizzes and tests to bump it up a bit) and not use the Physics chapters. She has already done two of the Chemistry chapters and I just hate to dump the course altogether when she has already done 12 weeks' worth. In addition, I would add in Chemistry 101 DVDs and my dd would do only the Chemistry related labs that we bought for the IPC course. Do you think this would be sufficient to count as a Chemistry credit w/ lab? She already has the Physical science credit from Rev2Rev and since she is not going to be majoring in a Science field, this seems to make the most sense to me. Those of you who have high school experience and knowledge, I would love some feedback. This is so new to me - figuring out how to make high school work properly for her. I'm so happy that my twins who are next in line can just use Carrie's HS guides as scheduled and I will know for sure that all the bases are covered!

[LynnH]

I was going to suggest the scenario you have come up with. I think that makes sense. I know the Chemistry 101 DVD's have some additional things you can add so you might want to look at those when you get it and see if any of those look useful. Many homeschoolers only do the Chemistry chapters and call it a Chemistry credit. If you add the Chem 101 DVD's and the labs then I would say that is definitely a credit. Then for 11th grade you could do Biology and if you really wanted to make sure you were covered you could add a more advanced Chemistry course and call it Chemistry 2, a physics course or you could do another science such as Anatomy and Physiology for her senior year. My dd was not bound for a science field and she took Biology, Chemistry and Physics and no science her senior year and she didn't have any trouble getting into her school of choice. It is however a very homeschool friendly Christian college.

[Tiffini]

Thanks so much for your input, Lynn. It helps to have someone else reassure me that it will be enough. I think she would really like to take a different science course in her senior year, such as Marine Biology, so this would enable her to do that and get what she needs. Now, I just need to get busy organizing a new schedule for her.

[8arrows]

I agree. I am loving the Chem 101 DVDs. There are extra ideas on the disc.

[Tiffini]

8arrows,

What are you using along with the DVDs? Are you doing the Pacworks, too? What about labs?

[8arrows]

I am not doing the labs. My daughter is doing Pacworks and just watching the DVDs, one per Friday. However, she demonstrates some of the labs on the the Chem 101 DVD to friends and she is doing some of the Apologia Integrated Chem. and Physics labs with younger siblings I just take pictures of whatever we do. In 2 years her brothers will be doing the labs, and I may have her join in then. I am in a similar situation to yours. She did Education Exploration last year. However, I am in a different state, and I think I will be fine counting both. I tend to do what works. There are always summers to do labs or switch things up a little if I need to.

[Tiffini]

Thanks for your feedback, Melissa. Do you try to integrate the DVDs with the PAC lessons? Or do you just do them one after the other on Fridays? I'm trying to put together a schedule and I'm having a hard time knowing where to put the DVD lessons in with the Pacworks lessons so that they correlate.

[8arrows]

No, I do not coordinate them, but it has been amazing how many times they have lined up! Seriously, my kids barely count this school. We are doing them on Friday. We also save the President videos and the extensions from the Amercan History DVDs for Friday and have a video morning. We also use That the World May Know videos by Focus on the Family for Bible that day. Let me know what you decide to do. It is helpful for me to see what others are doing.

[deltagal]

I would definitely do what you are planning and if she picks up momentum and wants to do the entire course I would let her. You can always beef-up and give her a credit for Chemistry and a credit for Physics. Even though HOD doesn't count it this way and I understand their reasoning. The author of the material does count it as 2 credits.

[Tiffini]

Thanks for your thoughts, Florence! I will definitely give this some thought as I hadn't thought about continuing on with the Physics portion as well.

[tollhousemom]

I think you're considering beefing it up, but just in case - keep in mind that the publisher says they would give 2 credits, but the credits would be "Basic Chemistry" and "Basic Physics". I think those might be looked at differently by colleges on a transcript vs. Chemistry or Chemistry w/Lab. There are probably assumptions about the rigor of a course based on the titles. This may or may not matter depending on future goals.