How to Choose the Best Curriculum Resources for High School Biology
The idea of teaching high school biology can often strike fear in parents. How can I teach a subject I don’t feel capable of teaching? What curriculum do I choose? What about dissections? If you feel this way, you’re not alone. Many parents feel like it is difficult to provide their teens with a quality biology education. Well, the good news is that there are many options available for homeschoolers to make learning biology a successful experience. Biology can be more than just memorizing and regurgitating facts. In fact, it can be an engaging experience that has real-world applications.
Additionally, there are materials available that meet every learning style,e so your teen will be prepared to graduate and go on to college. And let me just say right now, there is no bad news! So, let’s get into the details. Why do students need to take biology in the first place? Well, I could say the major reason is that colleges want to see general biology on a student’s transcript. But not every student is college-directed. In fact, learning biology is beneficial for many reasons beyond preparing for college.
What is Biology?
In studying biology, students learn more about the design of living organisms and can see how the beauty and complexity reflect the majesty of the Creator. A study of biology helps students understand how their bodies work and how to stay healthy. Plus, the process of studying biology builds note-taking skills, study skills, and thinking skills that will benefit students in all areas of life.
Can I teach my kids biology at home?
The answer to this is yes…and no. If you already have a good grasp of science, yes, you can teach this subject. Using a good curriculum, such as Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology, you can go over daily lessons and discuss the content with your teen. But if science is not in your wheelhouse (or if the idea of science makes you want to run away and hide), then you’ll be thrilled to know that there are more options available to learn biology than ever before. Instead of a teacher, you can become your teen’s facilitator, providing the best resources that will meet his or her educational needs. In fact, it’s good to have your teens begin to learn more material on their own. This fosters educational independence. As a homeschooler, an academic goal for your high school students is for them to become more independent in their learning. That will better prepare them for whatever God has for them in the future!
What does the best biology curriculum provide?
When choosing a biology curriculum, look for the following features:
Engaging Style: A great biology curriculum will engage your teen’s interest. In many cases, a textbook can be a bit dry and difficult to follow, particularly when the content is new and challenging. However, Apologia’s science texts are written with an engaging, conversational style. The biology text talks with the reader as if the student is listening to someone sitting nearby, having a conversation about the world around them.
Challenging and Thorough: The best biology curricula provide rigorous content that will give students a thorough understanding of the biological sciences. It will prepare them well for future courses, but it will also be engaging enough to meet the needs of non-science-directed students. There should be connections to everyday life with applications to the real world. We want our teens to be challenged by cultivating a deep and comprehensive appreciation of God’s creation.
Easy to Use: Parents want a curriculum that doesn’t require taking major tutorials or reading volumes of material. There shouldn’t be a massive learning curve just to implement a curriculum! Apologia science courses are all formatted in the same easy-to-use way. Exploring Creation with Biology consists of a student text, a parent Solutions Manual, and an optional (but highly recommended) Student Notebook. The Student Notebook contains daily lesson plans that cover what sections to read daily, when to perform experiments, and when to complete comprehension questions and exams. It’s open-and-go!
Several Ways to Reinforce Learning: A good homeschool biology curriculum supports the learning process and reviews material regularly.
Apologia’s high school biology homeschool curriculum has On Your Own comprehension questions that the student answers after reading each section in a module. The answers to those questions are located at the end of each module so students can immediately check to see if they understood the material they just read. These questions point to the most important content covered in each section so students can ensure they grasp the material as they go. The Student Notebook provides plenty of space for note-taking, which reinforces critical thinking and improves memory.
Apologia biology has a Study Guide at the end of each module. This covers all the pertinent information from the module and is taken by the student like a practice test. Students can fill in the answers to the Study Guide from memory, but they can also look back into the module to find the answers to any questions they don’t remember. Then, they can compare their answers to the Study Guide solutions. Students can then use the On Your Own questions and the Study Guide to study for the module test.
Apologia biology also provides several hands-on experiments demonstrating important topics covered in each module. These increase the learning process as students can see and explore the material for themselves.
Meets the Needs of Varied Learning Styles: Every student is beautifully unique. Each one learns and processes information differently. A good biology curriculum offers several modes of learning, such as hands-on, visual, and auditory options. Apologia offers our biology course as an audiobook so that auditory learners can read the text while they hear the sentences read aloud. Apologia’s video instruction option provides section-by-section teaching using on-location videos, engaging animations, and complete demonstrations of all the experiments in the course (including the microscope and dissection experiments!).
Of course, one of the most efficient ways to learn is by doing. Apologia biology has over 30 hands-on experiments. In this course, there are three experiment types: household, microscope, and dissection. The household experiments demonstrate the more challenging concepts covered using simple supplies you can get from the grocery or hardware store. Apologia also offers dissection and microscope kits that have all the materials necessary for the assigned experiments. There are thorough, step-by-step instructions that walk students through each experiment. Explanations of the experimental results are also provided directly after the instructions.
Although performing dissections provides the best learning experience, families who are apprehensive about doing dissections or who don’t have access to a microscope can find some virtual dissections at various sites online. Your students can look for internet slide images and make illustrations based on what they see on the screen, or they can watch the accompanying video to this course.
Conclusion
A study of biology gives students a greater glimpse of the fingerprints of God in every living thing. And although providing your teen with a good biology course might seem daunting, hopefully, you now have a great overview of what to look for. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming because excellent options are available to help your teen succeed!