EP Biology is based on Georgia’s Virtual Biology Course (GVB). First, both EP and GVB are fine courses; the content in both is a basic, Biology survey course. The content does compare to Apologia’s Bio course, especially if you use both EP and GVB. The devil is in the details. EP and GVB address all of the core Bio concepts; however, Apologia Bio has much more depth, especially with regard to plants and animals.
Both EP and Apologia have labs. Ep has four labs requiring materials, such as the Osmosis Lab or optional DNA Extraction, which are similar to Apologia’s experiments. The Reebop Lab is clever. Is Cat Genetics Lab really an experiment or a problem set? Some labs are virtual labs and an optional Virtual Frog Dissection. Apologia has several dissections, including perch and frog, with guides in the textbook. Here is EP’s lab report template; here is Apologia’s guide. There is nothing wrong with EP’s template. Apologia offers a greater amount of information.
EP and GVB offer a bunch of videos with questions. The EP lessons, such as Invertebrates, have text, terms, videos, and graphics. Apologia relies on kiddos reading the textbook and answering study guide questions, instead. Overall, Apologia just has more depth.
Let me make a case for Apologia Bio; used copies of second edition of Apologia and the test and solutions guide are very affordable. (I’m switching to the third edition because the families are switching; they worry about missing out on updated contents. The content in the second edition is fine.) Here is a daily schedule to follow because I know that is an important feature! The specimens and slides for Apologia Bio are costly. To save money, buy a set of specimens and dissect on paper plates or foam trays. Use a cell phone microscope with a basic set of prepared slides. Here the complete list of lab supplies. I use prepared slides—even for pond water. (We have a retention pond in our back yard; there aren’t many species in the water. Ask me how I know.) The purpose of slides is to learn how to observe and sketch slides; any type is fine.
As I said yesterday, there is nothing wrong with using any of EP or GVB’s materials. Why not use Apologia and resources from EP or GVB, especially for tough units, such as cellular respiration, photosynthesis, or genetics?
There are so many ads for labs! Yes, teachers pay for labs! No, they aren’t getting a kit or materials; they are paying for curriculum. Boooooo! So, I saw another ad for Candy DNA. By all means make Candy DNA. We’ve used gum drops, gummy bears, and marshmallows. It’s another hit!
Guess what! You may be asking yourself this question because the teacher who agreed last spring to lead Co-op has vanished. Now you have a gaping hole in the Co-op schedule. All of you were hoping to cover something for Biology or Chemistry. In a moment of weakness you agree to host the class. How hard can it be? Anticipate that you’ll experience moments of terror all year, self-doubt, and defeat. These are all normal. For several years, I was an adjunct at a local college. Talk about imposter syndrome. You may experience it, too. Also normal.
What background do you need to teach a science Co-op class? Is it nice to have a background in science? Sure. Is it necessary? Nope. Are you interested? Your interest is key. I have a science background. It doesn’t prepare me for every question or experiment. I have to do research. I recommend leading a Co-op class with the experiments rather than trying to teach the course—at least the first time. Your job is to try each experiment in advance, prepare the materials, and supervise the lab during Co-op. Students will read, answer questions, and test at home. Trust me; many families will be overjoyed to have you lead labs.
The biggest issue is safety. Buy a set of safety glasses and require students to wear them for every lab. The only exception is if they are doing a microscope lab. Here and here are slide decks with safety and lab equipment links. BTW, it is not plagiarism to use other links, websites, etc for class. Educators have more latitude to use other people’s stuff for class, as long as they don’t try to sell it or pretend it’s their own work.
Ideally the Co-op will meet weekly for 60-90 minutes to complete the experiments. Decide how to fund supplies. Most are inexpensive; however, it’s easier and more practical for you, as the instructor, to bring all the supplies, rather than depend on a parent. Buy a big bin. See if families are willing to invest $25-$50 for each child to defray costs. If you dissect, costs are greater; specimens are pricey.
Before Co-op class, do the experiment. Am I cavalier about this step? Maybe. Have I glanced over the lab and decided I didn’t need to try it? Hmmm. Guess when things go wrong. How long does the experiment take? If an experiment takes 15 minutes, kiddos will need about 30 minutes. Have extra materials on hand. For example, when you introduce the Microscope parts, plan to make slide sketches.. Bring copies of a microscope quiz. Your kiddos are going to read and follow the experiment’s instructions verbatim. Then you can reinforce the lesson. When a teen asks if he could try a different approach or substitute a chemical, the answer is NO! Skip any lab with lye. Period.
Each module has a different number of experiments. Be sure to have materials for three or four experiments from the modules to do during each Co-op session. If you don’t finish all of them, so what? Things go south when you don’t have enough to do. Remember, you may want to have student repeat an experiment; ideally, every experiment is repeated three times. Lengthy experiments, such as calorimetry labs or the DNA Extraction are usually performed once, because they take so much time. I do allow variations with the DNA lab. Try different soaps: liquid, hand soap, laundry detergent, Dawn, or shampoo. I bring extra materials to allow students who finish early to try it again.
What happens when something in lab goes wrong? Try Apologia’ Support page. For example, click on Chemistry, and review the articles with questions and answers. Look at What help do you have for Calorimetry problems? Apologia has a sample lab report and Lab Report Guide. (BTW, one zinger in Apologia’s Chemistry textbook is Experiment 5.1 (2e) or Experiment 7.1 (3e). Here are sample calculations.) Okay, what happens when the lab didn’t work at all. First, panic! Just kidding! Reread the lab. Did the kids miss a step? Repeat the lab. If it still doesn’t work, shrug it off. There are many reasons a lab doesn’t work. For example, I learned the hard way to use fresh meat tenderizer to do the DNA Extraction lab. The enzyme breaks down pretty quickly. What did I I do? I brought a fresh jar and we redid the experiment during the next class. We were all expert at the DNA extraction lab because we had trouble-shot every other variable before arriving on the meat tenderizer. You are going to make mistakes. Things are going to go wrong. Labs are going to fail. None of these events portend the end of the world. Although it helps to have a robust self concept.
Where can you go for more help? There are loads of free YouTube videos, such as Apologia’s Chemistry 3.2 (2e) below. No, getting help is not cheating! It’s fine to Google a question on your cell phone, too. Yes, during class! Crash Course is fantastic! You might want to broadcast a video related to the topic, such as fermentation after doing the experiment. Yes, watching a video is part of teaching!
Take one more step. Look up the key concept. For example, if you are doing Experiment 4.2, be sure to do a little research before class. What is fermentation? What is methylene blue? What is an indicator?(Methylene blue, crystal violet, phenol red, etc are indicator solutions, dyes which change color at different pH levels. Think dye lots in fabric or yarn. If the dye solution is slightly more acidic or basic, the color changes. That’s why many dyes make interesting inductor solutions.) What is the point to the experiment? You’ll feel much more confident leading the experiment with the class.
What can you do if the experiments are done is 15 minutes and Co-op lasts 90 minutes? First, teens can answer ‘On Your Own’ or study guide questions from the textbook. (They need their textbooks anyway to do the experiments.) Define the terms in bold from the textbook or outline the module. In Chemistry, print Chemmatters articles and questions from the teacher’s guides. Watch a Crash Course video. In Biology, you may be comfortable doing a related activity, such as Creating a Food Web or doing an extra Dichotomous Key (Here is the answer key. Do activities with answer keys! Let the kiddos check their answers and make corrections.) Keep emergency word search puzzles or cryptograms. Try a project. Make a cell model. Assemble a Mitosis Flip Book. Adopt an Element. Look at you growing in confidence!
As you grow in confidence, stretch a little. Add a few labs: Gummy Bear Osmosis, Jelly Bean Biology, or Reaction in a Bag. Food related labs build confidence: Bread in a Bag or Candy DNA. One key tip is to have the answer keys and Apologia Solutions’ guide with answers. Learn as you go! Teaching is hard work. It is also enormously rewarding. Be honest with your kiddos if you don’t have a science background. Explain you all will learn together. Buckle up and buy a set of safety glasses!
Let’s plan robust lessons for fall. Many families like to use a theme with experiments for the entire family. Polymers has a wide assortment of labs, activities, and experiments.
Younger Kiddos
1. One hit is Fizz Wizard and Jammin’ Jelly kit or Edible Chemistry.
4. Follow up Grow Creatures with Growing Cubes, Growing Spheres,Water Gel Spikes, or Water Gel Crystals. One easy experiment is to put the cubes, crystals, etc in tap water, distilled water, and salt water. How much water do they absorb? We weigh the crystals before and after they soak in water. (Yes, we use tons of yogurt cups for experiments!)
Older Kiddos: Many of the experiments with grow crystals resonate with children 6-8, too.
1. Bouncy Balls is basic flubber rolled into a ball.
2. Hands-on Plastics (HOP) has lessons based on this Kit, which has all different types of plastics cut into tiny pellets. You may want to cut up your own plastic bits. Here are the HOP YouTube videos. Watch one to see what the bitty pellets look like. The lessons are geared toward children ages 5-12. What I like is that kiddos learn that the different types of plastics and learn about different plastics’ properties. Note that the kit has a preform, soda bottles used as giant test tubes. Plastic Density is a simpler activity, which uses just water. Check out Materials Now—a unit study about plastics and their properties.
There are several good science kits you can assemble yourself. However, they usually involve cutting, which can be time consuming if you need several sets for Co-op. Print these now. When your kiddo complains just how bored she is, enlist her help cutting. I have stacks of diy Instructional Kits for my science classes.
1. Biology: The Lynx Eats the Hare is described in this blog post. Copy several sheets for each set. Cut out the tiny hare and mount the Lynx on to a bigger card. I stuff sets into smaller envelopes contained in large envelopes, marked in large letters.
2. Biology: DNA Sentences can be cut into strips—which are much less intimidating! Here is another version of DNA Sentences—with an answer key. Say it with DNA is very detailed and has several keys. The goal is to transcript and translate DNA into proteins.
3. Biology: Create concept maps. Here are the ecology terms used to create the concept map below. Yes! Writing the same terms over and over is a big pain! Same money and cut the index cards in half. Below is random card stock I had on hand and cut into squares.
4. Biology: Food webs! Use pix (the one below is from the biology group on social media) to create food webs. HHMI’s Bioactive Creating Chains and Webs has pix (and a strong political bias). No, I do not laminate cards or pix in my kits.
5. Chemistry: Putting Ions in Their Hands is the best means I have found to teach ionic formulas. I printed the ions on red and blue card stock (just like red and blue litmus paper). Cut away!
6. Chemistry: It’s in the Cards! I print the cards on card stock because I reuse these sets for Co-op classes.
7. Chemistry: Concept Maps! Here is the Properties of Matter vocabulary list.
Every time I see a pristine science kit listed for sale I sigh. It usually means a family worked through the course without doing any labs, activities, or dissections. What can we do differently? Do all of the labs before you begin the course. Really. Does this sound radical? Years ago, my home-school friends asked me to host science camps. Why? The families wanted more science for their kiddos. (BTW any child who wanted to come to science camp was welcome; about half were home-schoolers.) Yes, for many families, science camp was the extent the kiddos did labs or experiments. (Later, the same families asked me to teach Co-op classes—likely for the same reasons.). I pack loads and loads of activities, labs, and experiments into a week of science camps. Treat the textbook’s experiments like a camp.
Why not create your own lab week? Get out the textbook and start doing the labs or Try This! activities. First, set aside two weeks. Here and here are table of contents for the second editions of Apologia’s Chemistry and Biology textbooks; each has roughly 30 labs. (The Young Explorers’ series’ textbooks are laden with activities called Try This! You’ll be looking at two, very full weeks.) That means your family would do three labs each morning for ten days, five days each week. I’ve done all of these labs. Some take longer than others. (I’m quaking over Chemistry’s Experiment 5.1, Measuring the Width of a Molecule and Biology’s Experiment 7.1, DNA Extraction, or the dissections. They take an hour each, minimum.) Other experiments are much quicker. What if you don’t finish all of the textbook’s labs in two weeks? Well, you will make a big dent in the labs. I don’t care if the kiddos learn anything while they do the labs. I know! Heresy! Just do the labs well! (Although, summer is also a good time for a writing clinic!) Be sure to take loads of photos. Write a few memorable captions. Save these photos where you can find them—not somewhere safe. Make a few videos of interesting moments. You can use all this information when you actually learn the course material.
Will doing all of the labs impact the quality of instruction? My kiddos remember almost everything they do and nearly nothing I say. I have to point out specific material which is actually in their textbooks. Your children may want to redo the lab to make improvements when you come to that topic. I’m betting your family will try to make connections between the lab they did and the material in the textbook when you actually teach it this fall. What happened in the experiment? What was the point? So, what is osmosis and diffusion? Does the specimen resemble the diagram? Select four of the experiments and write formal lab reports. Do more labs instead of selling another expensive, untouched science kit.
In light of all the sales, what do you really need for Biology labs? Before you buy an expensive microscope, see if your library has one you can use. Plan to bring a set of slides and work ant the library. Ours does! If not, consider using a digital microscope. My teens focus the slide, capture a screenshot, and then sketch the image. Sometimes, they label and save images. We also use kiddie microscopes. I have ten. The resolution is quite good—certainly sufficient for high school Bio.
Buy a set of microscope slides. While I think the Amscope are fine, many families buy the Apologia set. This page has the description of the 16 slides in the Apologia kit and here is the Amscope contents. My goal is to have the kiddos learn how to observe and sketch slides. I bought two larger sets of slides similar to the one below. Check the set on Amazon; the contents are excellent!
Test tubes and a rack are nicer than test tubes in a yogurt container. Buy borosilicate, glass test tubes (Pyrex or Kimax). Be sure to buy either safety glasses or goggles. Kiddos are much more likely to keep safety glasses on their faces.
Do you plan to dissect? If you only do one specimen, make it the frog—unless you fish. If so, dissect a perch. You can use a paper plate, a sharp knife, and a pair of scissors. The tray and dissection kit are nice, but not essential. HST has good dissection manuals, too; however the instruction in the textbook or instructions online here are fine. It does help to have perch and frog images available.
Most of the labs use simple materials: split peas (DNA Extraction), activity copies (The Lynx eats the Hare), white beans (Mark-Recapture), coffee filters, straws, baggies, cornstarch, etc. Below are some examples.
I do have molecule sets I find to be extremely useful; however I teach Bio and Chem frequently. The LabAid kits were investments. I have both vintage and modern #505 Molecules of Life kits. The worksheets make the kits worthwhile; the molecules are easy to manipulate and disassemble. You can build molecules with this POGIL worksheet and any molecular model set. Molymod a makes great sets.
