Apologia Science: Love it or Hate it?

[Love2Smile]

Speaking of General thru Biology.
Love it or hate it and why?

[MIch elle]

:thumbdown:

[Love2Smile]

:thumbdown:
LOL! Why *ugh*???:lol:

[creekland]

I like it (not love). I like that it is written in a way for students to read and understand instead of being so textbooky. I like that the author is Christian and doesn't need to hide his faith. I dislike that he's a bit too pushy on his thoughts/opinions at times. I'd like to see better labs. For specifics, see below.

General was so-so. It was the least of my favorites, but it did the job. When comparing to ps, my kids were further ahead in their knowledge for a general course. I guess I have to admit it was a decent "general" course - not too specific in any one thing. It probably was his most "preachy?" science-wise.

Physical is pretty good. It definitely beats our ps (which isn't difficult to do). It's easy enough for a middle schooler, but not too easy that it requires no effort for the average student. It goes more in depth, but is not overwhelming. My boys have also liked it better than General.

Bio is very good as far as it goes. It leaves the human body for Bio 2. I'm not sure why. It doesn't sufficiently cover evolution which bugs me. We supplement for that. But, everything else is done well and my kids are again doing better than their ps peers. Other students I know who do Bio 1 & 2 and supplement the evolution part have gotten 5's on the AP. My middle son may be trying that next year.

Chem is very good. I don't recall any preaching or any sections left out, but, of course, to have it be a top level course one needs Chem 1 and Chem 2 (as is done in many schools). It is the most above what our ps offers (as I'm sitting on my lunch in our local high school Chem class - subbing - having seen how dismal most of their knowledge is). Students I know who have just taken Chem 1 have gone on and done well in science fields telling me they thought they were decently prepared. That said, I also couple it with the TC lectures - just because.

Physics is Physics lite - perfect for an intro to Physics, but not that great for someone wanting to go really deeply into it. I state that NOT having seen Physics 2 (so not knowing what it adds), but being perfectly satisfied at the level it's giving my future Business major.

That's my 2 cents written quickly.

[ereks mom]

I appreciated the way the author interwove science with his beliefs. I am a conservative Christian, and I think it is good for Christians to see that science and religion do not have to be mutually exclusive.

[galtgrl]

We used Physical Science last year and loved it. We're using Biology this year and it's been good so far. Love the conversational style, and I think the explanations go beyond what I've seen in most textbooks. For example, when discussing atoms, the textbooks I remember studying showed a "picture" of an atom and never explained that it was really just a representation of the atom, not an actual picture. Dr. Wile does a good job of letting the reader know that information in science is dynamic, ever-changing.
It doesn't cover Evolution at all which bugs me. Even if someone doesn't believe it happened, there's no reason not to learn about it considering a good portion of people do believe it.
As far as evolution goes, there is a whole module (#9) devoted to it in the Biology book. Don't know how you can miss it. It does also give arguments against it.
We plan to use the Chemistry book next year.

[creekland]

As far as evolution goes, there is a whole module (#9) devoted to it in the Biology book. Don't know how you can miss it. It does also give arguments against it.
We plan to use the Chemistry book next year.

Ok, I should modify what I quickly typed as it is definitely misleading. One should compare what is taught about Evolution in Apologia to what is taught in a secular text prior to taking a test like the AP. Personally, I do not believe in evolution, but I find what is presented in Apologia to be insufficient (albeit I like his including the evidence against).

[gingersmom]

My daughter is using General science and is learning a ton (and most importantly remembering what she learned). That being said we are switching to Prentice Hall next year. I need a secular science.

[MSPolly]

We use and like it very much

[TXMary2]

I love Apologia for the conversational writing style, the critical thinking that is required and the easy to do experiments. That said, I also love Abeka for its traditional text approach of quizzes and tests and I love the lesson plan books that tell me what to do! I am torn every year when deciding which one to use so we end up alternating publishers each year.

[transientChris]

I can't remember whether it was the General or the Physical that I didn't like at all but it could have been both. We are not young earthers and so had to skip parts of the book. Only used this with one child and didn't use it with the third.

[FloridaLisa]

Love the biology. It's a standard around here, having used it so far with 3 kids and using it again next year with my rising 8th grader. For my very science-minded oldest, Apologia provided the first pass through biology and he followed in 10th with AP biology.

Physical is pretty good. Two of my dc worked through this fairly independently, so I'm less familiar with physical science than biology.

General science -- I could take or leave it. It's just not terribly exciting. And because my dc start biology in 8th, physical in 7th, I'm not crazy about using a textbook in 6th.

We are generally Apologia fans here. Dd1 and ds2 are using Apologia Chemstry this year, a preferred choice by their outside teacher.

HTH,
Lisa

[HollyDay]

I'm going to jump in here because we just had this conversation IRL at a homeschool gathering.

I liked General. It was very heavy on history initially, which was quite boring for my dd. Several ladies today said they did General over a 2 year period of time for 6th and 7th.

We are loving Physical. It is very interesting and dd is learning a bunch.

Biology was the big discussion today. We will be doing biology next year so I asked quite a few questions about it. They all referred to it as "biology lite". Several of the ladies said they preferred Abeka Biology. They said it was a more complete course than Apologia Biology. So, now I am torn between Apologia and Abeka for next year.