Earth Science for high school?

[Osmosis Mom]

Is this acceptable? Ihave a less-mature barely 13 yo who'll be a 9th grade in the fall and I know he enjoys earth science. Do you all think a course in earth science would be acceptable or do colleges only want bio, chem, physics sort of credits for science?

[NCSusan]

A friends dd who had been hs until 8th went to public school this year. Next year she will be a freshman and she is taking Earth Science.

Susan

[Faithr]

Mother of Divine Grace curriculum has its 9th graders doing Earth Science, followed by Biology in 10th and Chem in 11th. So I think it is probably an acceptable science rotation through high school.

[Grace is Sufficient]

We're planning on having my daughter take the FLVS Earth-Space Science course next year as a 9th grader. I think it's adequately beefed up for a high schooler, and also has an honors option. Here's the link to the course -- it shows the topics covered.

http://www.flvs.net/students_parents/VSACourseDetail.php?CourseID=46

[Chris in VA]

We combined an earth science-type course with a semester of Astronomy--they worked together perfectly.
We used Runkles for a physical geography credit, going thru it for almost the whole year, but only giving .5 credit (because it's really more of a middle school course), and adding in Astronomy Today for the other semester.
Now, in 12th grade, ds wants to complete the credit in earth science, but we decided to do that by studying Environmental Science. I am not going to necessarily combine the geog with the enviro on the transcript, but still list them separately, just giving .5 credit for each.

[StaceyL in Canada]

Last year, my then gr 9 and gr 11/12 sons used Prentice Hall's Earth Science to cover geology and basic astronomy. If earth science texts are written for high school, then I see no reason why you shouldn't/ couldn't use one for a high school course/ credit.

[Osmosis Mom]

Well, I was indeed thinking of adding in astronomy and definitely an indepth mineral study. We'd be using different resources along with CybedEd and most likely Tacher Company's new course.

[mcconnellboys]

I don't know where Nan is, but look on the high school boards for the nature study she's done with her son. It looks great! I think it's by MODG, too.

Yes, some sort of earth science is a requirement in my state. My older son did a geology college course for non-majors for his earth science requirement last year, as a freshman. We used Indiana University. They offer high school courses for homeschoolers, too.

[In The Great White North]

I had Earth Science in 10th grade in ps.

The college requirements I've seen say "two years of a lab science" without specifying. I imagine they expect bio, chem and physics but high schools vary a lot in what 4th course they offer.

[Faithr]

I might be wrong but it seems to me that most earth science texts at least touch on astronomy, don't they? I know that when my dd did the MODG Earth Science she did a quarter on Astronomy. However, I don't recommend the MODG curriculum. I thought it was really shallow science that focused more on writing than acquiring actualy scientific knowledge. But then again, I know others who thought it was great! There's no religion in it per se, so you can use it secularly if that's what you'd prefer.

[Hikin' Mama]

my ps high schooler was required to take earth science in the 9th grade.

[Laurel-in-CA]

Our charter won't accept Physical Science for credit as a "lab science" but they do accept Earth Science that way. I wish I had known this before dd did Physical Science as a freshman. This year we'll do Earth Science for an 11th and a 9th grader, with the 6th grader using Science Explorer's earth science books and the K using coloring pages, etc. And we'll do the labs. And we'll use our 4-H Wildlife field trips to observe geology and do mapping. And that will be a good, solid high school earth science class...which our charter will accept. The text we're using is from McDougall-Littell by Spaulding & Namowitz.