Biology in 8th? Thoughts on science plans...

[Angela in NC]

DD, currently in 7th, can finish Apologia Physical Science this year and proceed to Biology for 8th or she can camp out and finish next year. She plans a medical profession for herself. My question is what should be my generalized scope and sequence for her. My thoughts are 8th-Biology; 9th-Chemistry; 10th-AP Biology; 11th-Adv. Chemistry at CC; 12th-Physics at CC. Is this realistic? Currently she does very well with science and is eager to advance. Thank you for your advice. Angela:001_smile:

[Pamela H in Texas]

JMO, but if I had a kid looking at the medical profession, I'd likely do a couple things different.

First, I would do the first biology class only once, not twice. If she's capable, do AP in the first place. The other option would be university for the second time. For the chemistry, it depends. I wouldn't do 9th grade Chemistry then turn around and do an intro to Chem class at the college. If she can get into the Chemistry for science majors, that would be fine.

But also, I would consider, if possible, the university rather than community college for her sciences if she's doing a 4yr degree. The reason is twofold. First, she's likely to get a better foundation, but second, the university may have her redo those classes (or it may just be wise to redo them) if there is a question about the foundational level.

Then there is the question of Physics. Certain medical related degrees require a good bit of physics. If that is the case for dd, I would do that at the University. If she's just going to need one physics course then you might do that one earlier (AP, CC, etc).

You may also consider taking advantage of the A&P courses during this time.

Another consideration. You are NOT bound to one course per year. Even many public high schools have their advanced students doing 5 to 6 science courses within 9-12th grades. That may be a consideration if her major is pretty tough to get into so it's better to have a very strong background.

Anyway, I think your way is okay, but you might want to just test it a little to make sure it'll work with the situation you're going into.

[FloridaLisa]

Yes, that's realistic. ;) It's very similar to the science schedule my oldest son is doing and the schedule ds13 may do. Both have done Apologia biology in 8th with no problems whatsoever. The best thing you can do in 8th grade, is to use the year to make sure she can take notes from a text, has foundational study skills for testing, and begins to learn how to create a solid lab report/lab notebook.

My ds' schedule has been (FWIW):
8th: Apologia biology
9th: Apologia chemistry (hired tutor and put together a class)
10th: AP Biology through Florida Virtual School
11th: Honors Physics through Florida Virtual School
12th: will likely be AP Chem, but we'll see. Every year seems to bring a surprise. :001_smile:

HTH,
Lisa

ETA: We elected not to do dual-enrollment sciences because oldest ds also is looking at pre-med or pre-dental and the schools we looked into wanted the kids to take the pre-med science track from the 4-yr university rather than through dual-enrollment. YMMV.

[Karin]

My sister went to med school, and you do need to do Physics & Calculus as pre-reqs. Chemistry for sure. I'd make sure she has a good grounding in Biology, Chemistry, Physics & math. My dd isn't looking to medicine, but to biochemistry. She's going to do high school science in a different order: Chemistry for gr 9/freshman year, Physics for grt 10/sophomore year, then Biology (possible AP, but we may do Biology and then follow it with AP Biology) in gr 11/jr year. In gr 12 she'll do AP science for sure. I'm having her do Earth and Space Science this year rather than Biology, because we've never really done much of it and I think she ought to have it once. I'm confident that she can do more than one science per year, especially once we get some of the "boring" (in her view) prerequisites done.

Also, for math, we plan to get her through Calculus 1, but, ideally, she'll do AP Math (this may be a pipe dream as she's mathy but hates math and dawdles over it--hopefully that will change with age.) She'll do Geometry first (she's doing Alg 1 already), then Alg 2, Trig, Calculus. (perhaps she has to do pre-Calc, but perhaps Trig covers that--I haven't gotten past planning through Alg 2 yet).