AP classes - Can you do them at home?

[MamaSheep]

Or do you send your teen to a school to take them? It's down the road a way for us, as we are only entering 7th grade in the fall, but I'm trying to look ahead a bit and kind of plan out a basic sequence of classes for jr high and high school, and dh and I are thinking that with our son's long-time passion for living things an extra biology class might be in order. I'm fairly sure we're going to try to do a high school level biology course for 8th grade in a year, and then do chem for 9th, and it would maybe be nice to do an advanced biology for 10th before hitting physics, because his math is not as advanced as his passion for science and it would be good to save physics for 11th grade. But is it feasible to do an AP bio at home? Or do I need to be either considering putting something together myself as just an "advanced bio" course, or else putting him into an actual school of some kind (hs, cc) for an advanced bio class?

What about other AP classes? Are there AP level courses in various subjects that are geared for home use? Help! I'm feeling lost. The high school I went to didn't even OFFER AP classes.

[Jane in NC]

Yes. My son did AP Bio at home (although be aware that the test will need to be taken at a nearby school). In retrospect, I wish we had utilized Scholars Online--AP Bio is tough!

Pennsylvania Homeschoolers also has online AP courses.

You might want to go to the College Board website to pursue course listings, suggested textbooks, syllabi. This will help you see where you are headed.

Happy travels.

Jane

[MamaSheep]

Yes. My son did AP Bio at home (although be aware that the test will need to be taken at a nearby school). In retrospect, I wish we had utilized Scholars Online--AP Bio is tough!

Pennsylvania Homeschoolers also has online AP courses.

You might want to go to the College Board website to pursue course listings, suggested textbooks, syllabi. This will help you see where you are headed.

Happy travels.

Jane

Thanks, I'll do that.

What kinds of labs did you need to do? Or is that something I'm about to find out at the college board site?

[Jane in NC]

There are twelve labs that the College Board has determined are part of their course. You can purchase the student lab manual with accompanying teacher's book from the College Board website. Carolina Biological Supply sells kits for most of the labs--but you really do not need to buy them all.

We did not have all of the equipment to perform some of the labs. This website (http://www.phschool.com/science/biology_place/labbench/) offers virtual versions of the twelve. In some cases we did what we could at home, then completed the lab online. In other cases, we found some reasonable substitutes. Note that not every school can afford the lab equipment or materials either. There are a number of high school biology teachers who suggest inexpensive alternatives. Example: Diffusion in a Baggie (http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/diffusion.htm). I read about this on the AP Bio teacher's listserv which you can join from the College Board's website.

If you have a chance to enroll your child in any kind of a hand's on science program, you may find that your student does things similar to these AP labs. For example, my son had taken a summer class in which students performed protein electrophoresis experiments. Electrophoresis is a technique used in one of the twelve labs. I felt that at least my son had been exposed to the process somewhere along the line.

I will also recommend that you have your student read one or two ecological or "popular" biological books. For example, A Sand County Almanac or a Rachel Carson title is often included in an AP Bio course as summer reading. Other instructors assign things like The Hot Zone.

If you decide to go this route, you'll really want to sign up for the aforementioned Listserv. I learned a lot from the AP Bio teachers!

Jane