Homeschool Review Crew - Apologia Marine Biology

I was thrilled to get a chance to review the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set from Apologia Educational Ministries. I also received the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Audio CD, read by Marissa Leinart.

The set includes the hardcover text, witten by Sherri Seligson, tests, paperback solutions book, and student notebook. You may purchase separately the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Audio CD, read by Marissa Leinart.

A very nice package of information that included a thick hardcover text, a spiral-bound glossy paperback student notebook (work text), a Solutions and Tests guide, Tests for the student, and an MP3 disc of the entire book in audio format.

What is Apologia Marine Biology?

This is a high school course, considered to be a college prep level, that spans two semesters and is intended to be taken after high school biology. It connects Scripture and creation with science and is one of the few homeschool science programs that includes ecology as an important part of the curriculum. This is a complete high school level course complete with labs and has everything you need except for lab supplies.

What makes the program unique is the way it is written takes even the most complex concepts and makes them easy to understand.


The hardcover text book is a thick full course text. Included in the text are 16 modules that cover

1. The Oceans of our planet
2. Life In the sea
3. The First four kingdoms
4. Marine invertebrates 1
5. Marine invertebrates II
6. Marine vertebrates I
7. Marine vertebrates II
8. Marine ecology
9. The intertidal zone
10. Estuary communities
11. Coral reefs
12. Continental shelf communities
13. The epipelagic zone
14. The deep ocean
15. Ocean resources
16. Effects of humans on the sea

The end of the book contains a glossary, appendixes with reference figures and tables, module summaries, and a complete list of lab supplies as well as an index.


The student book is a spiral-bound glossy paperback workbook style of book that includes questions, and lab worksheets. 

The Student Notebook is a nice way to review what you have learned and provides places to jot down notes as well. It has a Daily Schedule in the front that the student is able to check off as they complete each day's worth of work.

The notebook provides pages where the student can take notes, On Your Own Questions and workbook space to answer, followed by Study Guide Questions with blank workbook space to fill in the answers. There is also an optional summary of each module. The last few pages is a section of tips on how to present your research information and how to create a presentation poster.

The CD is an MP3 CD which means that to listen to it, you need a computer or a player that is compatible with MP3 CDs. The MP3 Audio Book CD contains a complete audio recording of the course read by Marissa Leinart. Her voice is very easy to listen to, and the CD is a really nice companion to the book for audible learners or for those who have learning disabilities that make it difficult to read for comprehension.

And, of course, a huge bonus to Apologia's curriculum is how it links everything to the Bible, Scripture, and Creation.

HOW DOES THE CURRICULUM WORK:

Within each module, you will find the lesson information along with colorful illustrations and spotlight boxes such as "dive in" which offers further tidbits of interest, "On Your Own" which asks questions about what you have read so far, or "think about this", which presents interesting concepts.

At the end of each module, there are experiments presented that include a list of supplies and instructions on how to conduct them. Each lab experiment includes the scientific elements of Hypothesis, Procedure, Conclusion. After the experiments in each module, you will find the answer to the On Your Own questions and the study guide questions that are also found in the student notebook.

 

LABS

All of the labs include a list of items needed. Many of them use household items. The ones that require buying something to complete the lab is also laid out so you know what you need before it's time for the lab to begin.

How Did We Use It?

I have a high school sophomore and a high school senior this year, so I had to make a decision as to who I wanted to help me with the review. I chose my sophomore.

What Did We Think?

This program is very easy to follow. My daughter loves to read on her own and then use my help only when necessary, but I did play the audio of the MP3 and loved the idea that she could plop it into her computer whenever she wanted to hear the lesson instead. I loved how all of the lab supplies was listed well in advance of needing them. I mostly love how Apologia links creation and Scripture with science.

FIND APOLOGIA ON SOCIAL MEDIA @:

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Read what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought by clicking on the picture below:

Schoolhouse Review: Bridgeway Academy Marine Biology Online

I was asked to review Fun With Science - Marine Biology from Bridgeway Academy for Grades 5-8.

I will sum up my opinion of the course by saying we found it to be informative, enjoyable education and challenging enough to stretch our thinking while really learning from a quality course.

The course we took was designed for Grades 5-8. The courses were live video streams online. It required a computer that had an internet connection fast enough to stream the classes without lagging. They were streamed through a Jigsaw meeting site which required that I conduct a speed test with my laptop before the first meeting.

The class met one day a week for an hour and were taught by Carla Berg. At the time of the posting of this review, we have completed 7 weeks of lessons so have almost come to an end of the entire course. Each class explored the oceans. She covered information about fish, mammals, sea turtles, whales and other inhabitants of the oceans as well as ocean zones and coral reefs, the arctic and symbiotic relationships.

At the end of each class, she assigned homework which consisted of either taking a quiz online answering questions that were covered in class, designing a Marine Biology pamphlet, identifying species of marine life, writing a newspaper-style article about why we should save a marine mammal on the endangered species list, and making a food web. The homework was then uploaded to Bridgeway and graded.

My 6th grader and 8th grader watched and participated in the classes and worked on the homework assignments. I uploaded the homework on the Bridgeway Moogal site where the instructor assigned a grade to the homework.

These are some examples of our completed homeworks and a screenshot of the teacher's grade and comment on one of them:

I really liked the quality of the instruction. The teacher, Carla Berg, is extremely professional. It was clearly evident that she has experience in the classroom and online teaching students. She stayed on topic and engaged the students through either opening up the chat box or locking it when necessary, answering call-in “Talk” questions, and using whiteboards where students could type in their answers.

The classes were more than just sitting and watching a teacher lecture. She used interactive whiteboards, videos, colorful pictures, rubrics, PDF printouts which we printed out at home, and class discussions.

There were also a couple hands-on experiments that she assigned. We particularly had fun with the blubber experiment.





We learned how the blubber in whales help keep them warm by using a plastic bag glove alongside a plastic glove filled with Vaseline and putting our hands into a bucket of ice. It was amazing how insulated our hands felt inside the Vaseline (blubber-like) glove.

The class required a commitment to be near a computer with an internet for one hour during class time, though in a pinch, the classes were all recorded with their videos made available online after class. We had to miss one class and caught it on the video after class. It was still very informative to simply watch the video, but it was so much more interactive and easy to follow along during the actual live, online class when other classmates participated as well.

The other requirement usually took us at least one more day, sometimes two or three, to complete the homework assignments. I thought that the homework was a very important part of the course. The homework was not easy peasy, but it was not super difficult either. While it was challenging for my children, I really liked that it stretched their thinking and required them to actually put some work into the course – Not just breeze by watching videos and saying they learned something.

The Marine Biology class costs $145 for a 9-week online Learning Lab.

Please read what other Schoolhouse Review Crew members thought of this and other classes, here, or click on the picture below: