Understanding science is necessary in the modern world. It is a key part of understanding breaking news, interacting with our planet, choosing and using technology, and even making healthcare decisions. Therefore, high school science prepares students for their adult life regardless of the career path they choose.
According to conventional wisdom, teaching science at the high school level is really hard, intense, and definitely not fun. Most likely, you may have serious doubts about your ability to offer a high school level science course at home.
Welcome to Finishing Strong ~ a weekly link-up dedicated to families homeschooling middle & high school kids. Each Wednesday, moms just like you share their best tips, encouragement, advice, and more for teaching older kids at home.
Finishing Strong is hosted by me here at EvaVarga along with my friends – Heather from Blog She Wrote, Megan and Susan from Education Possible, and Heidi from Starts at Eight.
This week, I would like to highlight posts that were shared last week that focus on teaching science at the high school level. Teaching science at the high school level should not rely solely on reading a textbook and doing the accompanying lab activities. Quality science instruction should provide opportunity for students to ask questions and thereby develop investigations to pursue answers to their questions.
I would thereby like to encourage homeschool educators to take a look at the course, Integrating Inquiry for Educators. This is a fabulous online course offered through Cornell University and Bird Sleuth that walks participants through the process of using an inquiry approach to science.
Finishing Strong Favorites
My daughter has started high school and thus, I am more cognizant of what material we cover over the course of the school year. Ann’s post, The Complete Guide to High School Course Descriptions for Homeschoolers, is thereby very helpful. It is not a surprise that her post received the most clicks last week.
Teaching science is not always easy. It takes time to gather the necessary materials and to set up lab experiences. For many, dissection in high school biology makes them squeamish. Cindy outlines How to Teach High School Dissection in 5 Easy Steps.
Heidi’s post, 10 Secular Science Curriculum Options provides a great springboard if you are looking for material from a secular perspective. If you have used any of the materials she lists, I would love to hear your thoughts. Which do you like best? least? Why?
As always, thank you for helping us to make Finishing Strong a key resource for families who are homeschooling through the middle & high school years.
What are you going to share with us this week?
Guidelines:
- Link up to 3 posts from your blog. Make sure you use the exact URL to the post, not to your home page. You can add any post related to homeschooling middle and high school students. Posts unrelated to that will be removed.
- Please no advertising, individual Pinterest pins, Facebook, Twitter, or other link-up links!
- Grab our button to add to your post after you link it up. Each week we will be choosing our favorite posts to highlight on all 4 sites. If you were featured, we would love for you to use the “I was featured” button.
- The linky will go live on each co-host’s blog each Wednesday at 6am EST, and will be live until Tuesday at 11:55 pm.
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