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RE: Apologia - 4/11/2008 11:47:26 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
I have been on Spring Break, so it has been awhile since I posted. I know some of you are getting ready to do your frog dissection and are cringing in anticipation. I thought I might share three good sites which will help you with this lab:
http://www.froguts.com/flash_content/index.html
http://frog.edschool.virginia.edu/
http://www.biologycorner.com/worksheets/frog-dissection.html
The first two sites provide virtual frog dissections which can be used to practice before you do the real thing and the last site gives an easy to follow frog dissection procedure.
Hope that helps you tackle the frog project. I am off to my last weekend of golf before we resume classes Monday :-)
God Bless,
Steve
< Message edited by rosenon -- 4/13/2008 9:43:23 AM >
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RE: Apologia - 4/12/2008 9:48:23 PM
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2jsmom
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We got to see Jay Wile at the APACHE homeschool convention this weekend. My husband and I really enjoyed his talks.
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RE: Apologia - 4/13/2008 9:45:36 AM
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rosenon
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quote:
ORIGINAL: 2jsmom
We got to see Jay Wile at the APACHE homeschool convention this weekend. My husband and I really enjoyed his talks.
Jay Wile is a great speaker and a wonderful man. He has taught me much. I would not be in the place I am if it were not for his mentorship. I work for him at Apologia because he is the real deal: a Christian man with a big heart. He is worthy of your support and you can trust what he says as factual and true.
God Bless,
Steve
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RE: Apologia - 4/13/2008 11:43:51 AM
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bzirk
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I have been using Apologia curriculum for 6 years. Obviously, I'm happy with it. I've also heard Jay Wile speak on several occasions. In fact, I always make it a point to attend his workshops at the homeschool conference, and it's always worth my time. Glad to know he's big hearted too.
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RE: Apologia - 4/16/2008 1:56:20 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
Sorry I have not been able to comment here for a few days, but Potter's School is in the midst of registering students for next year and I had 139 registrations for my classes to process the first two days. I only take 180 per year so I am well on my way.
Anyway, I am glad you all have such glowing opinions of Apologia books. I have been working for Apologia now for six years, and I just love my job. If you read my bio online, you know that I have been a medical technologist, research chemist, and public school teacher prior to coming to work for Apologia. Apologia is a family run business and they made me feel like one of the clan right from the start. I can't think of anything I would rather be doing than teaching kids through Potter's School for Apologia. It is a GREAT job and I plan on doing it until I retire, Lord willing. Jay Wile is a great boss and I just love the man.
I had better get back to grading and lesson planning. For those of you doing Module 14, 1st half, of General Science here is my recorded lecture over the circulatory system and my notes. It may take a minute to download.
Module 14, Part 1
Hope you enjoy listening and following along.
God bless,
Steve
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RE: Apologia - 4/17/2008 10:30:13 AM
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rosenon
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Opps. Many of you have written wondering if I video recorded the presentation for GS Module 14-1. The answer is, "Yes." You will find it linked to my web page: just click on "Recorded General Science," then click on "Class Video Example."
God Bless,
Steve
< Message edited by rosenon -- 4/17/2008 10:38:25 AM >
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RE: Apologia - 4/26/2008 6:00:02 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
For those of you doing Apologia Marine Biology, here is a great little vignette for Module 14:
Life, as most people understand it, is driven by the sun, but deep sea organisms have no access to sunlight, so they must depend on nutrients found in the dusty chemical deposits and hydrothermal fluids they live in. Previously, marine biologists assumed that vent organisms were dependent on a "rain" of detritus from the upper levels of the ocean, like deep sea organisms are. This would leave them dependent on plant life and thus the sun. Some hydrothermal vent organisms do consume this "rain," but with only such a system, life forms would be very sparse. Compared to the surrounding sea floor, however, hydrothermal vent zones have a density of organisms 10,000 to 100,000 times greater.
Hydrothermal vent communities are able to sustain such vast amounts of life because vent organisms depend on chemosynthetic bacteria for food. The water that comes out of the hydrothermal vent is rich in dissolved minerals and supports a large population of chemoautotrophic bacteria. These bacteria use sulfur compounds, particularly hydrogen sulfide, a chemical highly toxic to most known organisms, to produce organic material through the process of chemosynthesis.
The ecosystem so formed is reliant upon the continued existence of the hydrothermal vent field as the primary source of energy, which differs from most surface life on Earth which is based on solar energy. However, although it is often said that these communities exist independently of the sun, some of the organisms are actually dependent upon oxygen produced by photosynthetic organisms. Others are anaerobic.
The chemosynthetic bacteria grow into a thick mat which attracts other organisms such as amphipods and copepods which graze upon the bacteria directly. Larger organisms such as snails, shrimp, crabs, tube worms, fish, and octopuses form a food chain of predator and prey relationships above the primary consumers. The main families of organisms found around sea-floor vents are annelids, pogonophorans, gastropods, and crustaceans, with large bivalves, vestimentiferan worms, and "eyeless" shrimp making up the bulk of non-microbial organisms.
Here is a great web site to view the ceatures that live near the hydrothermal vents: http://people.whitman.edu/~yancey/vents.html
Have fun looking at these amazing creatures that live in the deepest parts of God's oceans.
God Bless,
Steve
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RE: Apologia - 5/6/2008 10:27:47 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
For those of you slugging your way through Apologia General Science, Module 15, I though you might like this little vignette on the urinary system:
The main task of the kidneys is to clean blood. Unlike the lymph nodes which clean lymph, the kidneys clean the blood and blood plasma. This is important because the lymph system cannot clean the way that the kidneys clean. The lymph system cleans out organisms and chemicals that it recognizes as disease-causing. The kidneys do something completely different. They clean out chemicals that are not dangerous to the body until they reach certain levels. Thus, the chemicals are not necessarily ones that cause disease. Instead, they are simply chemicals whose levels in the blood must be monitored and maintained. Each nephron in the kidneys is a tiny filter which empties into a tiny, curving tubule. Each nephron works independently to make urine of the others. It takes only five minutes for your kidneys to process all of the blood in your body, which means that it filters all the blood in your body 288 time each day, 105,120 times each year, or 8,409,600 times in an 80 year lifespan. Any water and chemicals that were not reabsorbed into the blood go from the nephrons into the renal pelvis and flow out of the kidney to the ureter. At this point, the mixture of water and chemicals is called urine. The urine travels through the ureter and is held in the bladder. Eventually, the bladder releases the urine it has stored, and the urine leaves the body through the urethra. About 150 liters (33 gallons) of fluid pass through your kidneys every day during the 288 filtrations. But 99% of this is cleaned and goes back into your blood stream. The remaining 1% makes up our daily urine volume. In an average lifetime, humans pass about 40,000 liters (8,800 gallons) of urine out of their bodies. This is enough to fill 500 bath tubs. The kidneys are about the size of a 3" X 5" index card. The best dialysis machine on the market today is about the size of a small refrigerator.
If you believe in evolution, then you have to believe that the amazing filtering capacity of the human kidney just happen by random chance. It is just a freak of nature that your kidneys filter your blood so faithfully day in and day out. I think not. Time and time again when we look at nature, we see the hand of the Master Craftsman. Only someone as wise as God could ever design something as unique as the human kidney.
Here is a great web site for you:
http://www.3dscience.com/3D_Models/Human_Anatomy/Urinary/Kidney_Cross_Section.php
God Bless,
Steve
< Message edited by rosenon -- 5/6/2008 10:38:29 PM >
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RE: Apologia - 5/15/2008 11:46:32 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
I am in the middle of final exam season right now, so this week's vignette will be short and sweet. For those of you doing Apologia Biology, here is the link to my class recording for the first half of Module 16. I am sure you will find the information on snakes, lizards, dinosaurs, and web pages shown enlightening. Sorry that I could not be more helpful this week, but I have 186 exams to grade.
Here is that link: Module 16-1 You can adjust the size of the viewing window by simply pressing "Ctrl" and minus (-) to make the window smaller or "Ctrl" and plus (+) to make the window larger to fit you screen.
God Bless,
Steve
< Message edited by rosenon -- 5/16/2008 12:07:38 AM >
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RE: Apologia - 5/20/2008 11:50:43 AM
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2jsmom
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I think it depends on your 7th grader. My son does a lot better on the cd version. He likes reading the lesson on the computer and having the video clips to watch. Some people prefer reading from a book.
The only downsides I can think of will be eliminated by having a laptop. When my mom broke her wrist and Joe and I had to go stay with her, I had to print out a chapter. That was a lot of paper. We didn't have access to a computer at Mom's, but since you have a laptop, you could just take the cd along. I have friends who don't want to use the cd version because it would tie up a computer. They have many kids who share a couple of computers. Since your daughter has a laptop, you wouldn't have to worry about that.
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RE: Apologia - 5/20/2008 11:16:51 PM
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Jenny-Fair
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I decided to use the text version, simply to protect the kids' eyesight. Plus they can highlight and stuff if need be.
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RE: Apologia - 5/21/2008 10:39:40 AM
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rosenon
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quote:
ORIGINAL: NoDumbBlonde
I've recently been introduced to Apologia and am looking to ordering General Science for my rising 7th grader. I'm vacilating between the book and the CD version. She will most probably be using my laptop if needed.
Pros?
Cons?
Insights anyone?
Hi Everyone,
For those of you that don't know, there are basically two ways to purchase the Apologia curriculum: (1) a complete course CD-ROM and (2) a textbook, solutions manual, and companion CD combination. Both of these products have their advantages and disadvantages.
The complete course CD-ROM comes in a disk set. It is portable and packable. It has the disadvantage of needing a computer and electricity. Several of my students this year got behind in their work due to power outages. Your computer screen font can be adjusted to make the print more readable and easier on the eyes. You sometimes need to print materials, which can be costly.
The printed text, manual, and companion combo provides everything that is on the complete course CD-ROM. It is a more cumbersome package and still requires a computer for the companion CD. It does have the advantage of consumable, pre-printed materials and markable book, which saves money. For the visually challenged and ADD or ADHD student, the printed materials can be difficult. The edition of multiple figures and graphics to the 2nd editions has helped in this regarded, but has made the new book size even more daunting for some students.
Hope that helps.
God Bless,
Steve
< Message edited by rosenon -- 5/21/2008 3:37:45 PM >
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RE: Apologia - 5/29/2008 10:22:57 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
For those of you looking for a comprehensive exam for Apologia General Science and General Biology, here the links to the ones my students take at the end of the year. You are welcome to use them. I provided the answers also.
BioCompFinal
BioCompFinal-a
GSCompFinal
GSCompFinal-a
Hope that helps you finish out your school year.
God Bless,
Steve
< Message edited by rosenon -- 5/29/2008 10:30:54 PM >
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RE: Apologia - 6/7/2008 12:21:39 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
I wanted to finish up your study about mammals and of biology with a little vignette about seals:
Seals are perfectly designed for life in the water. External ears are greatly reduced or absent, and in many species, testicles and mammary glands are located in slits or pockets under the skin, features that streamline the seal body for more efficient swimming. When seals submerge underwater their nostrils close automatically. The pupils of their eyes expand widely to capture light in near darkness. This ability is important for finding prey at night or in deep water.
Seals conserve oxygen for long periods of time, enabling them to stay submerged at great depths, much longer than humans can. As a seal starts to dive, its heart rate slows to about one-tenth of its heart rate at the water surface. At the same time, the arteries, which transport oxygen-carrying blood to most of the animal’s body, constrict or squeeze shut so that only the sense organs and nervous system continue to receive a normal flow of blood. Seal muscles also store oxygen, and the spleen, an organ that stores oxygen-rich blood, is exceptionally large in seals, serving as a kind of biological scuba tank.
The deepest-diving seals can descend hundreds of meters and stay underwater for one to two hours. During a dive, carbon dioxide builds up in the blood and the lack of oxygen causes lactic acid levels to rise in the muscles. Unlike most animals, seals are able to resist pain and fatigue caused by lactic acid accumulation. But once seals return to the water surface, they need a recovery period to bring their body chemistry back to normal. Rapid blood circulation through very large veins leading to the lungs helps to rid the seal’s body of carbon dioxide. The big-branched veins carrying blood out of the walrus’s lower body are so large that a person could pull them over their legs like pants.
Keeping warm is important for seals since water quickly conducts heat away from their bodies. Adult seals produce a thick layer of fat, called blubber, under their skin, which is an excellent insulator against the cold. Blubber is also used to store energy for times when food is scarce; seals can live off the stored fat in blubber for weeks to months.
While most newborn seals have little or no blubber, many seal species develop a fur coat during infancy that traps air next to the skin for an extra layer of insulation. The beautiful white coat of the infant harp seal, born on the Arctic ice, actually sets up a small greenhouse effect, trapping the energy of sunlight as heat near the skin. Many species shed this fur coat as they grow older, replacing it with blubber for insulation. Some seals, however, keep a dense coat of fur throughout their lives, made up of about 120,000 hairs per sq cm (about 800,000 hairs per sq in). By contrast, an entire human head contains only about 100,000 hairs.
Think about the design you see in the seal. Think about the design you see over and over again throughout Creation in this course. After studying this material for the last school year, I hope that you have come to the same conclusion as Sir Frederick Hoyle (England’s foremost astrophysicist) about God's Creation:
‘...A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.’
May God bless you as you continue to look at the world around you next year in Chemistry class. I will continue to post monthly vignettes over the summer and take your questions as they arise. Have a wonderful summer, everyone 
Yours in Christ,
Steve
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RE: Apologia - 6/17/2008 11:24:14 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
Dr. Wile and I are need some input from you. Many of you know I teach live-feed internet classes and sell recordings of my presentations. I also include lecture notes and online testing as part of the package. These classes are 90 minutes long and provided a guided tour of the course information and provide extended content information. I am a reader for the National AP Biology exam, a former medical technologist, and research chemist. The class notes include information from my work experience, as well as Dr. Wile's text. We feel that the teaching notes for my classes, which contain multiple links to web sites that explore Module content in depth, would be of benefit to science cooperative instructors, parents teaching the content, and students looking for extended content information. We are thinking of producing these in a thirty-two lesson packet and selling them as an eBook. We are talking about approximately a 160-page downloadable teaching manual. The price would be somewhere around $20.
I just need a rough approximation of interest. If you are a teacher, parent, or science student who would be interested in these, could you please drop me an e-mail? I promise I will not fill your inbox with spam or contact you directly. We just need to know if these e-Books are worth our time to produce. We are wanting to produce a set of notes for General, Physical, Biology, and Marine Biology for this fall with Chemistry, Physics, and the Advanced courses following next year. Time is of a premium if we are to meet this goal.
Thank you for your assistance.
God Bless,
Steve
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RE: Apologia - 6/22/2008 1:21:28 PM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
Thanks to everyone who wrote in regarding the teaching notes for my classes. Thank you also to those that gave me some wonderful suggestions on how to make the program better: day-by-day planning schedule. The response was favorable and a number of you expressed interest. We will be marketing these as Lesson Links for Biology, General Science, etc, on the Apologia and Red Wagon Tutorials sites later this summer. Many of you asked to see a sample set of notes and hear a lecture taught. If you would like to see a sample note set and hear me teach the class content you can click here:
Sample Lesson Link for Biology
Please feel free to continue to send in your feedback. We are still compiling statistics and accessing interest.
God Bless,
Steve
< Message edited by rosenon -- 6/22/2008 7:08:11 PM >
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RE: Apologia - 7/5/2008 12:06:30 AM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
I thought I would pop in to share some thoughts on preparation for next fall. The following is a note I send to my parents and students about class summer prep. If you can glean from it, please feel free to use any of the ideas it contains.
God Bless,
Steve
Dear Parents and Students,
Yippee, summer vacation is here! I am having a great time playing golf, rough housing with Cleo, taking long walks, and sleeping in. I hope you are enjoying yourself also.
For those of you who have written to me asking what you can do over this long break to get a head start on your science class, I have prepared the following list. I am not requiring you to do these things during summer. I am simply providing you with ideas of things that will help make your next year in science class easier.
1. Prepare your notebook. You should at this time have a printed copy of the 2008-2009 Parent Agreement, Assignment Supplement, and Course Schedule in your notebook. You should also have 16 divider tabs, which will be used to store each Module's assignments. You might want to prepare a title page for the front and a crude table of contents page for your notebook. You may want to design a front cover also. The notebook will ultimately become a portfolio of your work over the next year. Prepare it and maintain it like you were going to have to show it to a college admissions officer because you may have to some day.
2. Prepare flash cards, vocabulary sheets, or MP3 recordings of the science vocabulary words and their definitions. Treat your science course like a foreign language. You cannot speak Spanish if you do not know what the words mean. Likewise, you cannot speak science if you do not know what the vocabulary means.
3. Begin collecting the labs materials for the course. There is a list of required labs for each course given on your course web site. The address to that web site was given in your "Welcome to Class" e-mail and is given below. There is a list of required supplies for each Module available in your textbook or it can be found online on the Apologia site: www.apologia.com. Starting to collect and shop for the lab supplies now will save you having to do some of this during the busy school year. If you live in a cold winter environment which may make it impossible for you to get some of the needed supplies, you might want to complete the season sensitive labs this summer.
Course Web Sites
4. Practice being observers of the world around you. Journal the sites seen on the family vacation. Become the scribe of your peer group. Be detailed about what you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel in the world around you. Practice describing events in detail. Practice writing a "lab report" about a summer activity. There are examples of completed lab reports in your 2008-2009 Assignment Supplement.
5. Practice writing and saying complete sentence answers to questions. Eliminate the use of contractions from your speech and writing at this point. Eliminate the use of personal pronouns from your writing. I required complete sentence answers to questions and lab reports that are free of personal pronouns: Yup, Nope, and Dah are not complete sentences; can't, don't and aren't are not complete words in formal writing; I, me, my, we, us, you, etc. are not used in a formal report. A complete sentence has a subject, verb, and completing thought which is free of contracted words. The subject of a lab report is the thing observed; not your thoughts on what happened: I do not want to know what you saw; I want to know what "The experiment showed."
That is about it for today. Hope you find these ideas helpful. I do want to encourage those of you on waiting lists not to give up hope. I would ask that you prepare for class as if you already had a seat in the class. I have had students drop courses right up to the day classes start in September, which is why I have you do the administrative paperwork and class preparation now. If a seat opens September 1st, you will be ready to start September 8th if we have the admin and prep already done. If a seat in class does not open for you, please consider using the recorded class program available through Red Wagon Tutorials. I will be back in my office August 1st full time and will be available during my office hours via GP4, phone, or e-mail to conference with you should you need to ask me questions or test your system in the real classroom prior to school starting. I will be checking my e-mails twice per week during July to pick up urgent messages.
Have a great 4th of July. Enjoy your summer. More later.
God Bless,
Steve Rosenoff
Science Teacher
The Potter's School
Apologia Educational Ministries
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RE: Apologia - 7/14/2008 12:55:27 AM
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rosenon
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Hi Everyone,
I have gotten a number of e-mailed questions about formal lab reports versus the more informal style that Dr. Wile uses for his notebook reporting. I have my students complete one formal report per school year quarter, one report for each four modules completed. I feel that this helps prepare the student for college science writing and for the national SAT and AP subject exams by so doing. The national exams ask the students to view and interpret data based on a given hypothesis. A formal report writing program provides the students with a chance to practice this skill before the stress of the exam is upon them. At the college level, students will need to prepare formal reports based on the six-part lab report format I employ. I have posted an example formal report on my web page and the grading criteria for the formal report can be found embedded in my 2008-2009 Assignment Supplement. Please feel free to use this information as part of your home education process. I start my general science students writing formal reports in 7th-grade and they practice them in every class they take from me.
God Bless,
Steve
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RE: Apologia - 7/23/2008 12:32:29 PM
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pianoteachingmom
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I am so glad I found this thread. Thanks, Steve for all the help. I will definitely send for the alternative tests. My ds16 did Apologia Biology this past school year, which he enjoyed, but he really struggled with the tests. He is not a great communicator, so I think the essays are intimidating to him. We're actually going to finish up the course during the month of August after he returns from his two weeks as a CIT at Boy Scout camp. This will be an excellent opportunity to try out the alternative tests before moving on to Chemistry this fall.
Thanks again,
Marlyn
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RE: Apologia - 7/23/2008 12:43:13 PM
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Homegrownkids
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quote:
4. Practice being observers of the world around you. Journal the sites seen on the family vacation. Become the scribe of your peer group. Be detailed about what you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel in the world around you. Practice describing events in detail. Practice writing a "lab report" about a summer activity. There are examples of completed lab reports in your 2008-2009 Assignment Supplement.
This sounds great..... but do you have any tips on how to excite students that could care less about Science? If I asked my kids to do this, they would act as though they outgrew this.
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RE: Apologia - 7/25/2008 7:55:44 PM
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rosenon
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Reluctant science learners are tough; however, what I have done in the past with them is to purposely point out the places where science enters their daily lives. If they are into MP3 music, direct them to sound studies. I try to create situations where they have to ponder the why and how something works. If you can find that single connection between science and their interests, students get excited about the learning on their own.
If they truly feel that journaling observations is a drag and beneath them, then it is up to you to show them that it is not. They observe things every day which are important sources of information. The more they learn to observe, the more they gather, the easier their future academics will be. I would set up a token economy for a given situation: let's say a TV program watched. For each observation they document about the given situation, they get a token. They then exchange the token for a privilege or some other reward.
I will just say this, if their observation skills and documenting expertise is not developed before college, their freshman year will be difficult. Professors at the college level are going to hand your student a Blue Book and pose a question about a lab observed phenomenon at some point in their science studies. If they can't write lab reports, the grade they will receive in college will reflect this deficit. There are even lab questions on the national AP and SAT II tests which require students to synthesize a | | |
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I am sure he will do better on the alternate tests; however, I would keep working on those essay skills. Blue Books in college are still used and ALL the standardized Tests are now including essay questions as part of their assessment. It is a skill your student MUST master if he is going to be successful in college.