<p>Looking for some advice.
My 7th grader has been offered accelaration into HS science curriculum.
He can take Earth Science at his current middle school or walk 5 min to local HS where he can take either Biology, Chemistry or Physics.
My gut feeling is that Earth Sciences is a dead end course, while taking one of the other three offers him entrance into AP class.
Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I don’t know the content of Earth Sciences. I’d hesitate to dismiss the course just because it does not lead to an AP class. It depends on whether your S wants to move rapidly through a high school science curriculum or take his time and study a subject that may be of interest to him but is not part of a conventional sequence. If he does move rapidly, he may have to continue taking college classes in order to keep his science knowledge fresh.</p>
<p>Consider this- will he have opportunities to learn the Earth Science material in HS? Will the class have any substance (versus being too easy)? There is plenty of time to take the classic trio of sciences, that may be one reason your school district offers the course in middle school. We used middle school as an opportunity for our gifted son to take courses he would never bother with in HS. Yours may learn things he would otherwise never encounter. Check with his guidance counselor, s/he should know both the teachers, courses and your son well enough to be able to steer you in the best direction. Listen to how s/he presents material for clues. A fantastic course in one place could be useless in another.</p>
<p>Most importantly, what does your son want to do? He is old enough to make guided choices. BTW, my undergrad degree was chemistry and son is majoring in physics, no need to rush the subjects.</p>
<p>My son took earth sciences in middle school. He still managed to fit in honors biology, AP Biology, honors chemistry, AP chemistry, and AP physics C into 9th-12th grade. (He had AP scores of 5 on bio and physics by 11th grade, in time for college applications, but that required doubling up on science in 10th grade, taking both AP Bio and honors Chemistry.)</p>
<p>I suppose he could have squeezed in a physiology and anatomy course as well if he had accelerated the science curriculum, but he doesn’t seem to care that he missed it.</p>
<p>I think a lot depends on the teacher of the earth science class. I know some middle school science teachers are really bad, and time spent in their courses is almost a total waste of time (my daughter’s experience in 7th grade). On the other hand, a good earth science class is a valuable thing, and can teach even a gifted student a lot of useful and interesting things about the natural world. Most students will not encounter the material at a later time.</p>
<p>Yes, This is ultimately going to be my son’s choice. He brought home Earth Science book today and was looking through it. Was also checking online what other 3 subjects have to offer him. So he is very much proactive.
But when he is asking me what I think - I am cluless :-)</p>
<p>From our experience, take whatever acceleration your school is willing to offer, unless you think your kid can’t handle it socially.</p>
<p>Kelowna:</p>
<p>Here is the traditional sequence of science classes.<br>
Honors Bio–>
AP-Bio
Honors Chemistry–>
AP-Chemistry
Honors Physics + Pre-Calc.–>
AP-Physics + AP-Calc. </p>
<p>S reversed the traditional order and took AP Physics first. He did not take Honors Bio before tackling college Introductory Biology.
If your S is like mine, he may find the pace of the Honors science classes too slow for his liking. Is your son interested in taking CTY’s Fast Paced High School Science classes? They really do cover one year’s worth of Honors classes in the subjects and prepare students well for the AP classes. But that would lead to even more acceleration.</p>
<p>We will look into CTY for next summer. We were thinking THINK, but looks like CTY has many more offerings.
When son looked over ES textbook, he commented that this is something you just learn by reading the book.
No decisions made yet :-)</p>
<p>top students at my high school
earth science(7)-biology(8)-honor chem(9)-physics(dont have honor or ap,10)-ap chem or bio(11)-ap chem or bio(12)</p>
<p>Great for your Son but just make sure that the HS principal is welcoming. My Son’s HS had never had a “Middle Schooler” and didn’t want one no mater what the district wanted. They tried to sabotage him buy putting him in a Sr class of misfits who had no interest in the class and only took it as a graduation requirement. Don’t assume that the administration will want what’s good for your child.</p>
<p>Make sure he will fulfill all his graduation requirements. In our school district each student is required to take an Earth/Environmental Science course to graduate. It can be regular, honors or AP. AP Environmental Sci. was one of my S’s favorite classes. He had a good teacher and learned a lot.</p>
<p>Also, what is the atmosphere like at the high sch.? Our high sch. is huge and overcroweded. Students have to push their way through the hallways and discipline problems abound.<br>
It would be a very imtimidating atmosphere for a 7th grader at our sch. Hopefully yours is much better.</p>
<p>In NYS Earth Science is a regents course so everyone must take it. Of all the sciences, most students found the Earth Science Regents the most difficult. The course does require less math, so in that way it may look easier, but it provides diversified material. S’s teacher is very gifted, and the kids learned about the scientific method and also did field work which I think was very valuable.</p>
<p>By taking this course in 8th grade, S was able to take Bio, Chem, Physics, AP Bio, AP Chem and AP Environmental by taking two sciences a year. He did not do independent work in science as others have described, nor did he take AP physics – school did not offer it. Friends learned physics on their own and took AP test; S was too busy with violin.</p>
<p>As a small aside: Although AP Environmental is said to be the “Micky Mouse” course, S said he thought it was the most socially and politically relevant course he took in HS.</p>
<p>I don’t think these decisions matter very much. Whichever he chooses the outcome will be fine. I agree with poster who said that it would be a shame to miss this relevant material, but if he learns it on his own nothing is lost. Two kids found their passion in Earth Science: one is planning to train to be a meterologist, the other a geologist. A third considers this background important for evolutionary archeology.</p>
<p>My S was put into the HS orchestra in seventh grade. He played there at the same time he played in the middle school orchestra. He was very small so he took a lot of ribbing. He was often asked if he had lost his way from elementary school. He persevered, but some of it wasn’t fun.</p>
<p>My daughter is a science nut. Our district follows a sequence of Earth Science freshman year, Bio sophomore, Chem junior and Physics senior. Students only have to have three of these for an advanced diploma. I think it’s a great option to have Earth Science available at the middle school. Our daughter did not take ES in order to double up/accelerate in bio and chem which is what she loves. I don’t think she missed much by not doing ES as a course but it did take some finagling to get the school to agree. Their argument was that ES was an “intro” to lab work that she needed- until they saw what she had done in CTY earlier. Every school district/system/school is different- but the social aspect, as other posters pointed out, can be challenging. You and your son are the only ones who can make that call.</p>
<p>Mythmom, NY kids are not required to take Earth Science. The honors track kids in our school take Regents Bio in 8th grade, followed by Chem and Physic and fulfill the requirement for three science courses. <a href=“http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/part100/pages/diprequire.pdf[/url]”>http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/part100/pages/diprequire.pdf</a>
It makes it easy to schedule in two AP science courses and still only take one science a year.</p>
<p>I think earth science is eminently skippable, but it depends a bit on what your interests are.</p>
<p>“In NYS Earth Science is a regents course so everyone must take it”
That’s not true. In the City, the upper track kids generally don’t take earth science in high school and only some take it in eighth grade. My daughter and her entire class never took earth science. They were on the top science track and her school (like most) uses earth science as the easy science Regents to pass.</p>
<p>Our HS tried to tell us that ES was a required course in Virginia as well. I think “required by the state” is a common argument schools pull out when they want to boost passing rates on state tests. Personally, I hated ES when I took it as an eighth grader, many moons ago. AP Enviro looks interesting, however.</p>
<p>Skip the middle school course…he’ll learn it later on anyways…</p>
<p>A little off topic but at my son’s high school, everyone was required to take Physics Freshman year. Bio was usually a sophmore year course, Chemistry in Junior or senior year. AP Physics was also offered but one needed to take the basic physics course first. His high school philosophy was that the concepts of physics were needed to understand Chem and Bio in depth. An interesting idea.<br>
As for the OP’s question, I too would suggest a student take what ever accelerated courses are offered. Skip earth science and head on to Physics.</p>
<p>Oaklandmom:</p>
<p>Yes, I gave the more traditional sequence of courses, Bio, Chem, Phys. But there is another sequence that puts Physics first (indeed, the course is called Physics First). It’s been championed by Nobel Prize Physicist Leon Edelman. Our high school adopted this sequence a few years ago. The jury is out on whether this is the best approach to teaching science or not.</p>
<p>The reasoning is two fold: 1. physics is the building block of modern science. 2. students who take bio and chem seldom proceed to physics.
The counter-argument also two-fold: Physics First, which is a 9th grade course, is too light on math, since it is built on 8th grade math. rather than on Pre-Calc as is the traditional Honors Physics. 2. Students’ knowledge of Physics has withered between 9th and 12 grades when they finally take AP-Calc.</p>
<p>OOPs. I should have written Leon Lederman instead of Edelman (who was Henry James’ biographer)/</p>