Homeschool Science - Teach Students To Apply Theories To Reality

When homeschool students get to high school science, biology is often one of the sciences they choose to study. After all, what could be more fun that peering through microscopes and studying the different parts of a crayfish?! When you incorporate these things into biology—the hands-on stuff where you do experiments and create hypotheses—you’re doing a science lab, which is often one of the requirements for college admissions. Of course, you can do biology without the lab and still count it as science credit, but if your student wants to attend college, it’s important to find out what the requirements are for admissions, and see if you can satisfy those requirements. 

In addition to requiring a lab science, there are some universities who actually require that lab science to be taught in an accredited venue, such as at a public school or by a certified teacher.  That doesn’t mean that your homeschool science is not official or worth credit. It just means there are a few schools that are especially particular about the science courses they require, for some reason.

The funny thing though is that there is no national definition about what a lab science really is. I read a report recently from the US House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. The report discussed lab sciences, and their conclusion was rather remarkable:

The National Research Council’s “America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science” states, “The NRC report committee concluded that there exists no commonly agreed upon definition of laboratories in high schools amongst researchers and educators.”

It sounds like researchers and educators don’t even agree upon a common definition of lab science! As homeschoolers, we know that science can help teach students to think analytically, and to apply theories to reality. Labs give students the opportunity to test what they’ve learned through hands-on work, so labs are important opportunities, but how you structure them is really up to you. There’s no commonly agreed upon way to do labs.

The important things to focus on in science are to work at your child’s pace, keep moving forward, and to cover three or more years of high school science. Colleges aren’t usually specific about exactly which courses students should take, so the typical biology/chemistry/physics route is not necessarily required of every student.  If your student is interested in other kinds of science, such as marine science or earth/space science, they should pursue those interests too.

Because there are no standard requirements from college to college, it’s important to research the requirements of the colleges you are interested in, and plan your high school science courses accordingly. If the schools you’re interested in require chemistry with lab, than try to figure out a way to take that course. If a particular college wants you to take a lab science in a school setting, see if they offer any other ways to satisfy that requirement.  Often they will provide a testing alternative, such as the ACT with science, or maybe a SAT Subject Test or AP exam, to satisfy their science requirements.  Many other universities don’t have any excessive science requirements, but instead have an emphasis on some other area such as art or trade, and these might be better choices for students who do not excel at science or who are not interested in it.

The bottom line: do your research, so you are not caught unprepared!