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!
