Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
My Little Man loves hands-on learning. He’ll work on something for hours when he can see how the pieces all fit together – but textbooks? Not so much. He loves to read them on his own time, when it’s his choice, but not so much when I create an assignment using one. That’s why we were excited for the opportunity to review Experience Biology: Upper Level by Journey Homeschool Academy. As a video-based high school biology course, there is a textbook – but it’s not necessarily the spine of the class!
My Little Man is a very visual guy. Though he loves to read and has high recall ability, he enjoys learning in a variety of styles.
The videos are incredibly well done. As in, I can’t believe that these didn’t come from a huge publishing company! The visuals are smooth, clear, and full of vibrant color – very professionally done. The voiceovers and transitions are incredible, and the whole thing has a conversational feel. It’s almost like you’re sitting down to talk with your most favorite expert ever.
My Little Man is very independent about his schoolwork when he likes it and isn’t when he’d rather be fishing. I was a bit worried about how this would all work out, because while the curriculum sounded great and he agreed to try it, … well … you know. Instead, he’s completely managed the whole thing. From the very first day he was enthusiastic and on board. I didn’t have to ask him to do his lesson or to remind him to pull out his notebooks once. On the contrary – for the first several weeks, he spent time reading both his and his sister’s biology books, trying to find answers to the questions he had that originated with the course! Isn’t that the way that real learning should be: when the student is interested and engaged to the point that s/he wants to know more and goes off in search of that ‘more?’
Journey Homeschool Academy makes it very easy for students to take charge of their own learning and to navigate the course. I love the structure! As you can see in the above picture, each lesson is linked on the left side of the screen. Clicking on a lesson number opens up that lesson on the right, where you see detailed assignments. These assignments involve watching videos, answering research questions, reading the textbook, doing the labs, and taking quizzes. When the student completes a step, a checkmark will appear in the gray boxes on the right. Students can’t advance until they’ve completed each step of a given lesson, ensuring that they’re working carefully and completing all the parts of the lessons.
Given that it’s summer in a pandemic, My Little Man is continuing to do schoolwork but at a relaxed pace. He usually completed a step of a lesson a day, most schooldays, meaning that it took him between 5 – 7 days to complete a lesson. (Sometimes he choose to do more than one piece; sometimes he chose to spread the work out a bit, if it involved lots of writing; other days we headed to the lake for some sunshine therapy and he skipped schoolwork on those days. It’s summer.) With 35 lessons (the equivalent of a normal school year), there’s more than enough time to complete the course in a school year. During this review period, after getting all of the materials together, he completed the first four lessons with all of the parts and labs. Yes, even the labs! He’s gathered his materials, learned to use the microscope, and followed all of the directions completely independently.
Experience Biology comes with several resources to help you learn the material. This is a two-page spread from the Student Guidebook. It’s basically a workbook full of outlines and guided note-taking pages for each chapter – like study guides. I love the clean look and big spaces for writing. Also included is a lab notebook with a similar appearance, as well as answer keys for parents.
The course starts simply, defining biology and working through first steps. As it continues, the lessons are split up logically, each about a different type of life form. I appreciate this approach and think that it will work well for students.
My kids are two years apart in age. My daughter began biology with another curriculum last September, at the start of her freshman year of high school. Having taken several breaks to work on other things, she’s in the middle of her class right now, yet from his first lesson My Little Man has been engaging her in conversation about the new things he’s learning from Experience Biology. He’s fascinated with the material, and even though he’s younger and not as far along in his course, he’s learning it well and is able to carry on meaningful conversations about it. It’s great to see the two of them interacting with science this way: each learning it in their own way but totally understanding and connecting with it and each other.
I highly recommend Experience Biology: Upper Level for any student wanting a rigorous high school biology curriculum. The logical organization, clear teaching, and lesson depth, as well as the variety of learning styles, make this a great curriculum option.
Don’t take my word for it, though. Click on the graphic below to read other reviews on the Homeschool Review Crew’s blog hop.
