Disclosure: I received this product, College Prep Science Virtual Lab: Biology, for a free homeschool science labs course and was compensated for my time. I was not required to give a positive review. All opinions are 100% my own.
Virtual Homeschool Science Labs For 6th-12th Graders
Online Science Labs for Your Homeschool
As a busy homeschool mom, there are a few areas where I always felt guilty of not doing enough… Top of my list? Homeschool Science labs. Yep. They have always been a challenge for us to do at home. When the opportunity arose to join a co-op, I made sure my kids were very involved in the science experiment lab sessions. Anything hands-on counted as a lab…especially when they were younger. They learned so much by adding this element to our homeschool routine.
Now, all of a sudden I have middle and high school students, and in-person meet-ups for homeschool co-op have not happened in over a year. While it has all been rather stressful in general, I began to get quite nervous about how we were going to meet the necessary requirements of middle and high school science classes. With kids eyeing university degrees that are heavy in science, I need to find a college-prep science lab course we could do virtually. Thankfully, I hear about College Prep Science had just started virtual labs for Biology, Physics, and Chemistry. Since one child is part-way through Anatomy & Physiology and the other is working her way through AP-Biology, I knew I needed to enroll my kids in this virtual lab so they could complete their full course and get lab credit.
We remain stuck indoors most of the winter months, so it is the perfect time to binge on virtual labs (and lab report write-ups) on the weekends to get caught up. My daughter actually preferred this type of intensive learning as it helped her understand everything so much easier. Her project-oriented personality was happy to do school all weekend if it meant she would get a sizable chunk of work out of the way, and get solid graded on a difficult subject at the same time.
So, after a few weeks of virtual labs. I asked both kids what their thoughts were on the virtual lab add-on course. Here’s how they responded.
10 Things my kids liked most about the Biology homeschool virtual labs course
My kids really liked this virtual lab course. Check out the top 10 things they liked about the course.
- The interactiveness, ease of access, and super friendly user interface
- That you had to turn on the lights and put on a lab coat and goggles before doing anything else (this mama likes that they are learning health & safety virtually too!)
- The short videos explaining little things and the descriptive instructions
- The accurate representation of each item (tool, resource, or material) and its functions
- The organized drawers with various items in them
- Somehow, it makes us do the scientific method without us even realizing it (and the light switch! The lightswitch is very fun.)
- The ease of switching between projects
- The videos before each lab session explaining what it would entail and what to do if I got stuck.
- I liked that you had to fill up the containers with water yourself instead of having containers with predetermined amounts to choose from.
- I liked that it was easy to figure out where things were and how to measure and manipulate the different objects.
Secretly, I hope that all that fun with the light switch, organized drawers, and use of the scientific method will rub off and they remember to turn the light off as they leave a room, keep their dresser drawers tidy, and think about the steps they should take to effectively complete their chores. Hope springs eternal and I may be asking for the moon, but at least I know that they have thoroughly enjoyed and excelled in completing the required labs for their science classes this year.
To summarize, my kids wanted to make sure I told you about the following about College Prep Science homeschool virtual labs:
- The UI (user interface) was really engaging and active
- How the drawers are oh so organized
- The teacher explains things so well and the videos provided for instruction are really good,
- The ease of figuring out how to use the objects, and
- The instruction on how to write your lab report.
If my middle schooler & highschooler like it, I’m pretty sure your kids will too! You can get a FREE test drive of College Prep Science’s new virtual, interactive science lab. I think your students LOVE it too!
More info about College Prep Science Homeschool Virtual Labs:
- The virtual labs are self-paced, interactive, virtual science labs and explanatory videos for 6th through 12th-grade students.
- There are NO supplies with these online labs. EVERYTHING happens done online!
- The lab structure allows students to build critical thinking skills and to develop a research and inquiry mindset. This results in quality lab reports and thinking skills that affect every area of academics and life.
- Students have access to the virtual lab experiments for a full year (12 months from whenever you start) and can work at their own pace.
- Students can choose the experiment they want to perform – 10 experiments are available for each subject. Note: a full school year (two-semester) science class should include at least six lab experiments with full (formal) lab reports and a half school year (one semester) science class should include at least three experiments with full (formal) lab reports.
- NO supplies with these online labs, EVERYTHING is done online!
- Students watch a video of professor Landry explaining the background information on the topic of that experiment and details on performing the experiment.
- Students record all data from the experiment in their (real paper) lab notebook
- Subjects Offered include Biology / Anatomy & Physiology, Chemistry, and Physics (conceptual – only basic math needed).
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Curriculum: Make the Best Choice
