Teaching Homeschool Biology

The thought of teaching an upper grade science, such as biology, makes a lot of parents shudder. They remember their own difficulties and don’t feel confident enough to teach these more advanced subjects to their highschool student. While teaching highschool takes extra work and planning, there is no reason to fear! There is such a vast wealth of homeschool resources and curriculum available to the homeschooling parent, that teaching even these tougher subjects are very doable. 

Will I have to set up a classroom lab?  

No, but you could if you wanted to, depending on the budget you have to work with. For instance, biology could be taught very simply in a "nature study" style format , which would include observing and documenting the life cycle of frogs, watching mold grow and viewing spores under a microscope or maybe making cheese and discussing live cultures. This could be supplemented by reading biographies about famous biologists (do a Google search). 

Another choice would be an online or virtual class, which might only demonstrate the results of an experiment and require little real-life experimentation on the part of the student. If this sounds a little too dry, there are usually fairly inexpensive science experiment kits available for purchase that includes all the needed supplies (mostly) and directions to complete the experiments. This would "liven up" the biology course and add a hands-on component.

Other more expensive options would be to purchase a more in-depth program that requires dissection tools and a microscope. Virtually everything is available to homeshoolers anymore. When my highschool daughter was taking an advanced anatomy course, she had to dissect a cow’s heart and a sheep’s eyeball, and I was able to order them online!

So, as you can see the sky is the limit. It all depends on your budget and how in depth and challenging your would like your child’s homeschool biology course to be.