Apologia Science courses provide home-schooled students with science curriculum based on Christian doctrine.
Apologia stems from the word "apologetics," which means to defend one's faith and Christian doctrine. Apologia refers to the teaching strategies, specifically in the area of science, geared toward students educated in the home. The purpose of the Apologia science curriculum is to give students a scientific education of the world around them based on Christian principles, as a means of learning to defend their faith.
Instructions
Teaching and Applying Apologia
1. Purchase course curriculum from an Apologia Science provider (see Resources), selecting a curriculum that covers several areas in scientific study, such as archaeology, geology, astronomy, botany, zoology, biology, chemistry and others.
2. Choose courses for your child that meet credit requirements in preparation for higher education. For example, Apologia Physical Science typically meets the requirements for an eighth grade course. Most curriculum providers will notify you of what credits a course meets.
3. Progress the curriculum at your child's pace for learning. Many Apologia programs omit a course schedule to accommodate a child's individual learning process. If you choose to implement a study schedule yourself, programs providers such as Apologia Education Ministries have 16 modules in each course book and recommend two study weeks for each module. They recommend students use days one through seven for the reading, "on your own problems" and experiments, followed by spending days eight and nine on the study guide and taking the test on day 10.
4. Keep track of your child's progress through the lessons. Keep in mind that many Apologia providers design the courses for independent study, writing the text as if a teacher is providing instructions and lesson details conversationally, including the outlined experiments. The purpose of this process with Apologia Science is to give parents the ability to teach the courses even if they lack a knowledge on scientific methods based on biblical doctrine.
5. Read the Apologia curriculum yourself to understand the lessons and how they apply to your belief system. Ask your child questions that someone outside of your belief system might ask and help your child develop responses based upon the things he learns through Apologia course work and experiments in order to defend the Christian doctrine.
6. Grade your child's course work according to the grading scale and instructions provided in the teacher section of the Apologia curriculum.
Tags: your child, Christian doctrine, Apologia curriculum, Apologia Science, based Christian
