(Fall 2023) Basic Biology, Part One with Inshal Chenet

Students will learn to see the wondrous beauty in creation through learning about the divine order of biology and the incredible complexity of the cell. If you would like your eighth-grade student to have an introduction to biology before high school, or your high school non-STEM-centered student to take a course that satisfies the high school biology requirement, then this is the course for you.
 
Special notes: This is Part One of a 2-Part course. Students are expected to also sign up for Part Two in the spring.

Total classes: 12

Duration: 55 minutes per class

Prerequisite: None

Suggested grade level: 8th to 10th grade

Suggested credit: One full semester Biology

Instructor: Inshal Chenet

Instructor email: inshalj@gmail.com

Course description: The start of understanding the sciences is Wonder. To be able to look at the natural world and notice with new eyes what is around you. This deepens into a desire to continue on with the sciences. In this course, we will be learning about the beauty of creation through the divine order of biology and the incredible complexity of the cell. There will be some optional labs, which will require only simple tools found at most convenience stores.

Course outline:

  • Week 1: Classification and Order

  • Week 2: Non-Vascular Plants

  • Week 3: Vascular Plants

  • Week 4: Single Celled Organisms

  • Week 5: Fungi

  • Week 6: Review for Midterm

  • Week 7: Invertebrates

  • Week 8: Invertebrates (continued)

  • Week 9: Chemistry of Life

  • Week 10: The Cell

  • Week 11: The Cell (continued)

  • Week 12: Review for Final

Course materials: Biology for Life (Seton Press) by Seton Staff, ISBN: 9781607041689 (https://setonbooks.com/science/775-biology-for-life.html)

Homework: Each week, students will be required to read a selection from the textbook, then take a short question quiz. If students are having difficulties, there are supplemental questions in the book that they can use to shore up their knowledge.

Quiz Rules:  Quizzes are no notes / closed book unless the individual week says otherwise! You can try the quiz multiple times, but your first try must be before the start of the next class.