The Life Science standards emphasize a more complex understanding of change, cycles, patterns, and relationships in the living world that God created. Students in this course focus on basic principles related to these concepts by exploring the cellular organization and the classification of organisms, and the dynamic relationship among organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems. Inquiry skills at this level include organization and mathematical analysis data, manipulating variables in experiment and identifying the source. Students will strive to become effective communicators, both academically and interpersonally. The students will discover and investigate a variety of aspects of Creation. Students will establish awareness of health related life issues. Students will also demonstrate a passion for personal excellence in all areas of life and learning.

 

Physical Science, 8th Grade
Text: Focus on Physical Science: California Edition, Prentice Hall, Inc. 2001.

This class is an introduction and overview of God’s design of nature. Students will study the chemical and physical plan of the world around us.  Inquiry skills at this level include organization and mathematical analysis data, manipulating variables in experiments and identifying the source.  The major units of study are: motion; forces and energy; sound and light; electricity and magnets; matter and reactions; astronomy.

 
Introduces to basic physics, chemistry, astronomy, students will be ready to study individual scientific fields in depth by the end of this course.

 

 

The purpose of this course is to gain an understanding of the importance of a healthy lifestyle as well as gain knowledge in the areas of health related health issues, including exercise, nutrition, the negative consequences of habitual substance abuse, and an understanding of the biological systems of the human body, driving safety, and sexual education. Students will understand a healthy life that God has intended for us. Students will also understand social and cultural influences and how they affect the decisions we make.

 

 

This course encompasses the laws, theories, and principles of Physical Science and allows the student to apply these to everyday phenomena. Students will implement the scientific method to experiment in the areas of motion, force, heat, temperature, wave properties, electricity, magnetism, nature of matter, changes in matter and the properties of sound and light.  Students will also be introduced to the biological concepts of ecology and the conservation of natural resources. Laboratory work and projects will allow students to apply reasoning and critical thinking skills to the scientific method. Our belief in God as the Creator will be interwoven throughout the curriculum.

 

 

Biology
Text: Biology: Dynamics of Life, Glencoe/McGraw Hill, 2000.

Biology is aligned with the science content standards as established by the state of California, and the National Science Education Standards.  The class will be taught based on a Biblical view of God as the Creator, covering other theories including intelligent design.  Focus will be on the diversity of life forms while revealing their relationships and fundamental unity of form and function.   Biology is designed to expose the student to the living world and its systems.  This course examines variables and principles that contribute to effective observation, analysis, and instruction in the field of biology. Instruction will consist of lecture, discussion, cooperative learning activities, projects, and labs. The laboratory work will develop students’ reasoning power, the ability to apply biological principles, as well as acquaint students with laboratory techniques. Students will implement the scientific method in experimentation and design experiments.

 

 

Chemistry

(Pre-requisite: a “C” or better in Biology)
Text: Chemistry, Wilbraham, Staley, Matta, Waterman; Prentice Hall, 2007.

Chemistry is aligned with the science content standards as established by the state of California.  This course exposes students to the theories and concepts of modern chemistry. The course emphasizes Stoichiometry, solutions and equilibrium, periodic properties, bonding and common reactions, acid-base reactions, and oxidation-reduction reactions. The laboratory work will develop students reasoning power, the ability to apply chemical principles; as well as acquaint students with chemical laboratory techniques.  Instruction will consist of lecture, discussion, cooperative learning activities, and labs. Students will implement the scientific method in experimentation and design experiments. God as the Creator will be interwoven throughout the curriculum.

 

        

This course is designed to give to student’s detailed knowledge of the various structures of the human body as well as the functions of these structures. This includes the skeletal system, muscular system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, lymphatic system, endocrine system, respiratory system, nervous system, and the integumentary system. Students will gain knowledge of the diseases and injuries that affect these systems.

 

 

Physics

(Pre-requisite: a “C” or better in Chemistry; previous or concurrent enrollment in Algebra 2)
Text: Holt Physics, Holt, Rinehart and Winston  2002.

 
As a basic physics course, forces and the laws of motion are studied. Fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and vibrations are examined. Light reflection, refraction, interference, and diffraction are studied. Electricity and magnetisms are broken down into constituent parts (fields, capacitance, resistance and current) and studied in the framework of circuits.
Basic concepts in relativity and quantum mechanics will be examined.

 

 

AP Biology

(Pre-requisite: a “C” or better in both Biology and Chemistry.)
Text: Biology (Fifth Edition) Benjamin/Cummings, an imprint of Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.

The AP Biology course is designed to be the equivalent of a two-semester college introductory biology course usually taken by biology majors during their first year.  This course aims to provide students with the conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary to deal critically with the rapidly changing science of biology.  After showing themselves to be qualified on the AP Exam, some students, in their freshman year, are permitted to undertake upper-level courses in biology or to register for courses for which biology is a prerequisite.  Other students may have fulfilled a basic requirement for a laboratory science course and will be able to undertake other courses to pursue their majors. The goals of the AP Biology course are to help students develop a conceptual framework for modern biology and to help students gain an appreciation of science as a process. Essential to this conceptual understanding are the following: a grasp of science as a process rather than an accumulation of facts, personal experience in scientific inquiry, recognition of unifying themes that integrate the major topics of biology, and application of biological knowledge and critical thinking to environmental and social concerns.