Integrated Physics and Chemistry Course
The Integrated Physics and Chemistry Course contains 12 chapters (in 12 booklets) totaling 742 pages of physics and chemistry related-topics. There are 180 individual readings in the course, each taking up 4-5 pages.
Our World Geography guide contains plans for all 12 chapters of the text, resulting in 1-2 readings a day on most days. The font-size of the pages makes for easier reading and the text features illustrations in black and white. The content coverage is very solid, as you can imagine with this many pages of text!
About the author:
This course is written by John Hudson Tiner, who has an incredible gift for writing about science in a narrative, living way. Tiner writes about the lives of the scientists and the problems they sought to solve, which also makes his writing very biographical.
Tiner also wrote Exploring Planet Earth, Exploring the World of Medicine, and Exploring the World of Chemistry. (These titles feature in previous Heart of Dakota guides.)
His writing style fits very well with Charlotte Mason’s definition of a living book, meaning a book written by a single author who is passionate about his subject matter and is able to make the study of that topic (or time period) come alive through his/her storylike writing. Living books are also easier to narrate from.
12 accompanying activity books serve as follow-ups to the readings. These activity books utilize multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, vocabulary, and short answer type questions. You can (if needed) order an additional set of activity books here.
How this course fits in our World Geography guide
The publisher mentions that two credits could be awarded for the 12 chapters of coursework, with one credit for intro. to physics and another credit for intro. to chemistry.
After having our own oldest son do all 12 chapters of the IPC course as a freshman, we feel with the time it took to complete the course that awarding only 1 credit is more in alignment with typical high school standards.
We plan for science to take approximately 60 minutes or less each day in our World Geography guide. (Potentially longer days can occur when labs combine with readings).
Note: Since Tiner’s text does not include labwork, in order to include a lab component we have incorporated the MicroPhySci Kit into the readings.
