Friday, September 18, 2015

Fascinating Education ~ Biology


I had the opportunity to review Fascinating Biology, by Fascinating Education. By using audio visual teaching, Dr. Margulies engages students through his courses in Biology, Chemistry and Physics. 

Fascinating Biology works by engaging students using thought provoking questions to make students an integral part of the learning process. Lessons utilize everyday observations and facts to peak a students interest. There are 18 lessons included in the Fascinating Biology series. Each lesson has a convenient drop down overview menu that is broken down into small subtopic segments included in the given lesson. At the end of each lesson are bullet point summaries entitled, What You Know So Far. The lesson can be printed out in script form or viewed on the site in picture and lecture form. At the end of each lesson there is a multiple choice test in order to test what you just learned. The test is automatically scored. If your score was not so great you are able to retest. For more parental control there is a pdf version of the test. 

In Fascinating Biology the student will learn about:
  • Life
  • Cell Membrane
  • Nutrients
  • Energy
  • Metallic Bond
  • Growth
  • Reproduction
  • Homeostasis 
  • Adaptation
  • Protists, Plants, Animals, and Fungi
This curriculum is great for parents seeking a science curriculum that is self paced and requires minimal to no parental involvement to complete. 

Outstanding pictures and graphics


Chapter details


Tests


Who Used Fascinating Biology
At this time I have children at so many varying stages of science. My kiddos in upper level science courses were already signed up for co-op classes for the school year so I decided to work through this curriculum myself. I love science and was exciting to work through parts of this curriculum to see what it was like. I was impressed by the ease of navigating the site. I   content was presented with clarity and the lessons are broken down into sub sections of the material to be presented. The pictures and graphics are engaging and of excellent quality. 

I have always been fascinated with the subject of science. I found some of the explanations to be very informative and interesting, but like I stated before very one sided. Theories and processes were broken down in terms that were easy to follow. 

I really found it helpful that at the end of each chapter the main points were broken down in order to recap what was discussed. This was a great help and resource to refer back to. 


I am a very visual learner so I opted to listen to the lectures which included visuals that aided in my overall understanding of what was being taught. I did print out the chapter scripts to use as a reference and in order to go over material of great interest. 

This program is perfect for someone searching for a self-paced model of teaching. I personally found the program to be agreeable whether I was able to spend five minutes or fifty minutes at a time. Jumping back in where I left off was quite easy. 

With that said, I did find Dr. Margulies to be somewhat monotone and dry in his teaching. At times I found myself drifting away from what was being said. Early on, it was evident that Dr. Margulies teaches from the evolutionary point of view. The teaching, along with the arguments and evidence presented, is basically one sided. 


Final Thoughts
I think that Fascinating Education has done a great job of creating a friendly website and program of study. Much thought and work has gone into the details of the courses provided. They are very user friendly. Unfortunately, I did not find Fascinating Biology to be a good fit for our family. Putting aside my own views, I believe that in education it is important to engage and interact with all views. This, in turn, gives the student freedom to make choices based on their own conclusions. With that said, I encourage others to try it out for themselves. Over my many years of teaching I have found what is a good fit for some may not be the best fit for others. I am grateful for the many choices available.

To read more reviews click HERE.

Social Media
At this time there are no social media links for Fascinating Education.


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