Fascinating Biology – a Review

Fascinating Education is a unique company offering online science curricula for Middle and High School students.  We have been using their Fascinating Biology course. My daughter, who struggles with science, is a huge fan of the video-based learning approach.These courses provide parents a user-friendly method of engaging their student in science.  The courses promote right brain learning by using a unique audio-visual style and tried and true step-by-step lessons.  The lessons are broken down into small units so that even the most reluctant science student can understand the concepts presented.      The Biology course covers topics ranging from “What is Life?,”  “Take in Nutrients,” “Take in Energy,” and much, much more.  Caitlyn goes through a lesson each day.  She watches the lesson video and we discuss it.  Being a former Biology teacher, I really appreciate the way the lessons are broken down.  I also appreciate the way that the lessons tie together different sciences.  For example, she actually learned a little introductory chemistry in her biology class to help her understand the way that chemicals in the body work and to understand how the cell membrane functions.  Depending on the lesson, it takes her anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour to complete a lesson.  She really is enjoying the lessons.  We are not a fan of ‘cheesy’ ‘gimmicky’ videos for school subjects.  The video lessons with Fascinating Biology are no-nonsense, logical, and easy to understand.  If a lesson is more challenging for her, I go through the lesson and print a transcript of the video.  Sometimes it is just easier to have a paper copy of the words to follow along as she is studying. Fascinating Biology is a high school level course.  Caitlyn is in ninth grade.  She took Physical Science last year, which has helped with the chemistry principles presented.  Each course is presented on-screen in a table format with buttons below the picture for each lesson so that students can just click through on the lesson they need to work on.  Lesson transcripts may be printed if needed.  Tests that correlate with each lesson are administered online, but an alternate password can be obtained by parents / teachers if a printable PDF of a test is desired.  I contacted Fascinating Education and they sent me the alternate password really promptly.  My daughter performs better on paper and pencil tests, so I print the tests for her.  For those who are interested, sample lessons for each course are available through the individual course web pages.The course costs $79. It does work well with mobile devices with an internet connection. Caitlyn access it on her phone quite frequently.      Registering for the course is done online and is a simple process.  Fascinating Biology consists of nineteen lessons.  It can be used as a stand alone Biology course.  Each lesson has many parts.  It takes my daughter 1-2 weeks to finish an entire lesson.  It is easier for me to think of the “lessons” as units that are made up of mini-lessons.  This course, if accompanied with supplemental lab work, is a great way to introduce students to biological concepts.    If I had to choose any deficit to this program, it would be that I would like to have some hands on labs available.  I think that science needs hands on work.  While the videos show the concepts visually, there are many concepts that could be really understood better with some hands on work.  I supplemented Caitlyn’s lessons with labs I have done with my students over the years in our homeschool tutorial.      My friends on the Schoolhouse Review Crew have been using all of the Fascinating Education courses.  To read their reviews, click on the graphic below.