Chemistry 101 and Biology 101

note: I was given these dvd sets for free. I agreed to write a review for my blog in return for these free items. The review is honest and not influenced by the receiving of free items.


I was pleased to have the opportunity to use the video sets of Chemistry 101 and Biology 101. It is a great help to have such a wonderful addition to our homeschool curriculum. We were in need of high school level science resources and these are factual and biblical.

The sets were created and hosted by homeschooling father and fifteen-year veteran filmmaker Wes Olson. He did a splendid job. These sets are created for kids ages 15 and up but younger children will enjoy the videos and you could get more books and other resources on their level to round out a year long program for them.

The Chemistry set has 4 DVD's and contains 19 individual video segments, for a total running time of over 11 hours, as well as a guidebook. The guidebook includes information to go with each lesson, and a quiz covering the material for each video segment. There is also a pdf with the information on how to make this set into a full one year high school chemistry course.

Chemistry 101 is divided into four main sections: The Road to the Periodic Table, Chemistry Essentials, Meet the Elements, and The Future of Chemistry. This course will help your student(s), and maybe it will help you , understand what the Periodic Table means and how to balance chemical equations, and you will have an introductory knowledge of every element. You will also learn about the history of chemistry, including short biographies of many famous chemists. Here is the page with the list of contents of the program - http://www.the101series.com/chem/contents.html

Here is a sample of the guidebook containing chapter 2, the Birth of Modern Chemistry. It contains the information the student can read about the lesson, which has the same information as the dvd lesson and some added interesting tidbits, as well as part of the quiz for that lesson - http://www.the101series.com/chem/sampleguidebook.pdf

For the stretched out course (both Chemistry and Biology) Wes gives the kids assignments. Books to look for and read from the library, essays to write, field trip possibilities, lab work, and other things. He even includes some Bible studies on relevant topics. You can pick and choose what will best suit your student(s) or you could let you student choose.

Here is a sample of the chemistry pdf for making it a year long course http://www.the101series.com/chem/sampleguidebook.pdf 

 

The Biology set has 4 DVD's as well with 9 video segments, a guidebook, and a pdf  including information to ‘stretch’ the course from 9 lessons to a full year of Biology, the same as the Chemistry set. The videos are presented in accordance with the days of Creation using exceptional video footage supported by tons of interesting visuals and graphics. Children of all ages will enjoy the videos and the footage of the animals. Here is the page with the list of the contents of the biology set - http://www.the101series.com/bio/contents.html

Here is a sample of the lesson information and quiz for chapter 3 on plants - http://www.the101series.com/bio/sampleguidebook.pdf
 
Here is a sample of the biology pdf for making it a year long course - http://www.the101series.com/bio/sampleprogram.pdf 


The information in both sets is accurate and these videos have been recommended by some of the most popular homeschool bloggers, by ICR, by Answers in Genesis and now by ME!!!  

We received these items the beginning of 2014. We had already done 3/4 of a year of chemistry. We did not have time to use the stretched out course. We watched the dvd’s. Then, Christopher read the lesson from the pdf that goes with the video then he took the quiz. He greatly enjoyed the videos, found them interestingly presented and containing good solid information. It was a good wrap-up for our year.

The only problem I have with these sets is that the video cases they come in seem cheap to me. My cases came broken with some of the dvd's in each set sliding around. I don't think this was the fault of the shipping as the outside of the cases was fine and the packaging was fine that they arrived in. It's just the buttons that you push to 'unlock' the dvd's from the case that were broken. Luckily they were not scratched in the process. I will be purchasing better cases for my dvd's to prevent them from getting scratched in the future.

I am looking forward to the release of Physics 101... set to come out in the spring of 2015. I have been promised a copy to review for my blog at that time so stay tuned for that.


You can purchase the sets here
http://the-101-series-store.myshopify.com/    (Both sets)  $69.95 each

ON SALE - Both sets of dvd's at Answers in Genesis $99 (on sale at the time of the posting of this review... not sure for how long)
      https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/chemistry-biology-101-combo/?sku=90-7-602

https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/chemistry-101/?sku=30-9-401 $69.99 (Chemistry)

https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/biology-101-dvd-based-curriculum/?sku=30-9-177       
                                                                                                                         $69.99 (Biology)

Timberdoodle has some reviews on there site and they have gotten permission to put part of one of the lessons from Chemistry 101 on their site as a YouTube video so you can see Wes Olson, the teacher, and how he presents the information. You can also see the quality of the videos and the quality of the material he teaches...
http://www.timberdoodle.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=101-375  $54.95  (Chemistry)
http://www.timberdoodle.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=101-365  $54.95 (Biology)