Half a Hundred Acre Wood

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Although we recently reviewed Experience Biology, we wanted to also share with you another self-paced, video-based course for biology because it is just so unique. In fact, it is so different that it’s been in our queue to review for a couple of years now. Why? Well, even though our second son (who was originally dreading biology) enjoyed the course immensely, I’ve struggled with just how to write a review for it. Different can be difficult because it often challenges our thinking. Different is almost always harder than the same. It requires a lot more explaining which requires a lot more thought.

So… why was our second son dreading biology, anyway? Dissections, mostly. He’s always been a big-picture sort of person and was not really looking forward to memorizing all the different parts of each type of animal and so on. His love for animals and life in general stems from a love of God and His creation. So… when we found a course that focuses on the attributes of God and the biological processes He has established on earth (rather than taking apart creation to examine it), we opted for different.

Before reading any farther, if you’re looking for a conventional biology curriculum, this course is not it. Instead, check out our review of Experience Biology which is another science curriculum written from a Christian worldview. But if you are looking for something different (and are a Christian who is open to a young-earth perspective), read on…

Written and taught by one of the top creation scientists in the world (Dr. Kurt Wise), Devotional Biology is an unconventional biology course that incorporates biological sciences into a Christian worldview (instead of incorporating a Christian worldview into science).

The class includes:

  • 67 in-depth video lectures (varying in length from 12 to 35 minutes)
  • Textbook (PDF)
  • Lab manual (PDF)
  • Teacher’s Guide (PDF)
  • 13 Lab Instructional Videos
  • (The course materials are also available for purchase in printed format.)
With its strong theological emphasis, each lesson begins with an attribute of God, presents the biological processes that display that attribute of God, and ends with our responsibility as stewards of His creation. In this course, students are not required to memorize lengthy vocabulary lists and other detailed information. Rather, the course teaches Christian students how to think about and understand biology and science as a whole. Even though this course is different from conventional courses, it is fairly challenging. The textbook explains, “The goal of this class is to expand the way students think about God and His creation. Both are exceedingly complex. It is not a bad thing to struggle to understand; this is often where learning occurs.”
The textbook’s chapter and section titles can best summarize what is covered in this course (which also underscores how different this biology course is from other options).
  • Biology for the Believer. God Desires to be Known, The Christian Foundation of Science, Defining Science & Biology, Why Study Biology?, Our Kingly & Priestly Responsibilities, and Our Image & Ministry Responsibilities
  • The Living God: Biological Life. Different Types of Life, Are Plants Alive?, The Nature of Life, The Origin of Life, The Spectrum of Perfection of Life, and Our Responsibility to Life
  • God’s Glory: Biological Beauty. The Beauty of God and Biological Beauty
  • God is Distinct: Biological Discontinuity. The Biblical Kind, Baraminology, The Spectrum of Discontinuity, The Origin of Discontinuity
  • God is Good: Mutualism & Biological Evil.  Mutualism, The Curse, Biological Evil, and Our Responsibility to Biological Good and Evil
  • God is Person: Animal Behavior & Personality. God is Person, Biological Uniqueness & Activity, Instinctive & Learned Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animal Will, Animal Personality & Relationships, and The Origin of & Responsibility to Personhood
  • The Provider God: The Anthropic Principle. The Anthropic Principle & the Earth, The Anthropic Principle & the Solar System, Galaxy, and Universe, The Anthropic Principle & Atoms, The Anthropic Principle & Molecules, and The Origin of Anthropic Principle Features & Our Responsibility
  • The Sustaining God: The Biomatrix. The Biomatrix, Biogeochemical Cycles, and Our Kingly Responsibility to the Biomatrix
  • God is One: Monomers, Biosimilarity, and Biosystems. Common Monomers, Similarities & Systems, and Our Responsibility to Biological Unity
  • God is Three: Biodiversity. Climatic Variety, Land Biome Variety, Water Biome Variety, Biodiversity, and Our Responsibility to Biodiversity
  • God of Hierarchy: Biological Hierarchy. Unified Hierarchy of God, Organizational Hierarchy & Cell Theory, Universal Cell Parts, Higher Organizational Hierarchy, and Netted Hierarchy of Similarity & Our Responsibility to Hierarchy
  • The Almighty God: Metabolism. Types of Metabolism, Photosynthesis, Respiration, and Our Responsibility to Metabolism
  • God the Word: Animal Communication & Language of Life. Animal Communication, Myth of DNA & DNA for Storage & Copying, Language of Life & Our Responsibility to Biological Communication
  • God’s Fullness: Reproduction, Diversification, and Biogeography. Mitosis, Meiosis & Non-Physical Reproduction, Diversification, and Biogeography & Our Responsibility to Biological Abundance
  • The History of Life. Biblical Chronology, The Creation Week, The Edenian & Antediluvian Worlds, and The Flood & The Arphaxadian Epoch
  • Perspectives on Evolution.
While this course covers some of the typical topics covered in a biology course such as cell theory, the microscopic world, animal characteristics, and physiological processes (such as photosynthesis and mitosis/meiosis), it does not include a study of the particulars of each animal kingdom/phylum and associated terminology that is so common in other textbooks. However, at some points throughout the course, Dr. Wise does contrast his presentation with the naturalism of secular science and even includes a detailed appendix dedicated to explaining perspectives on evolution.
In order for students to count this course as a lab science credit, they must complete a majority of the labs, keeping a laboratory notebook and writing lab reports as proof of their lab work. The course includes 14 labs which convey much of the content that would be covered in a more traditional biology course. These labs include investigation of biological relationships, diffusion and osmosis, biogeochemical cycles, microscopic organisms/processes, the cell, dichotomous keys, photosynthesis and plant design, DNA structure and protein translation, mitosis and meiosis, and bioethics.  One of the most distinguishing features of this course is that the lab exercises include no dissections.
As students complete lab exercises, they will take notes, draw sketches, and record data into tables within the lab manual.

The first four labs emphasize field work and observations. The remaining lab exercises are more challenging and require traditional lab equipment. The Devotional Biology Lab Materials kit includes the specialized equipment and supplies needed for the course, including a microscope, prepared slides, a Magnetic Chromosome Simulation Kit, a DNA Model Kit, a pocket balance, pipets, beakers, graduated cylinders, and lab chemicals. (Other supplies are common household products.)

Some of the labs are pretty lengthy, taking as long as 6-8 hours to complete. In these cases, the experiment can be conducted over multiple days. Pre-lab instructional videos are included, but the explanations do not include schematics or example equipment set-up, so we found some of the labs challenging and/or confusing. However, since our personal experience with Devotional Biology, Compass Classroom has instituted an online forum for their classes where course participants can ask questions and interact with one another.

One other potential challenge is that, although questions are offered at the end of each chapter, assigning all of those questions as an exam would be overwhelming for the student. Instead, the parent must select specific questions to design an exam for each chapter if they wish to have written exams for their student’s portfolio. We did not find this challenging, but it does take some extra work. Another option is transforming the test into an oral discussion with a participation grade, or possibly instituting a combination of the two (written exams and oral discussions).

Devotional Biology is an excellent course which fulfills my personal requirement that our science studies instill wonder which leads to worship of our Creator. The book and the course are absolutely beautiful, and we highly recommend it, especially for those who are not needing a detailed study of animal or human anatomy (or if the student will be taking Biology II later in high school). In the words of Dr. Wise: “We have a responsibility to worship God, to share God with others, to guard and keep the creation He gave us, and to enhance the divinity-illustrating characteristics of the creation so as to bring God more glory” (p. 18).

Try this high school biology course for free!

To determine whether this course is a good fit for your family, click here to watch the free video lessons and view a sample the student textbook.

And… you can download a whole lot of other free lessons and resources for other subjects here.

Plus more!

This program is one of over 30 courses offered in Compass Classroom’s monthly membership which is now available as an app so you can take your learning on the go! You can sign up for a free trial (no credit card required) to test drive this course and many others, including the programs we have used and recommended in the past.

You can also visit this helpful website which lays out how to plan your year using Compass Classroom.

And… be sure to sign up for a free MyCompassClassroom account to experience discussion forums, support groups, and free video courses beyond the trial membership!

If you have any questions about this course or about the Compass Classroom Membership, just give us a shout! We’ll be glad to help in any way that we can!


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