At the end of this past summer, I shared how you a cool strategy I used with Study.com courses to create a “learning stacks” of courses that work perfectly together for a robust high school class that yields tons of college credit. I’ll do a quick recap of the strategy, and then tell you about a new science stack you can use this spring semester for up to 15 college credits.
This is an excerpt from my blog post this past summer:
A Learning Stack is a carefully selected set of courses that build on each other. This concept seems like common sense, but when our teens start earning college credit in high school, we often do the total opposite of this strategy! Many parents are trying to meet graduation requirements or college admissions requirements, so they are forced to have their teens jump around. Each semester or school year brings a different subject and the learning starts all over again.
In a Learning Stack your teen’s first course will take the longest. It’s generally 100% new information and they’re starting from scratch. Their second course in the stack will share a little bit of overlap in the technical sense but the real gain is in knowledge base. Like the foreign language example, the student isn’t being constantly challenged with 100% new information, which allows them to grasp the new content with a little less effort. As you can imagine, courses #3 and #4 are now a breeze! A student doesn’t expend energy and effort learning the fundamentals, their brain quickly moves beyond what they already know and just expends energy picking up new information.
I encourage you to can read that post in its entirety so you can see how the philosophy deepens learning while earning massive college credits. READ HERE
A Learning Stack consists of 3-5 courses in the same subject area that are intentionally overlapping in knowledge and in lessons complete. Study.com doesn’t make you repeat a lesson, so if you do a lesson in course #1, you don’t have to do it again in course #2 or #3, etc. So, while it may take 2-3 weeks to complete the first course, by the time the student is in their 4th or 5th course, it may take them only a few days to finish a course! Leveraging this Learning Stack strategy will accelerate their college credit so significantly, that your student may go from completing 1-2 courses per month to as many as 5.
Learning Stack: Physical Sciences
Brand: Study.com
High School Course Title: Survey of the Physical Sciences
Course Description: This course introduces the physical environment with emphasis on the laws and physical concepts that impact the world and universe. Topics include geology, meteorology, general chemistry, general physics, and astronomy. Upon completion, students should be able to describe the forces and composition of the earth and universe.
High School Credits: 1.0
Length of time: 1 semester
Potential College Credits: 15
- Geology 101: Physical Geology
- Earth Science 101: Earth Science
- Chemistry 101: General Chemistry
- Science 102: Principles of Physical Science
- Astronomy 101: Introduction to Astronomy
NOTE: if you want to remove courses from this stack, do so from the bottom. In this case, you would remove Astronomy but not Physical Geology.
A Learning Stack consists of 3-5 courses in the same field that are intentionally overlapping in knowledge and in lessons complete. Study.com doesn’t make you repeat a lesson, so if you do a lesson in course #1, you don’t have to do it again in course #2 or #3, etc. So, while it may take 2-3 weeks to complete the first course, by the time the student is in their 4th or 5th course, it may take them only a few days to finish a course! Leveraging this learning stack strategy will accelerate their college credit so significantly, that your student may go from completing 1-2 courses per month to as many as 5 when taken in this sequence.
This learning stack accumulates college credit quickly, but how you translate that into high school credit is up to you. I wouldn’t award 1 high school credit for each Study.com course, rather I would award 1.0 high school credit for the whole stack. As to the number of courses in your teen’s learning stack and how long it takes, feel free to experiment, but remember to look at it has “one long class” instead of several short ones.
Study.com is a subscription based course provider. To earn college credit for Study.com courses, you have to register for the COLLEGE ACCELERATOR program. I am happy to share a referral code with you that gives YOU 30% off that program for up to 3 months. Use my name at checkout: JenniferCookDeRosa
