College Prep Science review (online classes) with Professor Greg Landry
Preparing your homeschooled child for college can be daunting! You have to learn how to keep records, build a high-school transcript and understand admissions requirements.
Above all, you have to make sure your child is adequately prepared for the rigor of college classes as well as making sure he has sufficient understanding of all prerequisite knowledge upon which to build.
Thank goodness we homeschool parents don’t have to do it all ourselves! In fact, I see myself more as the CEO of my children’s educations than their teacher or sole provider.
My job is to facilitate an excellent education by making sure my children have access to the best resources: thoughtful literature, field trips (travel) that make them ask questions, fascinating documentaries, hands-on experiments and activities, and classes (online and in-person) with teachers who are passionate about the subjects they teach.
(This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosures for more information.)
I hope you don’t think I’m bragging when I tell you that my three oldest children are all currently attending their first-choice universities on FULL academic scholarships. I am the first person to admit that, despite Herculean effort, I wasn’t always the best homeschooler.
We parents struggle through sleepless nights after new babies, homes to clean and meals to prepare along with five million other responsibilities. I think we all fee incapable of providing everything our children need, at times.
My third child had me in an outright panic for a couple of years around age 12. Because I couldn’t seem to reach him, I made sure to enroll him in classes with excellent teachers (both online and in our community).
It helped him to have to be accountable to someone besides mom. Because they were passionate about their subjects, those teachers inspired him like I never could!
During one chemistry class, one of his excellent teachers brought up an article on graphene in Popular Science. My son became obsessed with graphene and went on to research and build graphene supercapacitors for our local homeschool science fair.
He won at several levels and earned all kinds of awards and scholarships. The exceptional teaching and mentoring my son received (along with some maturity) made him hungry for knowledge and turned him into an eager student who is now studying Computer Engineering and is on the Dean’s list every semester.
This is not the direction he was headed seven years ago, when worrying over him kept me up at night. I honestly attribute the changes to inspirational teachers who ignited interests I hadn’t even considered.
I could not have given my son the experiences or passion those teachers and classes gave him.
This is the reason I see myself as the CEO of my children’s educations rather than as the sole provider. (Whew! That realization is actually a huge relief!)
Your kids deserve fervent teachers and fascinating opportunities and the very best resources!
College Prep Science classes are a fantastic online resource for homeschool parents like me who can’t do it all by themselves. Professor Landry is passionate about about both science and teaching. One of my favorite things about his classes is that he strives to teach students to think — deeply, critically, creatively and biblically.
What online homeschool classes does College Prep Science offer?
Online College Prep Science Classes Available
College Prep Science offers live, online science classes and ACT prep as well as self-paced, recorded classes for homeschool grades 4-12, all taught from a Christian worldview perspective, including:
Biology – College Prep (9th-12th)
Life Prep Biology (8th-12th)
Chemistry – College Prep (10th-12th)
Life Prep Chemistry (9th-12th)
Physics – College Prep (10th-12th)
Life Prep Physics (9th-12th)
Human Anatomy & Physiology (9th-12th)
Exercise and Sports Physiology (8th-12th)
Pre-Anatomy & Physiology (6th-9th)
Pre-Chemistry (6th-9th)
Young Scientist Anatomy & Physiology (4th – 7th)
Young Scientist Biology (4th – 7th)
Young Scientist Chemistry (4th – 7th)
Young Scientist Physics (4th – 7th)
Young Scientist Earth & Space Science (4th – 7th)
In addition to all of these online science classes, College Prep Science offers virtual labs for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Professor Landry also offers amazing, in-person science intensives all over the United States, so be sure to check and see whether they are available where you live.
Learn more about College Prep Science online classes
What’s the difference between the College Prep and Life Prep Online Science classes?
Life prep online science classes are standard high school level classes that are less rigorous than the College Prep classes and are specifically designed to be interesting and appealing to non-science students. The Life Prep classes gives students a firm foundation and basic understanding of the subject. The depth, breadth, and pedagogy of many college-prep Biology, Chemistry, and Physics classes often leave non-science students frustrated and uninterested, while the Life Prep classes help students to gain a broad understanding without getting bogged down by the details.
If you have a science lover who has already had exposure to a topic, she is sure to enjoy the depth of a College Prep level online science class. Instead of just giving students a basic understanding, the College Prep classes dive deep into human anatomy, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Students should have an appropriate level of mathematics understanding.
All online science classes include the virtual lab component. Students are able to actually perform tasks in the lab: pouring and weighing liquids, measuring chemicals, lighting burners and recording observations. It’s a very realistic experience for students and one that is not typically possible for homeschoolers.
How are the College Prep Online Science Classes structured?
My sixth child (8th grade) is currently taking (and loving!) Life Prep Physics, so I’m going to tell you about his class. The Life Prep classes are appropriate for younger students and those with less science and math exposure. This particular class is two semesters. Professor Landry starts each class with a prayer and then lectures with great visuals for about an hour each week, while students take notes.
Professor Landry uses the Canvas Learning Management system to assign weekly reading (from the provided, online textbook he wrote), homework, virtual labs and tests.
Students read the provided materials online, then print, complete and return the homework, which is then graded by Professor Landry. All homework, tests and labs have due dates, which I appreciate.
One skill I feel homeschoolers struggle with if they don’t take outside classes is responsibility and accountability for deadlines. These deadlines have been wonderful for my son!
You know how hard it is as a mom, especially if you’re homeschooling multiple children, to set and adhere to deadlines for schoolwork! I also appreciate that he has learned to communicate responsibly with Professor Landry when we’ve been travelling and he’s had to miss classes or make up homework.
Here are a few pictures of the materials used for the Life Prep Physics class, week 1:
And here are a few screenshots from last weeks materials, about halfway through the year-long class:
As far as the difficulty level goes, my son enjoys the content and likes the pace of the class. He feels the material is explained well and it only takes him about an hour a week outside of class time to complete everything and turn it all in.
I rejoice about someone else (not me — hallelujah!) making assignments and enforcing deadlines. Even more, though, I rejoice that the someone else who is in charge of all the enforcing loves his subject and imparts that love and the joy of learning it to my son!
My son has not had any previous physics instruction outside of STEM projects for fun and his KiwiCo Eureka subscription. He is currently about halfway through Saxon Algebra 2 and he thinks the math in Life Prep Physics is “incredibly basic”. He thinks that it’s about sixth grade level based on his Saxon experience.
My son is not a super motivated child, plus he is at a particularly unmotivated stage, so I also feel like the difficulty level is appropriate for him right now. If you have a more motivated child who likes to be challenged, I’d suggest the College Prep online science class instead of the Life Prep online science class.
We plan to follow this class up with the College Prep Physics class, probably next year. You should also know that Professor Landry is incredibly responsive, patient, personable and helpful when my son has had questions or needed help. He is great at communicating with his students, holding them to high standards and is very organized.
Here is a short video walking you through the structure of the Life Prep Physics class. All of the College Prep Science classes use the same learning management system and follow this same structure, in case you are looking for a review on one of the other classes they offer.
Learn more about College Prep Science online classes
Are College Prep Science classes graded?
Yes, Professor Landry checks all of the assignments and provides testing and grades as well. I, personally, don’t grade any of my children’s homeschool work. Instead, I check assignments and then return them to my children for corrections.
So essentially every assignment is 100 percent. That works well for us because I feel the majority of the learning takes place as learners correct their mistakes. It’s given my children an excellent math foundation!
However, it’s a little tough for kids who have never received grades or been tested (I don’t give tests in our homeschool because testing is more of a teacher tool and I already know exactly where my kids struggle and excel so I choose not to waste time on testing) to jump right into college entrance tests and university classes. I appreciate that my children have opportunities like College Prep Science to adjust to deadlines, grades and tests before they begin college classes and their grades go on a permanent record.
Do College Prep Science classes run all year?
You’re not too late, even if the semester has already begun! College Prep Science offers online, self-paced classes and intensives in addition to their live, online classes. They also offers significant discounts for registration in advance, so you can start planning for next year. Be sure to sign up for College Prep Science’s mailing list for some fun science freebies and to hear about all of the discounts and registration deadlines in the future.
Our review of College Prep Science online classes
As a family, we’ve taken lots and lots of online classes over the years. College Prep Science are some of the most thorough, best organized and professional. I love that we’ve been able to enjoy real science and deep learning without needing to worry about liberal ideologies or the political propaganda public schools teach.
I don’t even know what religion Professor Landry is because he keeps everything non-denominational and respectful (he teaches from a Christian, young Earth worldview) while letting scientific principles dominate the conversation instead of religion or politics. One of my main reasons for homeschooling is the ability to impart my own worldview and principles to my children without having to unteach all of the damaging ideas they learned at school each day.
Another of my main reasons for homeschooling is to give my kids a better education than I received at public school. I feel that the online classes from College Prep Science fall right in line with both of those motivations. I heartily recommend them to all homeschoolers looking for excellent online science classes!
Pin this College Prep Science Review for later!
If your child has taken online science classes through College Prep Science, I’d love to have you review your experience in the comments below in order to help other homeschool parents who are considering one of these classes.
