Discovering Design Series from Berean Builders

The "Discovering Design" science series from Berean Builders are comprehensive laboratory-based high school courses, ideal for your college-bound student.

Discovering Design with Earth Science

Discovering Design with Earth Science is a laboratory-based earth science course can be used for either eighth or ninth grade.  Most homeschooled students should be ready for it in eighth grade, but privately- and publicly-schooled students will be more comfortable with it in ninth grade.  It covers the general properties of the earth’s geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.  Students learn about all the sections of the geosphere (such as core, mantle, crust, etc.) and then they study each in more detail.  When studying the earth’s crust, they learn about minerals, rocks, and the rock cycle.  Plate tectonics is then covered, which leads to a discussion of seismic waves, earthquakes, and volcanoes.  Students then learn about fossils and how both uniformitarians and catastrophists interpret those fossils as well as the sedimentary rocks in which they are found.  A discussion that compares uniformitarianism and catastrophism follows, in which the strengths and weaknesses of each view are covered.

After that, the hydrosphere is discussed.  Students first learn the properties of water such as polarity, the ability to hydrogen bond, and heat capacity.  That leads to a discussion of the hydrologic cycle and residence time.  Students then learn about the waves, currents, and tides in the ocean.  They then move on to the ice reservoirs on the earth and then the freshwater reservoirs.  Water in the air is the last part of the hydrosphere that is covered.  The atmosphere is then discussed, including the composition of air, the sections of the atmosphere, temperature gradients, and pollutants.  This leads to a discussion of weather.  The course ends with two chapters on space, one that covers the solar system and one that covers the universe as a whole.

There are roughly 55 hours of laboratory instruction in the course.  A kit (not included and sold-separately) that contains specific minerals, rocks, and fossils allows students to do very detailed experiments related to the geosphere.  These include mineral tests, rock analyses, fossil studies, density investigations, and magnetic property explorations.  Students also get hands-on experience with waves, gases, wind, water purification, cloud formation, the Coriolis effect, precipitation, and acid/base interactions.

This kit includes:

  • Discovering Design with Earth Science textbook (hardcover)
  • Answer Key & Tests for Discovering Design with Earth (softcover)

Discovering Design with Biology

Discovering Design with Biology from Berean Builders is a comprehensive laboratory-based high school biology course, ideal for your college-bound student. With 180 hours of instruction, 16 units and 40 hands-on experiments, covering household, dissection, and microscope labs, this is a thorough introduction to how living organisms are designed and classified, how they interact with one another, and how they interact with their physical environment. Throughout the course, your student will see that life is the result of design and that organisms have been given the ability to adapt to their surroundings, as well as learn to identify the problems associated with the modern evolutionary synthesis.  Grade 9 – 12.

Concepts covered include the chemical processes for life, the structures of RNA and DNA, cell design, and photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and cellular reproduction processes. After a thorough survey of the different kinds of organisms found in nature: archaea, bacteria, protists, fungi, invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants, your student will then learn about ecosystems and the biogeochemical cycles that keep environments hospitable to life.  Labs include extracting DNA from fruit, examining the effects of temperature and pH on enzymes, exploring osmosis and diffusion, building a pedigree, culturing bacteria, growing and examining fungi, identifying the stages of mitosis, studying live bacteria that were cultured by the student, identifying budding in yeast, and analyzing the microscopic structure of plants and animals. There are also four dissection experiments: the earthworm, crayfish, fish, and frog. 

In the Discovering Design with Biology textbook, "Comprehension Check" questions and experiments are provided throughout each chapter, and important scientific terms and vocabulary are underlined and defined. Each chapter ends with review questions to be completed before taking the chapter test. “Comprehension Check” answers are at the end of each chapter. Each chapter has at least one experiment, with 40 experiments in total. “Comprehension Check” answers are at the end of each chapter. 596 pages, hardcover.

The Answer Key & Tests for Discovering Design with Biology book includes answers to the chapter reviews in the student text, chapter tests and test answers, and two semester final exams and answers. 112 pages, softcover.

This kit includes:

  • Discovering Design with Biology textbook
  • Answer Key and Tests Book

Please note: Discovering Design with Biology Student Workbook (sold separately) is an optional resource containing daily lesson plans, worksheets with comprehension and review questions from each chapter, and a laboratory notebook.

Discovering Design with Chemistry

Discovering Design with Chemistry is a high-school, college-prep chemistry course by Dr. Jay Wile. Designed for homeschooled students to use independently, this course features at-home experiments, a simple format, and thorough text that provides extensive coverage of chemistry from a Christian, creation-based perspective.

This course includes sixteen chapters that together cover topics such as the classification of matter, atomic structure, spectroscopy, chemical bonding, molecular geometry, physical change, chemical change, stoichiometry, solutions, ideal gases, acid/base chemistry, reduction/oxidation reactions, thermochemistry, thermodynamics, kinetics, and chemical equilibrium. Concepts are woven together with their mathematical applications to help students learn to think like chemists.

In the Discovering Design with Chemistry textbook, each of the sixteen chapters contains the main text with important information and definitions to be memorized highlighted. "Comprehension Check" questions and examples are included throughout, and each chapter ends with a review, which is to be completed before taking the chapter test (included in the test book). Each chapter has at least one experiment; forty-six experiments are included in total, and students will average three experiments every two weeks.

Access to a course website is included with this kit; this website includes videos that show how to work the kinds of problems found in the chapter, videos of experiments that illustrate topics but might be too difficult to actually conduct at home, and more detailed discussions of various topics.

The Answer Key & Tests Book includes answers to the chapter reviews in the student text, chapter tests & test answers, and two semester final exams and answers. The answers to the comprehension check questions are in the student text.

This course can be completed in one year at the pace of one chapter every two weeks, working approximately 45 minutes-1 hour per day. For those who'd like a more structured approach, an optional 36-week schedule with weekly assignment checkboxes is provided.

Prerequisite: Algebra 1. Grades 9-12.

Note that the Lab Kitfor this course is available separately (created by Nature's Workshop Plus) for convenience; see the Lab Supply List PDF for a full listing of all the materials needed by experiment. Twenty-seven experiments can be completed without the kit supplies.

This kit includes:

  • Discovering Design with Chemistry Textbook, 557 pages, hardcover with index and glossary and access to course website; non-consumable text.
  • Answer Key and Tests Book, 224 pages, softcover.

  • Discovering Design with Physics

    Berean Builders’ Discovering Design with Physics is a high-school, college-prep physics course by Dr. Jay Wile. Designed for homeschooled students to use independently, this course features at-home experiments, a simple format, and thorough text that provides extensive coverage of physics from a Christian, creation-based perspective. This full-year course covers topics including Newton’s Laws of Motion, Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, work, energy, and power, waves, sound, and light, electrical potential, electric fields, circuits, resistance, and current, magnetism, and magnetic fields. Concepts are woven together with their mathematical applications to help students learn to think like physicists. The course consists of 180 hours of instruction, 35 of which involve hands-on experiments that use only household items. This course can be completed in one year at the pace of one chapter every two weeks, working approximately 45 minutes-1 hour per day. An optional 36-week schedule with weekly assignment checkboxes is provided. Includes access to a course website with helpful videos for math equations, experiments, and detailed discussions. One hardcover and softcover. High school.

    The Discovering Design with Physics textbook contains the main text with important information and vocabulary highlighted. Comprehension Check questions and examples are included throughout, and each chapter ends with Review questions that are to be completed before taking the chapter test (included in the test book). Each chapter has at least one experiment with 41 experiments in total.  Answers to Comprehension Check questions and a Glossary are also included 472 pages, hardcover.

    The Discovering Design with Physics Answer Key & Tests Book includes answers to the chapter reviews in the student text, chapter tests and test answers, and two semester final exams and answers. Softcover.

    Prerequisite: Geometry and knowledge of sine, cosine, and tangent.

    This kit includes:

    • Discovering Design with Physics textbook
    • Answer Key and Tests Book

    NWP Lab Kits for