High School Biology is intended for students in 9th–12th grades.

The course has 120 lessons. Students can complete it in a typical nine-month school year if they do four lessons per week. Units should be completed in order because they build on each other. Students should plan on each lesson taking about 30–60 minutes, although lessons with a lab or activity may take longer.

Each student needs a printed copy of the six High School Biology Unit Workbooks. Students also need access to a desktop or laptop computer and a free account at courses.goodandbeautiful.com to access the online Wonders of Biology texts. These beautiful and rich online texts contain all the course reading, and videos required for the course are provided on the web-based app. Parents need the High School Biology Tests & Quizzes booklet and the High School Biology Answer Key (PDF), both included in your purchase of the course set.

No. The over 1000-page Wonders of Biology digital texts are packed with full-color graphics, photos, and illustrations with all videos integrated directly into the web-based app. Demonstration videos for all labs are also included. For these reasons, the Wonders texts can be accessed online.

The High School Biology Answer Key (PDF) is available in PDF form only and is sent to you via email upon purchase. You can also find it in your account history on The Good and the Beautiful website. If you have purchased this course secondhand, you also need to purchase the High School Biology Answer Key (PDF) from The Good and the Beautiful because PDFs cannot be sold or transferred.

No, High School Biology is sold as a complete set with the six unit workbooks and the Tests & Quizzes booklet shrink-wrapped together. With the purchase of the workbooks, students also gain access to the online texts and videos. The unit workbooks cannot be purchased separately.

Whether you are teaching more than one student in your household or multiple students in a co-op setting, each student needs his or her own course set in either physical or PDF format. Only one PDF course set needs to be purchased for use within your own household. PDFs may not be shared outside your family. The Wonders of Biology texts, which include all the course reading and videos, are on the web-based app and are accessed with codes given in the unit workbooks. These codes may not be shared outside of your household.

For more details about group/co-op use, please see our group use guidelines.

The Good and the Beautiful High School Biology is written from a nondenominational Christian viewpoint and takes a neutral stance on matters of doctrine that vary among denominations, including such matters as the specifics of the origins of life and the age of the earth. This allows all families to use this course and add in their specific beliefs.

While you and your family may have your worldview, this course gives information about multiple ideas so that students have some familiarity with the concepts they may encounter throughout life.

Lesson 93 of this course shares various ideas about the origins of life, including evolution. We strongly encourage you to preview lesson 93 in its entirety and decide how you would like to approach it. In the workbook for this lesson, your student is encouraged to discuss their thoughts, beliefs, and questions with you. We recommend having your child read a book based on your family’s worldview to extend their learning.

Scripture references throughout the course are from the King James Version of the Bible.

High School Biology gives an overview of the biology of reproduction. Students learn about the human body, including basic facts about sexual reproduction. The text includes a few tactfully illustrated diagrams of the reproductive system anatomy. However, the course does not cover aspects of human reproduction beyond biological processes. 

Our high school science courses are designed to be student led. Parents are encouraged to read through the information at the beginning of the course and help gather supplies as needed. Also, a PDF answer key is included that provides all answers to the workbooks, quizzes, and tests. We recommend that parents grade the 13 quizzes and tests; checking daily workbook answers is optional. Grading is simple, with a clear grading structure suggested for parents to refer to and a grading sheet to easily record scores.

High School Biology fulfills one science with lab credit. However, The Good and the Beautiful is not an accredited institution and does not award credits. This recommendation is just a guideline for parents who are creating their own homeschool transcripts. Please also check with your state’s graduation and crediting requirements.

Yes, 11 labs are integrated into the lessons, including one dissection lab in Unit 4: The Wonders of the Animal Kingdom, Part I. Students choose one of three animals to dissect: a clam, a sea star, or a bony fish. Alternatively, students can watch the dissection through the video on the web-based app.

Students do not have to complete every lab hands on, although we strongly recommend that students complete as many of the labs as possible themselves. However, we understand that labs can sometimes be difficult for families to prepare; therefore, every lab has a video that students can watch either as support for or in lieu of completing the lab themselves. Every lab has a corresponding lab report for students to complete as they learn, so even students who are only watching the lab demonstration will receive a solid lab experience.

In addition to the unit workbooks, students need access to a laptop or desktop computer and a free account at courses.goodandbeautiful.com to access the Wonders of Biology online texts and view the videos. Students should also keep pencils and colored pencils on hand and have a sturdy three-inch three-ring binder or a magazine file to keep materials organized. Students will need access to a good-quality, standard compound microscope with at least 400x magnification. If this is impossible or if directed by the parent/teacher, students may follow along by watching the lab videos and completing lab reports based on the videos instead.

This course was designed with lab supplies that are generally easy and relatively inexpensive to find, with the exception of the microscope and optional dissection specimen and tools. You may already have many items at home, and many others can be found at the grocery or hardware store. A list of lab supplies required for the 11 labs that are integrated into High School Biology can be found here.

A microscope is recommended for use throughout the course. Our recommended microscope can be found here, although any good-quality, standard compound microscope with magnification of 400x or greater will do. It does not need to be overly expensive. For tips on choosing a microscope, watch the video “Choosing and Using a Microscope.”

We strongly recommend that students use a microscope to complete the labs hands on. If this is impossible or if the parent/teacher directs, students may follow along by watching the lab videos and completing lab reports from the videos instead.

The course as written is a challenging yet level-appropriate high school science lab course. However, for a strong STEM student or to make the course even more challenging, you may choose to make the unit tests closed-note. For an even greater challenge, you can choose to make the quizzes closed-note as well.

The Wonders of Biology online texts are accessed with a free account on courses.goodandbeautiful.com by using the three-digit codes found at the beginning of each lesson in the unit workbooks. The High School Biology Answer Key (PDF) can be purchased here.

We hope to release more science courses for high school students in the future. You might be surprised to learn that a very small percentage of our customers homeschool a high schooler. High school curriculum is much more expensive to create than K–8 curriculum, and it takes much more time, money, and energy. Creating high school curriculum would not be the route to go if we were seeking products with the highest profits.

But our team at The Good and the Beautiful strongly believes that the high school curriculum we are creating is needed. It will enable parents to homeschool high schoolers and enable students to continue benefiting from good and beautiful educational materials. Future development of high school science courses and the speed at which our team will develop these courses will be impacted by the success of High School Biology.