She isn't trying to avoid the basic science courses in high school. If she hadn't taken both the 9th and 10th grade science courses this year, there would be no way that she'd get in all of them anyway. What she is stuck with is that she can't take any AP science courses at all unless she takes multiple science courses every year except one and takes both the pre-AP and then the AP. So, for instance, a kid who wants to take AP bio, chem, and physics would need the following schedule:
9th:
pre-AP bio
Earth Systems Science
(this is what dd is taking)
10th:
pre-AP chem
pre-AP physics
11th:
AP Bio
AP Chem
12th:
AP Physics
What we're leaning toward at this point is having her take the microbio/botany/zoology course next year as her only science class b/c she wants to be done with Algebra II when she enrolls in chem or physics, taking chem in 11th, and college physics in 12th (she can do this through concurrent enrollment rather than the pre-AP/AP sequence) rather than AP bio. She can study extra bio on the side and probably will through summer programs, etc. and get both college & high school credit for physics but no bonus GPA points like she would get from the AP bio class.
I'm trying to help her balance mental health, her grades, and a decent course load.
We'll cross the math choice in the future after she's into Algebra II. At that point, she can decide if the pre-AP calc, AP calc route or college trig, AP stats route is going to work for her.
