It’s that time of year when school is winding down for the summer and families are thinking about next year. How do I know this? I have just been at one of the largest homeschool conventions in the United States — the FPEA in Florida! 

It’s where a wide range of homeschool-related programs from across the country come to exhibit and promote their materials. For the first time ever, Discovery Institute Academy was there, hosting a booth to discuss our chemistry and biology courses and to share some of our fantastic materials with homeschool families such as the Discovering Intelligent Design curriculum or the fun graphic novel The God Proofs. 

If you weren’t able to drop by our booth in Florida and chat, why don’t you consider joining our “Meet the Teachers” Zoom event on Thursday, May 29 at 5:00 pm (PDT). My teaching colleague Summer Lile and I will talk about ourselves and our backgrounds, our love of our subject matter, and give some information on our courses. Please register here to receive the Zoom link. 

An Awesome Approach to Education

We had lots of conversations with families curious to know what intelligent design is, what it means to integrate ID into the curriculum, and why this is an awesome approach to education. 

It made perfect sense for Discovery Institute Academy to be there. To my knowledge, there was no other homeschool organization at this huge event that provides comprehensive high school science courses that integrate the theory of intelligent design into the instruction. We had one mom drop by the table who told us her 15-year-old son had a friend who was really struggling with his faith and grappling with atheism. She had never heard of intelligent design before but was excited by the idea of students learning about the powerful evidence of design in nature. She wanted something robust to address this young man’s questions. 

Design, Foresight, Purpose

Our curriculum is not faith-based, but it does teach students about the intelligent design, foresight, and purpose that we see in nature — laying a foundation for conversations about faith for those students who are interested in integrating the two themselves. As this mom walked away with a copy of The Design of Life, I realized she was precisely the reason we are offering Discovery Institute Academy. Students like her son’s friend need materials and coursework to address their questions and prepare them for future secular science courses where they will be told everything they encounter is the product of a blind, unguided process. We also had conversations with families that are excited about our high school chemistry and biology courses.

What did we tell all the families we met?

We are offering three different tiers of both our chemistry and biology courses to fit your schedule and budget — ranging from the full-fledged course that includes weekly live Zoom sessions and grading/assessment with a qualified, certified, and experienced teacher to a more asynchronous “go at your own pace” course with greater parent oversight.

All three tiers include the following features:

• Engaging, hands-on labs
• High-quality, virtual simulations to carry out high tech labs or visualize concepts through Discovery’s subscription to Labster
• A complete curriculum from A to Z that includes pre-recorded video lectures, readings, YouTube videos, and assessments
• Carefully integrated intelligent design related content from Discovery’s media such as the awesome Long Story Short animation series, select chapters from Discovering Intelligent Design, and Dr. Michael Denton’s The Wonder of Water

Regardless of the tier you choose, every student will have a dynamic learning experience! Please join on May 29 by Zoom to learn more.