Science is unarguably the most crucial area of study that fulfills our innate curiosity. We wouldn't be a contemporary world if it weren't for it. Students may study a diverse range of topics in the high school science curriculum, including health, the environment, technology, space, biology, and much more.

Scientifically literate students can better comprehend the complicated world we live in and think critically. Furthermore, early exposure to the scientific method can help kids build abilities. These abilities will enable them to become better learners in a variety of other disciplines. These abilities include asking the right questions, doing research, analyzing data, and more.

Careers in technology have been in great demand in recent years. Technological advancement will continue in the future, so a good science education may be advantageous for a student interested in working in the sector.

Some parents believe that teaching science to their children is a daunting task. A solid homeschool scientific program, on the other hand, can be the ideal instrument for putting these anxieties to rest. Choosing the appropriate high school science curriculum may help you and your students have a positive learning experience.

To ease your search, we have framed this blog to include the best high school science curriculum. Also, we have included a list of Advanced Placement classes along with some popular electives. So, read on!

What are the Best Online High School Science Classes?

Physics

General Courses

Time 4 Learning

The self-paced online physics course from Time4Learning offers high-quality instruction in a user-friendly format. Because of its flexibility and challenging courses, many families use the curriculum to assist their kids in achieving better success in traditional schools. Others use it as their primary homeschool curriculum.

Students get to use their knowledge in activities that require them to ask questions and generate hypotheses. As a result, they enhance and expand their grasp of physics. The curriculum also encourages students to use innovative solutions and other methods to create answers to complicated real-world issues.

Excel High School

The Physics course at Excel High School exposes students to the fundamental principles of physics. By taking this course, students will be able to:

• Learn about the breadth of physics and how the natural world's interactions may be seen and investigated.
• Discover how the scientific method works and how it helps in the field of physics.
• Examine how scientific measurement and math techniques aid in physics research.
• Learn about the many branches of physics, such as the study of forces, energy, light, magnetism, relativity, and more.

Students can take this course both full-time or supplement their primary school curriculum.

eAchieve Academy

The Physics course at eAchieve Academy is an algebra-based survey course. It looks at the basic physical and energy processes that occur in our environment.

Kinematics, two-dimensional motion, Forces, Newton's Laws of Motion, work, energy, momentum, circular motion, and heat are all covered in the first semester. The themes of vibration and waves, sound, light, optics, electrostatics, current electricity, magnetism, and atomic physics are a part of the second semester.

Students learn the content through print, audio, and visual online sources, practice problem sets, and lab activities. Also, discussion board interactions and in-person instruction are a crucial part of the learning procedure. Objective and short answer quizzes, written lab reports, discussion board postings, and examinations are means to evaluate their progress.

AP Courses

AP Physics 1 by eDx

Offered by Rice University, the AP Physics 1 course is comprehensive and self-paced. The course will teach the entire AP Physics 1 curriculum in detail. Also, it will assist you in preparing for the exam.

You'll discover lecture videos from Rice academics and problem-solving sessions with professional AP Physics teachers. Learning through interactive lab experiences and practice problems are essential components of the course. You would be prepared to take the AP test at the conclusion of the course. The course is available for free at eDx, is 18 weeks long, and is of introductory level.

AP Physics 1 by Accelerate Online Academy

AP Physics 1 is an introductory college-level physics course based on algebra. Students learn about Newtonian physics, mechanical waves and sound, and other AP Physics 1 curriculum topics.

Hands-on laboratory activity, with an emphasis on inquiry-based studies, accounts for 25% of teaching time. Students will direct and monitor their progress as they ask questions, make observations and predictions. Planning experiments, evaluating data, and creating arguments in a collaborative context make up for an essential part of the course.

Chemistry

General Courses

Time 4 Learning

The homeschool chemistry program from Time 4 Learning covers the fundamentals of chemistry. It includes virtual laboratory exercises that foster higher-order thinking.

Students must be acquainted with algebra to solve chemical issues—one of the reasons why Time 4 Learning recommends chemistry in 10th grade. Parents are free to pick whatever scientific course they like. Time 4 Learning's high school chemistry program includes chemistry topics and terminology, elements, and chemical equations to assist students in comprehending chemistry.

To interest high school students in the study of chemistry, there are ten chapters with approximately 400 exercises. Skilled teachers deliver rigorous training and demonstrate critical skills with humor and real-world connections.

James Madison High School

The Chemistry course at James Madison High School will teach you how to anticipate the characteristics of various compounds. Also, you will learn about the reactions they undergo. Students will learn why water is so essential to life on Earth and the many sorts of chemical reactions that occur in solutions.

Thermochemistry, electrochemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and nuclear chemistry are just a few of the areas of chemistry covered under the course. You'll learn why chemistry is so important in biology, engineering, and daily life.

Students can discover essential concepts in the reading content and apply what they've learned in review exercises. Formative exercises, multiple-choice tests, and a comprehensive final exam measure comprehension.

Excel High School

This demanding year-long course immerses students in the study of matter's composition, characteristics, transformations, and interactions. Chemistry and its methods, matter's composition and properties, changes and interactions of matter, factors affecting matter's interactions, electrochemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, nuclear chemistry, mathematical applications, and real-world applications of chemistry are all covered in this course.

After the course ends, students will be able to:

• Understand and use chemical approaches such as scientific reasoning, measurements, and mathematics to solve chemistry issues rationally.
• Describe the qualities and composition of matter, as well as the transformations that matter goes through.
• Follow the evolution of the atomic hypothesis.
• Examine the periodic table's connection between the elements.
• In real-world applications, describe chemical processes and interactions, as well as their causes and effects.

AP Courses

Apex Learning Virtual School

The online AP Chemistry course at Apex Learning Virtual School improves students' knowledge of matter's nature and reactivity. After learning about chemical reactions and electrochemistry, students will learn how the structure and groupings of molecules and the forces between them may explain the chemical and physical characteristics of materials. Students will investigate the principles of thermodynamics, molecular collisions, and matter rearrangement to comprehend how matter evolves. Finally, students will investigate chemical equilibria, particularly acid-base equilibria.

The AP Chemistry course is a college-level equivalent of an introductory chemistry course. It prepares students for the AP test and future study in science, health sciences, or engineering.

Stanford Online High School

AP Chemistry at Stanford Online High School is a year-long seminar-style course that covers college-level introductory chemistry topics. Also, it teaches students the core principles and techniques of contemporary chemistry. Chemistry language, symbols, laboratory abilities, and concepts become second nature to students. Chemical nomenclature, the periodic table, reactions, chemical reactivity, structure, bonding, thermodynamics, kinetics, electrochemistry, and nuclear chemistry are among the topics they study. The course introduces them to chemical applications in inorganic and organic chemistry. Materials science, environmental chemistry, and biochemistry are essential components of the course.

This course emphasizes problem-solving in chemistry by describing chemical principles and processes using verbal explanations and mathematical connections. By requiring students to do experiments at home using lab equipment and reagents obtained from a chemical supplier or household chemicals, AP Chemistry provides students with hands-on laboratory experience. The course focuses primarily on helping students prepare for the AP Chemistry exam.

Biology

General Courses

Excel High School

Biology Foundations course by Excel High School is a fascinating and detailed course. It immerses students in the study of life and living things and biology and biochemistry in the real world. This course covers basic biology principles and encourages students to investigate recent findings in the area. Biochemistry, cell biology, heredity and reproduction, life's evolution, categorization, and the first four kingdoms, plant and animal kingdoms, human body systems, and ecology, are among the topics covered.

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Recognize the interrelationships between biological creatures.
• Explain the roles and mechanisms that regulate cellular activity.
• Investigate the breakthroughs and scientific ideas that have increased the use of modern technologies in the realm of DNA and genetics.
• Examine the taxonomy that classifies all living things.
• Recognize the architecture and functioning of the human body's systems.
• Make a connection between ecological interdependence and environmental concerns.

eAchieve Academy

This course provides an overview of general biology as well as scientific inquiry and cognitive processes. It will cover the basic concepts of living creatures, such as:

• Cellular organization and function physical and chemical characteristics of life
• Cellular reproduction energy transfer through metabolic processes
• The six kingdoms of life are a categorization system for living things.

The major goal is to convey biological material in an easy-to-understand and clear manner that will pique the student's attention while still covering current ideas and concepts. The course consists of four learning targets:

Target 1: Use established science and engineering techniques to gather and analyze data.

Target 2: Understand, apply, and understand scientific principles accurately.

Target 3: Recognize and use crosscutting notions as they emerge from basic scientific principles and throughout time.

Target 4: Apply appropriate literacy abilities in scientific and engineering contexts through writing, reading, and dialogue.

AP COURSES

Apex Learning Virtual School

The AP Biology course at Apex Learning Virtual School helps students learn about biology at both the micro and macro levels. Students continue to grasp how evolution causes life's diversity and unity after studying cell biology. Students will investigate how organisms store, retrieve, communicate, and respond to information and how they use free energy. This subject is similar to an introductory college biology course. Also, it prepares students for the AP test and future study in science, health sciences, or engineering.

This AP Biology course helps students improve their critical thinking abilities and cognitive techniques via a hands-on learning experience.

Stanford High School

AP Biology at Stanford High School is a one-year seminar course that includes molecular and cellular biology, anatomy, physiology, and various plants, animals, microorganisms, and ecology and evolution. Regulation of biological processes, energy transfer, continuity and change, evolution, the link between form and function, emergent characteristics, interconnectedness in nature, the scientific method, and the significance of biology in our everyday lives are among the themes that unify biology.

Through at-home and virtual lab work, students learn useful biological techniques, gain the ability to design scientific experiments, effectively communicate results, and strengthen their knowledge of the material presented in the lecture. This course thus prepares students for the AP Biology exam.

Science Electives

Students who take science in the first three years of high school are frequently exempt from taking science in their final year. Those who want to continue studying science or math (or are generally interested in science) can enroll in extra-scientific courses. The abilities gained in prior scientific courses can be applied in the following optional courses.

Psychology

Psychology is a high school optional subject that seeks to teach pupils about human behavior. High school psychology programs usually include various topics, including the history of psychology, research techniques, disorder categorization and treatment, and more. There are several reasons to study psychology in high school. A high school psychology curriculum benefits students academically by teaching them critical research skills. Also, it helps them obtain social and emotional learning abilities that encourage healthy mental health.

Students may use the ideas presented in a high school psychology curriculum to cope with and analyze thoughts about their own identity, relationships, and much more. Students understand various behaviors and emotions as they study human development, personality types, and social interactions. They also understand why others (including themselves) think the way they do and make particular decisions. Psychology courses you may take:

Time 4 Learning's Psychology Elective Course

Elective Psychology by Forest Trail Academy

Environmental Science

Students learn how to use the scientific knowledge they have gained in real-world situations in an introduction to environmental science. It allows students to have a better understanding of the human-environment interaction.

Environmental science draws on information from various scientific disciplines, allowing high school students to apply what they've learned in biology, physics, and earth science. It appeals to students who have a natural interest in environmental issues such as sustainability, biodiversity, and how humans affect the environment. Career prospects involving environmental studies have skyrocketed in the last few decades. So this course can help a high schooler determine if this might be an appropriate career path for them.

Environmental Science Elective by K12.com

Forest Trail Academy's Environmental Science Elective

Sociology

Students will study the various cultures that make up our ever-changing society in high school sociology. It includes cultural variety and conformity, social stratification, racial and ethnic relations, social life research, etc. As the population grows more diverse, it is more important than ever to understand other cultures' norms, social institutions, and collective human behaviors in past and present societies.

This is especially essential for high school kids, as they will encounter individuals from all over the world as they become older. Those meetings will be more beneficial if you understand and appreciate those who follow diverse social norms and practices.

Sociology in high school promotes knowledge about essential subjects, including ethnicity, economic and social status levels, and gender prejudice. It helps students make better judgments while socializing with a varied group of individuals. It also promotes critical thinking and strengthens a student's ability to gather, understand, and analyze statistical data.

Sociology Elective by Time 4 Learning

Online High School Psychology by K12.com

Astronomy

What causes stars to twinkle? Is it possible to become trapped in a black hole? Is the sun ever going to set? Humans have been enthralled by the stars, planets, and universe since the first view of the night sky. This course covers the evolution of astronomy and the fundamental scientific laws of motion and gravity, current astronomy ideas, and astronomers' methods for learning more about the cosmos.

The solar system, galaxies, and the sun and stars are among the other subjects covered. Students investigate the life cycle of stars, the characteristics of planets, and space travel using online resources. This course aims at helping students to learn about the cosmos. Also, they can compare the circumstances, characteristics, and movements of objects in space.

The Astronomy course will provide you an overview of the universe's makeup and structure. Astronomy is the study of the universe's contents from a scientific point of view. The student will learn about the cosmos and the circumstances, characteristics, and movements of bodies in space in this course.

High School Astronomy by K12.com

Astronomy Elective by Forest Trail Academy

Conclusion

Science is significant because it is all around us and impacts many parts of our life. Without science, advancements in health, technology, and a variety of other disciplines would be impossible. Many of the items we use today and life-saving medication and equipment would not exist if it weren't for science. So, as a subject, science plays an important role in a student's overall growth and performance. Whether or not you are planning to major in STEM, the knowledge acquired in high school will always come to your aid. Check out our list of the best online science classes for high school students. Also, comment down and let us know which ones are you planning to take!