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I'm looking at Real Science-4-Kids Biology I for 5th grade science...


Melora in NC
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and would love to hear from anyone who has used this program (also any of the other Real Science-4-Kids, Level I programs, as I am thinking I might do their Physics program next year as well). Is the program laid out in a way that is easy to schedule? Are the experiments interesting, relevant, and reasonably easy to do? How many weeks did it take you to go through the book? It looks as if the lab sheets might be good -- did you think they were worth paying for?

We have not done a lot of science up to now, and I want a solid program which will make up for our previous neglect, but I don't want to put more than two (at most 3) hours a week into it (how is that for wanting everything!). Any input will be greatly appreciated!

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We used all the Real Science for Kids Elementary Levels - we did Chemistry in 3rd, Physics in 4th and Biology in 5th. I love them! They are 10 lessons, so we planned one a month. Besides that, we used it to guide our interest in book and movie choices - the library has those Schlessinger Video's that cover every possible science topic, so we'd watch those, do other related activities, etc.

 

I do recommend the lab sheets. They were very helpful, and really grounded Casi in the Scientific Method - they all have the objective, the hypothesis, the procedure, the results, and the discussion section. They are partially filled out at the beginning, and you fill in more and more as you go (if I remember correctly.) They have data tables right in there if you are going to need them.

 

Biology was my favorite level. The explainations are very clear, if a little simplistic, but for anything that is of interest, that leaves room for further research!

 

Good luck!

Kris

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I used this last year with a 3rd grader and a 5th grader. It was my favorite science to date! I took two week after christmas to do chemistry, two weeks in May to do physics, and two weeks in August to do Biology. For those weeks, I did not do my regular schoolwork, we only did science. We did one lesson per day, so we could get each book done in two weeks. It worked really well for us. The experiments were great and most of them worked. We especially liked all the experiments from biology. The lab sheets were a must. They really introduced the scientific method well. You could easily do one book a year, if you scheduled one chapter a month. You could add readings from the kingfisher science encyclopedia and other books from the library. YOu could even add in bios of some famous scientists, einstein, edison, etc.

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We are just finishing Chemistry (I haven't done Biology). We have loved it! I tried all last year to teach them Chemistry with Adventures with Atoms and Molecules. We had some fun, but didn't really learn anything. With RS4K, we really learned some Chemistry (stuff I had learned in my university General Chemistry class).

 

We did one lesson a week for 10 weeks. We did the text reading one day, and the lab another day. I really liked the lab book. The experiments were easy to do, used common (easily obtainable) materials, and fit perfectly with the lessons.

 

I'm looking forward to doing Biology at the end of the school year, then Physics next fall.

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The bio level is uneven: very simple chapters about life cycles, water cycles, ecosystems etc. Then some in-depth microscope/cellular chapters. I am about to do half of it with my seven year old, then I'll wait until he's older to do the other half. When I did it with my 9yo, we ended up just reading some of the simpler stuff, because he'd picked it all up previously through general reading.

 

Laura

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I also love RS4K!!

We have done Bio 1, Chem 1, Chem pre-1 and are doing Physics 1. They are all great.:)

Like PixieKris we do one lesson per month and then supplement with books, games and videos.

The lab sheets are very good. The experiments are also great but we don't do them all because we're not the hands on type.

I HIGHLY recommended using RS4K.

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