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Inquiry in Action for middle school

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in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges

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swimmermom3

swimmermom3

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Adam Rees from the American Chemical Society just posted over on the K-8 board to say that there is a free, downloadable Inquiry in Action specifically for middle school students available at www.middleschoolchemistry.com

 

Thank you so much! Swimmer Dude was dying to do chemistry last year. I bought the Noeo Chemistry III with the big Thames and Kosmos kit and it wasn't a good year so I still have this big kit that needs better instructions and interesting material that proceeds in a logical fashion to go with it. I think I will go see if I can match this up right after I figure out the answer to the age-old question of what to serve for dinner.

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swimmermom3

swimmermom3

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:party: Dd was assigned to the "Chemistry Crime Scene" event (IDing 6 powders and 2 mixes given water, vinegar, iodine etc plus some other things) for the Science Olympiad competition in February. This will be a nice intro to the "why" before I help her discover the "how" of the event!

 

Luckymama, how are you enjoying the CPO Earth Science?

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Corraleno

Corraleno

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Adam Rees from the American Chemical Society just posted over on the K-8 board to say that there is a free, downloadable Inquiry in Action specifically for middle school students available at http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com

:w00t::w00t::w00t:

 

This looks great — it seems to cover the same basic concepts as Inquiry in Action, but the explanations are more detailed and the experiments are more sophisticated, even if they use the same household materials. The book is over 600 pages! And it's brand new — the copyright date says 2011.

 

Can you link to the post on the K-8 board? I've been looking for it and can't find it. I'm so glad you spotted it and posted here — thank you!!!

 

Jackie

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Guest

Guest

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Can you link to the post on the K-8 board? I've been looking for it and can't find it. I'm so glad you spotted it and posted here — thank you!!!

 

Jackie

 

You're asking me something that is beyond my capacity at the moment (hard week... long story). But if you search "Inquiry in Action" you should find it right away.

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Guest

Guest

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:party: Dd was assigned to the "Chemistry Crime Scene" event (IDing 6 powders and 2 mixes given water, vinegar, iodine etc plus some other things) for the Science Olympiad competition in February. This will be a nice intro to the "why" before I help her discover the "how" of the event!

 

If you want to practice, GEMS has a teachers guide on Crime Scene Chemistry. Iodine also features in one of the crime tests in Mystery Festival.

 

http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/GEMS

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Capt_Uhura

Capt_Uhura

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The Inquiry in Action book, https://www.store.acs.org/eweb/ACSTemplatePage.aspx?site=ACS_Store&WebCode=storeItemDetail&parentKey=d8853d00-1a44-4ff9-9b3d-09c05ff57724, is for grades 3-5 and the new book is for middle school, correct?

 

I found the post where Mr. Boyd chimed in that there was a new book and he mentioned starting a new thread on it but I didn't see a new thread. Is the new book available for purchase in print form?

 

Has anyone here used Inquiry in Action? The price is pretty cheap for the book, is it worth having the book? I tend to not use things that only exist in pdf if I don't print them out.

Edited by Capt_Uhura
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Capt_Uhura

Capt_Uhura

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Correlano - OK how did I miss you posting about this? If you've looked through Inquiry in Action, can you compare it to the Middle School text? Both look great. Is there a button to order the Middle school book yet? You mentioned that is a 2011 copyright? I saw that the Inquiry in Action can be purchased for $24 or so and that seems like a great price. I can't sit and read through it right now b/c I must press play on my P90X video.

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Luckymama

Luckymama

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Luckymama, how are you enjoying the CPO Earth Science?

 

Loving CPO Earth! It is an exact fit for dd10 who loves science but needed to be far away from the survey-ish "science" she had had in private school :001_smile: We're halfway through Chapter 7 and so far have hit one dud of a lab, one lab we totally skipped (6B weather using their radar plate images), and one hands-on demo that was a dud. The remaining labs and hands-on activities have been engaging, the text is straight-forward, there are just enough illustrations in the text (not too distracting, not too "boring"). I appreciate the review questions at the end of each section and the chapter assessments. Since she is young, she's answering most of the questions orally. I will transition to more writing during her sixth grade year.

 

Someday when I have lots of free time :tongue_smilie: I'll post review-type information about CPO on my blog. Now it's enough to post the picture-worthy labs!

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Ruth in NC

Ruth in NC

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Inquiry in Action, http://www.inquiryinaction.org/

 

Middle School Chemistry, http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/

 

I spent a long time looking over the middle school text yesterday and it looks great. A few specialized materials are needed but I suspect it would cost less than $40 for the year. Good explanatory information for the teacher.

 

I like it.

 

Ruth in NC

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Corraleno

Corraleno

Posted
Posted (edited)
Correlano - OK how did I miss you posting about this? If you've looked through Inquiry in Action, can you compare it to the Middle School text? Both look great. Is there a button to order the Middle school book yet? You mentioned that is a 2011 copyright? I saw that the Inquiry in Action can be purchased for $24 or so and that seems like a great price. I can't sit and read through it right now b/c I must press play on my P90X video.

 

The MS program is similar to IIA, and some experiments use the same materials (e.g. the M&M lab), but the explanations are a lot more detailed, and the set-up of the labs is more sophisticated. IIA is more colorful and more "kiddie" looking, although the concepts are still quite sophisticated for that age group (gr 3-6). There's an additional section on molecular bonding in the MS program that's not (as far as I know) in IIA. There are also a lot more animations and additional readings for the MS program. I think both of these programs are really brilliant, in that they use common household materials, and very simple lab designs, to teach real chemistry. You can tell that a LOT of thought and planning went into these programs, and that they were designed by scientists not just "curriculum planners," kwim?

 

I'm psyched about the new MS program, and I'm thinking of doing each of the 6 chapters for 1 week per month (we're already doing biology, paleontology, and geology this year), starting in January. (IOW, devote 1 week in January to chapter 1, a week in Feb. to ch. 2, etc., through June.)

 

(ETA: I just heard back from Adam Boyd at ACS and he said they don't currently have any plans to publish a hardcopy version of the MS program.)

Jackie

Edited by Corraleno
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Guest Adam Boyd

Guest Adam Boyd

Posted
Posted

Hi All --

 

Thanks for starting this thread. I must apologize, as I did mention I was going to start a thread like this on a previous post, but then didn't know if that would be violate forum rules against promotion. Anyways, thanks to all for getting the conversation started.

 

@Capt_Uhura: Unfortunately, at the moment, we don't have plans to produce MSC in print. When prioritizing our production tasks, we decided it was important that everything be accessible online for free and that we would have the budget to produce all the animations and illustrations we wanted. If we find there is a huge demand, we may revisit the decision in the future.

 

I'm glad to see several people say that they feel MSC could be useful to them. We're thrilled to hear that! I'm going to try to stop by the forums as I can in the event that I can help answer any questions, but thanks to everyone for their interest and for helping us to spread the word.

 

Adam

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NineChoirs

NineChoirs

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Is there a kit available for purchase to go with the experiments? Some of the items look like they might be hard to find in one place. Also is there a master list of the items needed? It could take a very long time to go through each lesson in order to buy the supplies before beginning the program.

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Corraleno

Corraleno

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Posted
Is there a kit available for purchase to go with the experiments? Some of the items look like they might be hard to find in one place. Also is there a master list of the items needed? It could take a very long time to go through each lesson in order to buy the supplies before beginning the program.

 

I compiled a list of all the lab materials and posted it here. Most are very common household materials, and for the few that aren't, ACS provides links to Flinn Scientific and other sources.

 

Jackie

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