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Give me some ideas for science


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We did REAL Science life this year. Ds liked it fine, but it is less than challenging, and he wants to do "more" science. We have a supplementary McGraw-Hill book that has been well received, but the experiments etc. are all classroom oriented. I've already got REAL Earth and Space for next year... but it seems even farther behind his developmental level now.

 

What I want is something more "logic stage"... but still put together. I love the REAL Science format, I just think it's a bit young after all.

 

I've thought about doing RS4K Chem in 3rd grade, but that only covers 10 weeks or so. What about after that? And ds LOVES the periodic table, memorizing elements, figuring out numbers of neutrons, etc, and we've never had any formal Chemistry work thus far. He has a few books he's read on his own.

 

So what do you recommend for a logic-stage type thinker, not writing heavy, pre-planned, good experiments but some more mental type work as well. My dh does most of the teaching, and I know he will want something that is planned out for him. Not just "exposure" to science.

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If you did RS4K chem, could you do both the level 1 and 2 books (they do have both those out, don't they)??? That would give you more chem time. I also really, really like another chem program that RRC sells. I think it's called Elements (but I can look up specifics, if you need more info). It's an intro to chemistry and the writer of it has also now done a followup organic chem program. Both these programs would certainly give you a year's worth of chem work and would also be a lot less expensive than RS4K. Or you could mix and mingle any or all those for the year....

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You could try Science Explorer and just do the chapter questions orally. There are some pretty good labs/activities that can be easily done at home.

 

My other suggestion is K12 science. Their explanations are usually good and they frequently have animations that support the topic (that don't degenerate into edutainment). They also have some good activities but sometimes they try a little too hard to have an activity for each lesson (and the activity is more like a craft project). I am not completely thrilled with their middle school courses but I did like the Science 1 course my 6 yo did this year, enough to do K12 science with him again next year. It had a good balance between reading and activities. I just ignored the activities and worksheets that I didn't think were worth doing.

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We are using (a term I use loosely, since this is our first week actually using it) Science Explorer from Prentice Hall. There are a couple of recent topics in the K-8 forum about it.

 

The input level is right on target for my oldest (who tested in the lower end of the profoundly gifted range with his highest scores in reading comprehension), and the output level is easily adaptable. He reads the sections himself with me there to help with any of the super-scientific words he stumbles on such as which syllable to stress in endoplasmic reticulum (though en-DOS-pla-mic RET-i-clum was pretty cute coming from a 6 yo ha ha). We are doing the Guided Reading worksheets together, he will write the first parts (usually filling in blanks or charts) and I will scribe the second part, usually sentences. He does all of the online/CD animations and quizzes on his own.

 

The labs look do-able for younger students so far (I've only looked at a couple of them), especially since we'll be doing them together. The labs I looked at will actually challenge DS, they're not predictable like most of the others we've tried. DS is a sciencey-type kid, so this was an important factor for us.

 

We are doing the 16 individual books so that we can jump around, but they could easily be done in order to follow the WTM rotation. Each book could take one month or six months, depending on how you use it. We do science every day, but plan to take our time getting through it. I anticipate getting through 2 books per semester, so it will probably take us 4 years to get through them all. The physical science books seem "harder", so we are going to work through some of the life and earth sciences before tackling any of the physical science topics.

 

The series is textbook-ish though. Some of the used versions I looked at seemed to be re-arranged to line up with a particular state's science standards (grrrrr!!!), and there are different editions floating around (best I can tell, 2005 was when they switched to the new format that includes the web codes).

 

It does not contain Christian content, which may be an issue for some. The Cells and Heredity book contains information on evolution (which I suppose Christians could use as an opportunity to discuss their own beliefs on the topic), and there are sections that discuss reproduction in humans (though worded carefully, I know this will lead to questions I'm not ready for ha ha).

 

Overall, this is a good fit for us and may be worth looking into.

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I second the RS4K. She has a new set of books coming out, KOGS, that tie Chemistry into other subjects such as history. You could do Chem II second, if he's ready (it's for grades 7-9). I plan to get the RS4K level I set and do all three in a year and a half, augmenting with 1 or 2 KOGS each for my 10 yo and 7 yo. My 10 yo gets bored doing the same science all year, and I find the classical way of doing science is not a good fit for her. She loves history, so the Chem KOGS for history looks like a great choice for her. By the time we're done with that, we'll do the Level II with her.

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  • 5 months later...

UPDATE: We've been using Science Explorer. My ds is sitting behind me right now playing with a rock collection and figuring out where they are on the moh's hardness scale. I think it's been a success! Earth science is never as "crunchy" as he wants, but he likes it much better this year and I bought him the RS4K Chemistry to read in his free time. Best of both worlds, and he'll be ready for chemistry next year, right?

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I'm joining this one late but we like to do the experiments in Janice Van Cleave's books. They have wonderful experiments with detailed explinations. We are doing RS4K Biology this year and will do many of the experiments in her Bio book after we finish with the RS4K stuff. I wish they would offer a longer course of study.

HTH and sorry so late!

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But if I subscribed to everything I posted to, would I be overwhelmed? Or would I only get a message if there was a post directly responding to me?

 

Thanks, Nan!

 

Not Nan here, but I've got my settings set so that I'm automatically subscribed to every thread I post in. I also subscribe to a few others I find very helpful but that I have nothing to contribute to. I have set my options so that I don't get any emails when there are new posts. Instead, when I log onto the boards I go first to my control panel (unless I have a message) and all subscribed threads with new posts appear there. To find an old subscribed thread, you can also go to your subscribed threads page. I've even made folders for various high school subjects so that I can find threads I think I'll want to read again later. I started this before tags came along, but I still like it. Some days I never make it past the threads on my control panel, but I like being able to keep up with certain threads and it saves time.

Edited by Karin
typo correction
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I set it so I don't get messages; I go to my profile to check. It requires managing, though. You have to unsubscribe dead threads.

I see updated threads in the User Control Panel and have never had to unsubscribe from old threads.

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I see updated threads in the User Control Panel and have never had to unsubscribe from old threads.

 

Actually, you do, but you don't see the dead threads in User Control Panel. To find those, go to Quick Links and click on Subscribed Threads. There may well be pages and pages of subscribed threads there. I just unsubscribed to over 100 threads recently (I don't clean it up often.) My next job is to put some of them in folders for future reference. I also want to make some more folders as the ones I have now all pertain to high school (other than the general one).

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Actually, you do, but you don't see the dead threads in User Control Panel. To find those, go to Quick Links and click on Subscribed Threads. There may well be pages and pages of subscribed threads there. I just unsubscribed to over 100 threads recently (I don't clean it up often.) My next job is to put some of them in folders for future reference. I also want to make some more folders as the ones I have now all pertain to high school (other than the general one).
I know about the Subscribed Threads feature, but I still don't understand why one *has* to unsubscribe from dead threads. It's easy enough to put threads you know you want to get back to at some indeterminate date in their own folder. But, if someone is only interested in updates to threads they have posted in or interested in, they don't need to worry about any of that; they could just use User Control Panel to view updated subscribed threads.
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I know about the Subscribed Threads feature, but I still don't understand why one *has* to unsubscribe from dead threads. It's easy enough to put threads you know you want to get back to at some indeterminate date in their own folder. But, if someone is only interested in updates to threads they have posted in or interested in, they don't need to worry about any of that; they could just use User Control Panel to view updated subscribed threads.

 

That point I get. I only get rid of the dead threads I don't want to read again to make it easier to find the ones I do want to read again even if no one ever adds to them. Also, with the new tags feature, a thread could be resurrected. Plus, I wonder if there's going to be some limit on how many subscribed threads I can have.

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That point I get. I only get rid of the dead threads I don't want to read again to make it easier to find the ones I do want to read again even if no one ever adds to them. Also, with the new tags feature, a thread could be resurrected. Plus, I wonder if there's going to be some limit on how many subscribed threads I can have.
I'm just lazy. :D
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  • 2 weeks later...

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