8th Grade Physical Science - help, please!

[KCR's Mom]

Just posted this on the main K-8 board, but saw someone suggested this board is also a great place for this kind of question, so here goes.

 

I'm looking for an 8th grade science program for DD, and fear I'm on a wild goose chase. Here are the things we seek:

• Experiments! - she is asking for something where you do the experiments first, then study about them, but anything that's heavy in experiments/labs would be good. Hands-on work is key.
• Experiment kit - I need it to be packaged in a kit, or REALLY easy to prep; I don't have the skill or time to put together a science curriculum or a lab program and hunt down materials.
• Rigorous - so many programs are light, or billed as 6th-8th but really for younger grades. I'm willing to upgrade to a 9th grade program rather than staying with strict 8th grade guidelines.
• Content - physics, chemistry, and earth science/astronomy
• Secular - every one of us has an opinion on this, so all I'll say is that although many of our curricula are Christian, I have tried science programs with a strong religious slant, and they're not right for us. That cuts out gold standard Apologia (which we've tried -- twice), and many other popular programs.
• Interesting - aside from the religious aspect, Apologia was dry and dull and a chore... ugh. Unfortunately, we haven't found much else that's really engaging. Science is exciting - it should be fun!

She likes science, but we're both frustrated that in 8 years, we've not yet found a science program that fits. She craves hands-on and she likes videos. I want her to get engaged and learn. We may start it in January (7th grade) and continue through 8th grade so we can take our time. Again, though, I'm not equipped to cobble something together on my own.

 

I've been looking for weeks, and I've spent the past two days almost non-stop searching the internet and poring over this forum, and every avenue is a dead end. CPO? Perfect, if I hit the lottery. Exploration Education (weak?), Glencoe (maybe... no lab kit, though), Holt (no lab kit), Prentice (dry), K12 (no kit, and no samples to see if the program is a fit), Derek Owens (she hated the video), Ardoin (she'd get overwhelmed having to look it all up).... my head spins, and those are just the ones I remember as having potential at some point.

 

Please, any help would be a blessing. Thanks!

 

[Space station]

Supercharged science?

[redsquirrel]

What about having her create her own science research experiment? She would do some research, make a plan, execute her experiment, keep records, work somewhat independently, make a presentation based on her findings... That would meet your requirements. You can get books on science fair experiments out of the library. There would still be the purchasing of materials to conduct the experiment.

 

Or

 

You can do CPO and just buy and make a lot of the materials yourself. You don't need to buy the CPO expensive materials. The one biggie is the photogate, I wasn't able to figure out a way to make that work. You put together your own 'kit' for CPO at home science tools. I did that with CPO earth and space and it wasn't too hard. I was going to do it with CPO physical science but ended up going with Derek Owens for lots of reasons that didn't have to do with materials. So, CPO won't work for you if you don't want to gather materials but it can be done with out winning the lottery.

 

I don't know much about Supercharged Science but I know it comes with 'stuff' and lessons and she says it is k-12. You could write to her and see what she can do for you in regards to physical science.

 

http://www.superchargedscience.com/

 

Rainbow Science might work, but it is not secular...BUT I have heard that the non-secular part is in the life science section. So, if you only did the physical and chemistry parts that would be physical science. Rainbow Science's claim to fame is that you get a complete kit. I think you only have to buy one gallon of distilled water. I have no idea how rigorous it is.

 

http://www.beginningspublishing.com/version2/products.htm

 

 

TOPS science is all hands on, totally secular BUT does require gathering materials before you start. Maybe that can be her job? She has to get it all together and get it ready? TOPS isn't pricy and the materials are not pricy, but you do have to gather them. And you might want to add a book for reading because TOPS is just the hands on part. And if you don't gather the stuff and get it ready before you begin then you will end up not being able to use it.

 

http://www.topscience.org/

 

It's just difficult to find something that meets all your requirements. The things that are guaranteed to be secular and hands on require some legwork. The things that don't require much legwork aren't secular.  And anything that comes with materials and/or lots of the work done for you is going to cost you. Everything costs in time or money, you just have to pick which one you have more of.

[Tanaqui]

CPO? Perfect, if I hit the lottery.

 

Everybody seems to say that here. The materials kit comes for a class of, what, 30? Maybe what you really need to do is find 27 more people (I'd chip in for each kid, so I subtracted us!) to buy it and divvy it up later. That's only, like, $50 per kid. Of course, that may be even more trouble than sourcing the equipment yourself....

 

Edit: Or, you know, an in-person co-op class? That would make more sense. Much more sense. Tons more sense. I didn't get any sleep last night, you can ignore anything I said that is ridiculous.

 

[KCR's Mom]

Thanks all! I can't figure out the meat of SuperCharged Science; it doesn't seem to have the structure. I'm not going to be able to put together a curriculum or figure out labs from scratch; I've tried, and it doesn't work. I need something that exists. I'll check out Rainbow again (did see it, but there was so much about its being non-secular that I passed). And yes, I'd never find 27 folks to chip in, and fitting in another group activity isn't going to work. I don't mind putting a few hundred dollars out (that's how desperate I am), but $2,000+ is more than I can stomach. Sigh.  

[redsquirrel]

Thanks all! I can't figure out the meat of SuperCharged Science; it doesn't seem to have the structure. I'm not going to be able to put together a curriculum or figure out labs from scratch; I've tried, and it doesn't work. I need something that exists. I'll check out Rainbow again (did see it, but there was so much about its being non-secular that I passed). And yes, I'd never find 27 folks to chip in, and fitting in another group activity isn't going to work. I don't mind putting a few hundred dollars out (that's how desperate I am), but $2,000+ is more than I can stomach. Sigh.  

 

I think rigorous and hands on science can easily require at least 100$ if not more, but you don't have to spend hundreds and hundreds to do CPO at home.  I bought the book and the teacher's book used off Amazon for less than 30$. The student record sheets (the experiments) are free for the printing at the CPO site. So are the skills and practice sheets etc etc.

 

You don't even need to buy the text book. Just google "CPO Physical Science online textbook" and you will get hits. Just pay attention to which book you download. There is CPO national edition and CPO California edition (called "focus on physical science). I am pretty sure both are available online to download. I suggest you buy the teacher's book first and then use the text that goes along with the teacher's book. One thing to pay attention to is that the experiments for the 'focus on' books do NOT line up with the student record sheets. It is out of order and I don't know why.

 

Then you go through the student record sheets and, experiment by experiment, load up your cart at Home Science tools. Some experiments you can't do without the CPO equipment but it is still doable. A bunch of things requiring the photogate are really about controlling for variables. I am sure you can come up with some ideas of ways to teach that and I bet they aren't expensive. But you end up getting things like what are on these pages (NOT all of them, lol)

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/force-motion/c/73/

But things like the inclined plane set and the "collision in 2 dimensions" can come in pretty handy. And sometimes just looking at something makes you realize you can just rig it up yourself.

 

For me, the challenging part of teaching physical science was teaching the math on the fly. That was a difficulty I kept running into. That was why we went with Derek Owens. I could have managed CPO at home, but I didn't have that facility with the math.

[foxbridgeacademy]

How about Exploration Education?

 

http://www.explorationeducation.com/

 

Lessons on CD or online, big student book for recording data etc... and all the experiments are included.  Not sure of your budget but for 8th grader, most here would say to go with the advanced kit.

[KCR's Mom]

Just got home from Thursday co-op; sorry for the delay in response.

 

Foxbridgeacademy, thanks for the suggestion! I've looked at Exploration Education, as it did seem to have so many great elements, but I saw reviews saying they'd done the advanced level in 6th, even 4th, grade, and I became concerned it was not going to be a good fit. (I've been burned several times with curricula that looked great and was recommended for DD's age, but then ended up being for younger kids when we actually dived in. So difficult to predict....) I'll have to look again.

 

And Redsquirrel, thanks so much for the new perspective on CPO! I was concerned I'd never be able to affordably recreate the lab kit, but it sounds as if it's not that difficult. I've seen those suggestions; it would be awesome if someone posted that correlated shopping list. ;-) So CPO goes back on the list. And someone else suggested DIVE, which can be aligned with CPO, so that's another option.

 

You've all been so helpful; thank you for acting as curriculum advisors for our homeschool!!!! :hurray:

[redsquirrel]

Just got home from Thursday co-op; sorry for the delay in response.

 

Foxbridgeacademy, thanks for the suggestion! I've looked at Exploration Education, as it did seem to have so many great elements, but I saw reviews saying they'd done the advanced level in 6th, even 4th, grade, and I became concerned it was not going to be a good fit. (I've been burned several times with curricula that looked great and was recommended for DD's age, but then ended up being for younger kids when we actually dived in. So difficult to predict....) I'll have to look again.

 

And Redsquirrel, thanks so much for the new perspective on CPO! I was concerned I'd never be able to affordably recreate the lab kit, but it sounds as if it's not that difficult. I've seen those suggestions; it would be awesome if someone posted that correlated shopping list. ;-) So CPO goes back on the list. And someone else suggested DIVE, which can be aligned with CPO, so that's another option.

 

You've all been so helpful; thank you for acting as curriculum advisors for our homeschool!!!! :hurray:

 

I don't have a shopping list because I just made it in my shopping cart at Home science tools and that would have been the summer before last.  And again, it ended up not working for us because of my personal math limitations. Derek Owens ended up being a lifesaver for us. By the time we got it figured out my son was willing to do ANY science as long as it was challenging and I wasn't involved in teaching it, lol.

[redsquirrel]

Ok, so I just read your other thread in the K-12 forum and you asked a question about Derek Owens and I thought I would just answer it here to keep it all in one place, lol. Yes, it does have experiments. We didn't do them because by the point we were doing Derek Owens my kid was just running through the course in record time, lol. We didn't have the time to stop for experiments. There are not many, especially if you compare to CPO, but by then my son had done so much hands on that he was willing to just sit down and do the course. Derek provides a shopping list for what you need, and I think it wasn't complicated.

 

And my own personal suggestion is to keep your eye on the math. Especially in 8th grade physical science, you want the math. That is what I meant when I said I have no idea about rigor in Rainbow Science. I still don't so I am not making a judgement either way. I am neutral on the subject. I think that 8th grade year is an important one to bridge students from lower to upper level science, and a big part of that is math. There are other things, of course, but being comfortable at the intersection of the two is important.

 

Even 'conceptual physics' or 'physics first' classes, that are geared towards 8th and 9th graders are Algebra based. I keep running into people who tell me that 'conceptual physics' is physics without the math, but I think what they mean is physics without the upper level high school math. Algebra certainly is used in the courses I have seen.

[Peaceful Isle]

I was going to suggest BJU online, but then saw you wanted secular.

[Mom22ns]

I'm late to the thread and you may already have made a choice, but I'm going to suggest DIVE with a secular text. His lectures still include his Christian philosophy, but it doesn't impact or weaken the science. If you use a secular text, it becomes mostly secular. I don't know if that is ok or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there for you. We did DIVE with this book and he has a syllabus on the website for it (he created it for me). However, if you do it, you should know the second half of the syllabus, the physics portion of the class is not well aligned and you really have to make a bit of an effort to make sure you align the reading to the lectures.

 

Another option is just to do the PH book and labs without DIVE. I did that with my first and we liked it better that way. Dd preferred it with DIVE added... personal preference. Either way, it is a math heavy, strong high school level Physical Science course.

[KCR's Mom]

Thanks, Momto2Ns! I think we're going to do CPO with Foundations of Physical Science with Earth and Space, and cobble the experiments together somehow. It's the one program that looked robust enough to satisfy me, and engaging enough to satisfy DD. We'll see -- wish us luck! :) Thanks again to everyone!