Question about Noeo science: about how often...

[Melora in NC]

are experiments scheduled? I am looking in particular at Biology II, if that makes a difference. I am planning on doing science 2x a week, about an hour each time. I am hoping to find a program which schedules simple experiments most weeks. The Noeo sample pages only show one week's schedule, so it is hard to tell from that. Many thanks for any advice!

[Wendy in ME]

There are very few experiments in this program. I thought the samples looked great and I was excited to get it but almost the entire first half had no experiments other than some microscope work in the first couple of weeks. For the most part the boys were just reading and taking notes or sketching what they read about.

 

Wendy

[Melora in NC]

Thank you so much for telling me about this, Wendy! You just saved me from wasting a bunch of money! The schedule of subjects and the books used looked very appealing to me, but without frequently scheduled experiments, my ds, who is Not a keen non-fiction reader, would lose interest. The microscope work would be fun, but a year of reading and taking notes is not what I want from our science program. Again, many thanks!

[Sunshine State Sue]

We used Noeo Biology 2 for 5th grade. I thought most of the experiments were lame. Here's my review:

 

We used NOEO Biology II with our 5th grade son. He is not particularly science oriented. Neither am I. I have mixed feelings about the curriculum.

 

The advantage is that it is all laid out for you. The reading is not too difficult for a 5th grader. In fact a bit on the easier side since it's targeted at 4th-6th grade. It is not time consuming - we spend perhaps 30-45 minutes 2x per week. After a week or two of guidance, it can be done fairly independently. It?s secular, which I prefer.

 

The disadvantage is that it not very challenging. The "experiments" were fairly lame - mostly looking at something under the microscope and sketching it. There are a few kits that come with it. Dad and son did the kits on eggs and owls, and they were good. Okay, my son thought the owl pellet was really gross. There is a long section using the Body Book, which is all cut-and-paste. The plant kits were decent.

 

But, what I found with Noeo is that there is too much freedom for my unmotivated student to do a mediocre job. Because all he has to do is read 2 pages and write about them, I find that he reads the pages and picks out 2-3 sentences to write down. I need more accountability. If I want to quiz him about what he?s read, I have to read the pages and determine the questions to ask on my own. That, coupled with the lack of hands-on activities, is disappointing.

[Wendy in ME]

You're welcome. I'm glad I could help.

 

Wendy

[Melora in NC]

Sue,

Thanks so much for the detailed review! It was very helpful to me. I Would love to have a program that is laid out to be easily done in 2 - 45 minute sessions a week, and I do prefer my science programs to stick to Science, but it Has to be heavy on experiments. Written narrations are one of my ds's Least favorite things. Sounds like NOEO would have been a disappointment to us.