Science Co-op ideas

[4bantams]

We participate in a science co-op and are planning for next year. In the past we have always used Apologia for our classes. We have K-12 with approximately 40 plus children. We separate into 4 classes K-3, 4-6, middle and high school. Are there any other science curriculum that fit well into the co-op setting? I would love some suggestions and personal experience on how it worked out. TIA

[mom31257]

Our co-op only meets every other week, but we've used Apologia quite a bit. I've taught high school science in our co-op several years. How often do you meet? What is the purpose of the co-op? Do you mainly focus on experiments, or do you do a lot of teaching, reviewing for tests, etc.?

 

We had a class of 6th-7th graders use BJU 6th this year, and it went very well. Our 5th-6th group is going to use it next year because it was so good. You might could use 5th grade for the 4th-6th group. 

 

Our elementary classes next year are also wanting to try something new and are doing Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space. The company has a co-op license for up to 25 students. 

 

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey is secular, but neutral in the Level One books. I have only used the Life science Level 1 course, but the experiments were a lot of fun. I had our neighbor's son come weekly to do them with my ds. They have a "Try Before you Buy" where you get a several weeks of the curriculum to sample. 

 

Another year I taught chemistry to younger kids using Real Science 4 Kids. It was so cute and fun. 

 

 

 

[mschickie]

Our co-op mainly uses Apologia especially for the jr and senior high classes.

 

For the elementary classes folks have also brought in Real Science 4 Kids and that worked very well.  I know another co-op in our area uses the materials from Answers in Genesis and that seems to work well for them.

[2_girls_mommy]

Apologia seems to be the co-op go to. In general that is what ours has used. One year the science teacher did a public school text that we all got online for like $10. That was a nice budget break. She just does all of the hands on and experiments in the class time and assigns a bookwork schedule for home. 

 

This year for something different in the middle grades, ours was roughly 4-8th graders, she did the new Wile series, Science in the Age of Reason. I liked the break from Apologia because it follows chronological history for science. So the book covered all kinds of science instead of going deep into one topic like the usual Apologia books. 

 

She continued doing lots of experiments in class times. But the Science in the Age of Reason book has the kids doing around 3 experiments a week. Our teacher was so kind. She collected money and bought all of the supplies for the first half of the year and divided them up into a bag for each student to send home with them. So they do 1-2 experiments in class a week, and the kids did all of the reading at home for the week, doing 1-2 at home each week. They were all very simple experiments and the materials were not expensive. Some of them required longer, so those would be the ones they did at home and brought to co-op to show how it worked out.  Each student keeps a notebook and writes up about the experiments and does the questions from the book. 

 

 

[Clemsondana]

At the younger ages, our co-op offers a lot of themed classes. My kids have taken a lego simple machines class, for example. This year one is taking an anatomy class geared for the K-3 crowd - they spend a few weeks on each system learning how it works. Next year I'll have one child taking a hands-on science, which is fun experiments for the younger kids. We're also offering a snap circuits class. For middle school we offer a mix of styles- some parents want the class to be their main course, while others want some fun hands-on extras. I know that there's a hands-on general science and also a life science with dissection. By high school the classes are academic instead of enrichment. I use Miller and Levine for biology. I don't have any specific recommendations, but how much you can do as 'fun' classes probably depends on what your group wants to get our of co-op. Our group is big enough that there are options, but for a smaller group you'd probably need to all be on the same page about you are trying to offer enrichment or the 'main class'. At our co-op, elementary is enrichment, middle offers some of both, and high school is more traditional academic.

[freesia]

For the younger groups we did:  TOPs units (I think electricity and magnetism), Ellen McHenry's Elements, human body activities using the younger Apologia book, earth science using various resources,  weather (I can't remember what was used), bees using an AIMS unit(AIMS units would work well as they are written for classrooms http://store.aimsedu.org/category/activity-books/activity-books/1.html?utm_source=store&utm_medium=cont-div&utm_campaign=ActBks042414)

[cintinative]

Inquiry in Action worked well at our co-op for the younger group (3rd-5th)

 

We did a hands-on physics class for 3rd-8th using Teaching Physics with Toys but it was pretty expensive and some experiments didn't work so well. I think perhaps it could be tweaked to be more helpful

 

Lego science related always goes over well.  

 

 

[SoCal_Bear]

I've taught the Berean science series by Dr. Wile at our co-op. I am just wrapping up Science in the Scientific Revolution. When I wrote to him, he suggested doing all the experiments together and then doing the notebooking and reading about it at home. We are usually doing 3-4 experiments a week. I try to group them together in logical breaks. It's worked out very well for the class I teach, and we will be doing Science in the Age of Reason this fall.

 

I have taught Apologia as well. I actually don't love/enjoy the Apologia texts that much. I found myself supplementing a lot for more experiments to flesh it out more...and it is a bit heavy handed with the YE. I prefer Dr. Wile's approach. He is YE, but a lot more even handed in his approach to allow room for other perspectives like OE for example.

I haven't taught the Real Science 4 Kids in a co-op setting, but I have used that as well. I don't actually think the middle school level is truly 5-8. It's more like 4-6 level IMO and the elementary is more K-2 (3rd maybe)...not K-4. It's written to be secular, but Christian friendly as it is neutral on the topic of evolution.