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How worthwhile is notebooking for science?


ExcitedMama
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Does it help to retain the concept by writing it down? Or is the idea to have student review the notebook periodically? We are in a virtual charter with an allowance for funds and DS loves science so we've been doing ES and RSO. I loved the concept of the Science in the Ancient World and thought my science loving son would really like it so I decided to splurge on SIB since it's Christian I had to buy it myself. We were finishing up ES and already had RSO on hand so I decided to skip having DS do the notebooking since he was still writing for his other science curriculum. We both really like this program and he's learned a lot so I'm second guessing not having him notebook through it. I've never had him notebook anything, so I'm not sure if it's meant to help with retention or it's meant to be written down for some future review? At the end of the lessons he can answer all the questions, even the ones that are meant for older students, so he completely understands the lesson, is that enough? Or should we do the notebooking? If you're not familiar with SIB it asks the student to notebook something specific to the student's age as far as difficulty after the lesson and doesn't have any sort of workbook or log book that goes with it. Thanks!

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If he is retaining it then Notebooking just for the sake of notebooking seems unnecessary to me. For science, IMO, it is much better time spent to get a notebook and call it your "lab" book and allow him to log his experiments. He could write a pre-lab, protocol, investigative questions and hypothesis and so forth, following lab book protocol.

 

When I hear someone loves science then I feel that is the best use of time. It is a necessary skill in college science as well as science as a career. It also is more deductive in nature than just notebooking.

 

Notebooking is a great skill to have as it forces one to pull out relevant information and write it down. Having him do some of that in his subjects is beneficial too!

Edited by nixpix5
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We do notebooking for a few reasons:

-it's a precursor to learning how to take study notes

-it helps the information become more organized in the child's mind

-reading, writing, and discussing all help to retain the information long term.

-it's a great record for the year.

 

We do oral narration still, where he tells me, I write it down, and he copies his words along with a diagram or picture.  I can ask him directly after a lesson and he'll know the information pat.  I want him to be at a level where at the end of the month or term I can ask the same question (or a general "tell me about the circulatory system") and have him retain enough information over the weeks where he can answer confidently.

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DD was required to keep a very structured Science Notebook last year.  Usually she blew it off, but I insisted this year and even made notes in her text about what I required in her notebook.  Although she loved her science class last year, she groused about the notes....until she realized she was acing each and every one of her quizzes.  Not only that, but she happily told me she really understood the material and retained it much more easily.  Gee, I wonder why that was?

 

Anyway, she sheepishly told me that, although it was a pain to do the notes, she really sees the benefits of doing so.  In that regard, she has asked me to keep doing what I did for science and to incorporate it for history as well.  I told her I would help her out this fall through the next year (freshman year), but after that, she will be required to do this completely on her own, with me reviewing her notebook. 

 

It has taken me forever to get this kid into willingly keeping a notebook, so this was a major breakthrough; one which I don't intend to let slide.  

 

Yes, IMHO, it is most definitely worthwhile to do notebooking for science or any other class.

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We started notebooking with history and have had great success with it, for the exact reasons the previous poster mentioned.  The kids had much, much better long-term retention on topics they'd notebooked on.  We are adding in science notebooks this year. I intend to make them a mix of lab pages, interactive notebook foldables and notebooking pages.  

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