Looking for Novare Science Reviews...

[TheAttachedMama]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am doing some research and I am looking for some more information on Novare science.   I am considering Novare Physical Science for 7th and Earth Science for 8th.   How easy is this course to teach?   What are your overall thoughts?

[serendipitous journey]

I found it hard to teach with the official schedule, but easy to teach WTM-style: read, do summaries & outline sections and/or take notes of bolded words to memorize.   Then you can give the tests open-book to build test-writing skills.  The official schedule was too much with rigorous Latin + Math + Composition and then our other content subjects. 

 

I do like Physical Science's science content, but the faith element did not work well here -- the author talks a great deal about the good Lord's grace in giving such a beautiful universe, but there is no discussion of how to think about the terrible events in the natural world.  We have earthquakes, fires, droughts &c around here so it is a real issue. 

 

I plan to buy the "secular" version from their Centripetal Press imprint when I teach this next, and add faith elements ourselves.  Here's a link to Centripetal's Physical Science. 

 

ETA: wanted to add: for the part we did, I thought the content was EXCELLENT.  I am fussy regarding science, and the child had a good physics/chemistry background: he was learning a lot, and the presentation was very accurate (not always easy at the middle-school level).   And the illustrations are gorgeous. 

Edited January 28, 2018 by serendipitous journey

[TheAttachedMama]

I would go ask on the MP forum because those are the books they use for 7th and 8th. The forum people are very nice.

 

They are VERY nice on that forum!  I've read pretty much everything I could find on Novare on that forum before asking here.  :)    I've learned that most people on that forum follow the Memoria Press recommendations pretty faithfully and with few exceptions.   So there is not much experience comparing Novare with other science options.   (Except Apologia.  However, I've ruled out Apologia for our family.)   

 

So I purposely asked on this forum just to get some other viewpoints.  We are Christians, but I have used secular science products up until this time.   I like Memoria Press a lot for teaching the humanities, but sometimes I feel like there math and science programs are not a good fit for my kids. 

 

I'm just wondering how Novare products might compare to say....The Rainbow.    The Rainbow looks a lot easier to teach (and the labs look like a lot of fun).  However, according to the thread I linked, it is light on the reading.   Part of me is wondering if I could use The Rainbow for labs and add in Novare (or Centripetal's) Physical science for the reading. 

[cintinative]

I don't know if this will help, but FYI Novare has a Yahoo group.  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/novare/info

 

ETA: you can access these: 

• Lots of new resources for Earth Science and Novare Physical Science have been uploaded to the Tips & Tools folder, including Powerpoint presentations for each chapter and updates lists of online multimedia resources.

Edited February 6, 2018 by cintinative

[Ms.Ivy]

I've used Novare's Earth Science textbook for 6th grade with two of my kids now, and they both really enjoyed it.  One kid is precocious and the other is dyslexic and they both preferred reading the Novare text over Apologia's textbooks. Both kids had no trouble doing the exercises at the end of each chapter - just the right amount of challenge and review without being overwhelming.  We skipped any "lab" work or testing.  I like Novare because their philosophy is to go deeper on the important stuff rather than too wide and shallow.  However, the earth science textbook actually covered a lot more ground (ha) than all the other earth science programs I looked at for that age range. I'm planning on having my oldest do their Introductory Physics book this fall.  

Edited February 6, 2018 by Ms.Ivy

[Teek]

I was reading Cathy Duffy's review of the Physical Science text here:
https://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/science/textbooks-and-grade-level-resources/novare-physical-science-a-masteryoriented-curriculum

 

She feels that the labs are too cost-prohibitive for most homeschool use. Can anyone who has used this text let me know if that was true, and if so, how you got around it? It does look like a great series. Thanks!

[serendipitous journey]

I was reading Cathy Duffy's review of the Physical Science text here:

https://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/science/textbooks-and-grade-level-resources/novare-physical-science-a-masteryoriented-curriculum

 

She feels that the labs are too cost-prohibitive for most homeschool use. Can anyone who has used this text let me know if that was true, and if so, how you got around it? It does look like a great series. Thanks!

 

I have not worked through the text; we never planned to do all the labs.  I am sure that if you post on the Memoria Press forum you can get help with this, either from parents who've done the course or from the MP science folks. 

 

[serendipitous journey]

Well, nobody else has posted a more thorough answer, so I thought I'd download everything I know about this! 

 

1.  In general, folks on the Memoria Press forums (this is relevant b/c Memoria Press is recommending/scheduling Novare books, so there is actually some experience there) find that replicating all the Novare labs at home is not feasible.  There are specific suggestions made on different threads for specific courses/books, but I don't know offhand of any for Physical Science.  Still worth posting, maybe including "Cindy in Indy" in your title b/c she's the Memoria Press science/math guru and if she sees the thread she can be very helpful.

 

2.  Especially for the "middle school" level Novare texts, there is a rough consensus that scheduling and running a Novare course according to the included teaching materials is non-intuitive for homeschoolers and takes a lot of unnecessary time.  This is esp. true for MP folks because the Form Latin series really ramps up in the same years that these middle school texts would be used.  Partly for this reason, the primary science MP schedules is less intensive (often centered around Tiner books) and Novare books are suggested as a more-rigorous substitute for those interested. 

 

3.  I myself have found that using the books somewhat Well-Trained Mind style works well, though we haven't done a full book this way.  I have the child keep a list of bolded terms and definitions in his notebook and, where it seems appropriate, record the answers to questions in his notebook Cornell-style: a left column has key words/questions, and a bullet-style list of the essential elements of an answer are on the right.  I then check the notebook for completeness.

 

I haven't been giving quizzes, and if I were I think I'd do it open-book because the main goal is mastering the material (which I can check by spot-checking the child's knowledge of his own notes) and developing skill at written responses. 

 

ETA: I ordered a Centripetal Press book, and the downside is that at the moment they can't afford to print the same hard-cover, really high-quality books with the Centripetal imprint so the images are much less beautiful.  The pictures in the Novare Physical Science book are just gorgeous.  I may stick with the Novare versions until Centripetal can do hardcover (when their volume of sales picks up sufficiently, what a catch-22), not sure ...

 

HTH!

Edited February 27, 2018 by serendipitous journey

[Teek]

Well, nobody else has posted a more thorough answer, so I thought I'd download everything I know about this! 

 

 

Thank you so much! That's incredibly helpful. 

[KSinNS]

So my 13 year old used Novare Physical science and Earth Science. I've used some of the quizzes, and he has generally enjoyed it. The labs did not really get done, but that had more to do with my organization than anything. They are coming out with a home lab kit, and I'm tempted to buy it even though the shipping to Canada will cost a bomb. He's learned a ton. He reads, answers the questions and we go over it. The books are a good size to get done in one year with minimal stress. I'm planning to continue this series with my next kiddo. 

 

Hope that helps. 

[PeachyDoodle]

Haven't done Earth Science but we did use the teacher resource CD for Introductory Physics. It was helpful mostly because it contained the review guides and tests. Answer keys and schedules were available free on their Resources site.

I didn't buy the resource CD for General Chemistry this year. I made my own quizzes and tests instead. But it would be worth it not to have to do that again!

[PeachyDoodle]

 

10 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

How are you handling the labs?

We did them at home last year for IP. Mostly they worked fine, although we had to skip the one that required multiple people to push a car across a parking lot. I bought the lab kit from Home Science Tools, with a few tweaks.

For Chem we did a two-day lab intensive with College Prep Science. Yes, that's Greg Landry, and yes, it's an iffy choice, but it worked out okay for us. It wasn't life-changing or anything but it was adequate. I just wasn't in a place where I could take on labs at home this year.

We are planning on Bio next year, assuming it comes out on schedule. Not sure what we will do there but I know a former HS bio teacher who's been begging for years to do some dissection with dd, so I can't see passing on that!