What are you doing for 6th grade Science?

[Darcy in FL]

We've done Apologia Elementary Zoo 1 and 2 for the last two years. Our co-op is moving on to Zoo3 in the fall. I'm just feeling like my 6th grader needs a little something more. I mean we've done birds and we're loving the sea creature book but next would be land animals. I think I'm ready for him to do something besides Zoology.

 

What are you all planning for 6th grade science? Or what have you done and really liked? Thanks!

[Melissa in CA]

I had planned to use BJU's Science 6 (see siggy) but I have now reconsidered. My niece owns Sonlight's Science 5 and says it is really good and I can borrow it for this next year. After looking over my sons 6th grade schedule and seeing how full it is going to be, I have decided to give SL a try instead of the more intense BJU. I'll then use the BJU Science 6 in 7th grade.

 

BJU's science is very good! You might want to consider it. We personally don't care for the Apologia Elem Science's. I could not imagine doing zoology for more than a semester let alone 3 YEARS! Bleck! LOL

 

NOEO Science is good as well. It is mainly reading, notebooking, and experiments. If your son is like mine the last thing he'll want to do is NOTEBOOKING! :tongue_smilie: So NOEO hasn't worked as well for us as I had thought it would. We are still using it on Fridays, and BJU Science 5 M-THUR; we like BJU much better though.

[Darcy in FL]

BJU's science is very good! If your son is like mine the last thing he'll want to do is NOTEBOOKING! :tongue_smilie:

 

Another good friend of mine just mentioned BJU also. I think I'll look into it. My ds "tolerates" the notebooking in co-op but it is certainly not his favorite thing. I was looking at the NOEO Science but if it's more notebooking than I don't think it will be for him.

[Sue G in PA]

Many use this for 6th grade although the program says 7th. That way, he gets more than just Zoology and a program that will challenge him. Just a thought. You could also use the Astonomy from Apologia or for a change or maybe CKE Chemistry or Earth and Space.

[LindaOz]

We are doing Zoo 1 as a family too, but my 6th grader is also working through Planet Earth by John Tiner, and Blood & Guts. She writes narrations on Blood & Guts and writes answers to the questions in the Tiner book. We love the Apologia Elementary books but I, like you, felt my 6th grader needed more as well.

 

HTH

[Carmen_and_Company]

Nothing outside of child-led science/nature study & what we learn through Livingmath.net courses. We won't begin formal science until 8th or 9th grade. My eldest did not have any formal science while in PS before we pulled him out in 6th grade, and did not do formal science in our homeschool until 7th grade. He's matriculating to the University of St, Thomas on a full academic scholarhip in their honors program this fall. He's a physics major. He did not take a formal science course until 11th grade at a local university.

[Quiver0f10]

We will be doing BJU Science too.

[Melissa in CA]

My eldest did not have any formal science while in PS before we pulled him out in 6th grade, and did not do formal science in our homeschool until 7th grade. He's matriculating to the University of St, Thomas on a full academic scholarhip in their honors program this fall. He's a physics major. He did not take a formal science course until 11th grade at a local university.

 

Ok you've got me confused. :confused: Did he not take a formal science course until 7th grade or 11th grade?

 

If I did not do science with my son he would know nothing, zero, zilch about science. He does not have a natural curiosity about it, and I personally would feel that I was failing in my responsibility as not only his teacher, but his parent, if I did not make it a priority at some level.

 

Having said that, I do feel science should be fun as well as informative. Finding that right balance is different for each child and each family. Some children are very inquisitive and science comes rather natural to them...others are not science minded and their interests are in a different area entirely. I personally need some type of formal science curricula, otherwise I would never 'get around' to scheduling time for it, ;) as I am not a science minded person at all.

 

My congratulations to your son! :D

[Antonia]

We are doing Prentice Hall Explorer's Human Body. I, too, felt we had done the animal kingdom to death, albeit informally. I got the PH textbook out of the library and bought the workbook from amazon. We do the experiments to add fun. We're pretty casual about it because I really believe that at this age, science should be more experiential, but ds has gotten a lot out of it.

[Jenny in Atl]

Have have just finished using PH's Science Explorer series on Earth Science. We did Earth's Waters, Weather and Climate, Inside Earth, Earth's Changing Surface. We also used PH Environmental Science with Botany last summer. As a supplement we added Plato's CyberEd, which both of my dd's completed and really enjoyed.

[Carol in Cal.]

I am using a number of books about various aspects of Earth Science, coupled with field trips in CA and Nevada. I probably won't remember all of them, but we have used several books about Rocks and Minerals, and several books about geology and earthquakes. We visited the mineral exhibit in the Nevada State Museum in Carson City, and spent hours there solidifying the rock cycle learning that DD had already done, and learning about the chemistry of crystals and rocks. We grew popcorn rocks. We noticed the way that the same chemistry has completely different appearances depending on the crystal structure and impurities. We visited the Lawrence Hall of Science several times, and focussed on the geology of the San Francisco Bay Area, the types of soil and rocks found here, and the way that earthquakes work. We walked and studied the Los Trancos fault trail, noticing features like sag ponds and landslides, and rock from 22 miles away.

 

We also reviewed RS4K Physics, which is pretty dense with material so it bears repeating. We tried to relate it to chemistry as well.

 

And, this being the find of the year, we used a book by Tiner called "Exploring the World of Chemistry". What a great amplification of RS4K Chemistry, which we finished a long time ago! It has such great tie ins with history, especially biography, and with everyday life. It also has a lot a Bible content, interestingly enough, and appropriately so IMO. It emphasizes the Christian faith of many (if not all) of the original explorers of chemistry. And it mentions a college professor that I had! I love it when that happens!

 

Next year we will probably do Apologia General Science and RS4K Chemistry Level II. I had planned on Rainbow, but I think that Apologia may be a better fit.

[KarenC]

We will use Runkle's Geography with a few Science in a Nutshell kits.

 

 

Karen

[danielle]

How about NASA SciFiles? It's free (just print out the teacher's guides and worksheets) and the dc I've used it with have LOVED the video on demand. They have topics in biology, physics (lots), earth & space science (natch)--thin on chemistry. The experiments are great. I can't say enough good about this program.

Danielle

[Mallory]

We are trying easyclassical.com. Their schedules are based on TWTM suggestions, but all laid out for you.

 

http://www.easyclassical.com/Our_products2.html

 

If you scroll down about half way there are schedules for science only.

[Tami]

using a combo of Oak Meadow basic earth science syllabus (7th grade) and Great Science Adventures Discovering Earth's Landforms. For memory work, we will learn the Lyrical Earth Science songs.

 

I also like Google E Guide Earth as a pictoral resource and place for internet research, since the whole guide is interntet-linked.

 

Have fun!

[Tami]

He's matriculating to the University of St, Thomas on a full academic scholarhip in their honors program this fall. He's a physics major. He did not take a formal science course until 11th grade at a local university.

 

Congrats on your son's achievement and acceptance to St. Thomas. Woo hoo!!!:hurray:

[Susan in TN]

6th grade Ds is finishing up year 1 of Rainbow science. It has been a perfect fit. He does almost everything independently except for a couple of experiments which required the use of fire. There are periodic quizzes and tests and questions to answer in his science notebook. I think it's a great fit for logic stage science study - short, to-the-point, well-written lessons and effective experiments.

 

The only down-side is the cost, but it has been so worth it, IMO, to have everything he needs right here. We will be able to re-use almost everything for my younger kids, so that helps me justify the cost. :)

 

He will go through year 2 next year (7th grade).

 

www.beginningspublishing.com

[FloridaLisa]

We use Apologia General in 6th grade. It's a great text and we really like that the last half is anatomy and physiology.

 

Blessings,

Lisa

[Pensguys]

He will go through year 2 next year (7th grade).

 

 

Susan, do you think it would be too much to do the whole thing in one year?

 

Also, is your guy like lots of science?

[Susan in TN]

Hmmm...one year? My ds does science 2X/week - on Tues. he reads/answers questions for 2 lessons and on Thurs. he does the accompanying experiment. (The program is structured to do 1 lab for every 2 "book" lessons - the book lessons are fairly short.) I suppose if you did science every day you could do it in a year. Ds is not a big science guy, although he seems to find it interesting for the most part.

[Pensguys]

Thanks.....I've decided to break it down over 2 years like it is intended.