How to "do" science?

[AllBoys]

We just got the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. My boys, 4th and 6th, want to go through it, reading and skimming as they like, and add books as they are interested. I am a little nervous about this b/c I was thinking we would study one area of science this year, then something else next year, etc. Does anyone do this? What do you require from them as far as reports, sketches, or whatever? I guess one of the reasons I am concerned is I am wondering if this is enough for my 12 year old.

 

I noticed in the index that the first chapter is about the earth and so I pulled out some eyewitness books on weather, hurricanes and tornados, and a magic school bus book about hurricanes (my 4th grader still loves MSbus!) Are there lists of living books and movies that have suggestions for different areas of science? And what would you recommend for experiments? I have looked online but it is so hard to tell if they are worth the money. Are there experiment kits you have been happy with for middle school?

 

How long would you follow a plan like this? When do we need to "use a real science curriculum"?

[Susie in CA]

I think you can pull this off, but you might want to require lots of 'output' from your 6th grader.

 

Let them pick the subject (or even the pages in the enc.) if they want to do that. I would then simply take them to the library to find books on the subject. Their are tons of experiment books available, and maybe your library has lots of them. If I were totally winging it I would pick up Rebecca Rupp's book and look at her various science recommendations. There are lots of experiment type books in it.

 

You may find that your kids are very interested in specific subjects for longer periods of time. This would then cause you to end up with a much more focused study than you think. For example, my son picked out a couple of chemistry experiments which then took us through the entire chemistry section of the book. We ended up spending several month on chemistry before we moved on to fossils.

 

As far as output for your 6th grader:

 

Have him write an outline once a week.

Have him write some other type of report and/or do a sketch once a week.

Other than that I would spend my time on reading, experimenting, building, watching videos/movies, cooking, collecting etc.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Susie

[AllBoys]

Thanks Susie, I am going to look into your suggestions today!

[Halcyon]

Have you looked at Elemental Science? It's not expensive, and very enjoyable.

[mcconnellboys]

You can certainly do this but you need to make sure you're keeping them working and focused. If you're going to cover earth science first, you can go through the books and pick out some things to have them sketch and label. You might use some of this for memory work, too. You can also look through and pick out some topics to ask them to report upon.

 

I like Oregon State's Volcano World website. It has lesson plans and lots of pictures, videos, etc.:

 

http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/education/index.html

 

MSNucleus.org also has some good earth science lessons for middle school (I haven't looked at their elementary stuff in detail):

 

http://msnucleus.org/membership/html/jh/earth/index.html

 

I love all the DK books that cover earth science. For earth science, I also like Delta Education's Science in a Nutshell kit: Rock Origins.