Aludlam Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 Ok, please be aware that my books for chem. are in transit from Amazon, so I haven't actually seen them yet. According to the WTM, we should do an experiment on the first day and then write definitions, diagrams, etc on the second day of chemistry for the week. This just seems backwards to me. Shouldn't we know the definitions, etc before doing the experiment so that we will learn more from it? Seems like definitions should be day one with the experiment being day two. Or ... am I just missing it entirely? Any advice would be very, very welcome. thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Anna Posted January 24, 2011 Share Posted January 24, 2011 We're presently working through Adventures with Atoms and Molecules 1. What we've done is pretty simple. We do Science on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We'll do an experiment and then take turns writing/taking dictation to do the experiment page. (The "What did we use?/What did we do?/What happened?/What did we learn? questions) At the end of the page we define each of the underlined words. Now, we usually try to get the definitions out of AAM instead of the Usborne Encyclopedia for reasons of simplicity, but if they're totally circular or just not there, we'll go to the Encyclopedia. We do all of this each day and it usually takes about 30 minutes, depending on the experiment. Oh, and if the experiment totally bombs - it's happened to us twice, I believe - we still go through the entire experiment page anyway. "Failures" can be just as important as successes in science! Dd7 loves science! I know that we're not going into things as deeply as we might, but I also know that dd7 is developing a love of experimenting that all the colored pictures of the Usborne Encyclopedia haven't given her. We'll dig deeper into terminology next go-round. HTH! Mama Anna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted January 25, 2011 Author Share Posted January 25, 2011 thanks for responding! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpnick in nc Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I'm not quite there yet, but I can see myself doing something like this if I go the experiment one day and definitions another day path: - In planning the experiment, also make note of the terms with their definitions you plan to cover this experiment. Plan how to discuss these words throughout the experiment. - On the 'definition' day, sit down and write these definitions as described in WTM. This way, they've heard the terms and definitions and applied them as they are writing them down. I am a kinesthetic/visual learner, so this order of things would definitely work for me. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Honestly, science is now our least academic subject. I was re-reading the well trained mind, and science is pretty low on the list of the things that need to get done. My husband is a research chemist, he told just to make sure ds enjoys science. So we read through our chapter together, look up the definitions and read those together. No writing so far. Then we do our experiment and have fun with it. After we write the title and draw a picture. Really low key and low stress. Lots of FUN!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 We do it like this: 1 day a week. 1st the experiment. Then the lab page (answering the 4 queestions from WTM.) Then dd draws a diagram on the sheet of the experiment. Then she writes the definitions to any underlined words on a separate sheet with another diagram if it needs it. We also try to take the def. right from AWAM because the defs. in the Usborne Science encyclopedia are pretty advanced. Then we file the papers in her WTM inspired notebook. While she is writing, I may look up in the Encyclopedia any pages I think are relevant. Then we may or may not read further. Occasionally she looks up one of the websites and plays a game. They seem to be mostly middle and high school level links though. That's it. Doing the def.s works fine after the experiment. The book explains them as you go. Writing them just helps to cement them. We do it just like in WTM, except we do 1 a week and do the writing all in the same day. So we spend closer to an hour or more. (My dd also takes a chem. class once a week at co-op, so she gets her 2nd experiment a week there.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 we should do an experiment on the first day and then write definitions, diagrams, etc on the second day of chemistry for the week. This just seems backwards to me. Shouldn't we know the definitions, etc before doing the experiment so that we will learn more from it? I think it makes more sense to do the experiment on the first day, so that your child can observe what's going on, and you can casually explain things as you demonstrate. You can throw in some of those terms as you go and as your child can understand (don't overwhelm him or her with too many). Then, when you go to look up the definitions on day 2, they will be somewhat familiar already. I think the goal isn't to completely understand the experiment - the goal is to learn observation skills (and those experiment questions help with this), have fun, and learn a few terms after having seen the experiment. I think that trying to learn the terms first, esp. for a young child, without having seen the demonstration first, will be confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I think it makes more sense to do the experiment on the first day, so that your child can observe what's going on, and you can casually explain things as you demonstrate. You can throw in some of those terms as you go and as your child can understand (don't overwhelm him or her with too many). Then, when you go to look up the definitions on day 2, they will be somewhat familiar already. I think the goal isn't to completely understand the experiment - the goal is to learn observation skills (and those experiment questions help with this), have fun, and learn a few terms after having seen the experiment. I think that trying to learn the terms first, esp. for a young child, without having seen the demonstration first, will be confusing. That is a really good point I had never thought of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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