CPO science questions

[Julie of KY]

Tell me more about CPO science. What do you like/dislike about it? What do you need to buy? I'm looking at it for a middle schooler. Probably my sixth grader that is very independent.

 

Do you like earth science/astronomy or life science?

[Spetzi]

We just started CPO. I downloaded the student book and Investigations (lab) book for free. I am looking for a TM used, but haven't found one that's reasonable (yet).

 

Here is the link for Life Sci, Earth Sci and Physical Sci student book and lab book. I don't know if Astronomy is out there for free. http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/node/52#cpo

 

Some folks have gotten a free teacher DVD or CD by contacting their state's sales rep.

 

I think there is a lot of questions/writing at the end of each section. We have been doing most of them orally, but my daughter is a little young for this curric.

 

I was intimidated by the labs and equipment, but they really aren't that challenging. There are several that I needed to find a substitute experiment/activity. I just opened Janice Van Cleave's Earth Science for Every Kid and had my answer. I will probably spend <$50 on lab equipment for Earth Science. If you want the exact products, you can buy them individually, but I can't find the link right now. It's under schoolspecialty.com I think.

 

HTH,

[GailV]

 

Here is the link for Life Sci, Earth Sci and Physical Sci student book and lab book. I don't know if Astronomy is out there for free. http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/node/52#cpo

 

 

 

HTH,

 

Astronomy is at the end of the Physical Science book.

[Create Your Ritual]

Spetzi,

 

How is it going using the free online CPO Earth Science downloads? I am considering doing the same thing next year and wondered how it has gone the past few months. I also contacted my State Sales Rep to at least ask about TM. Good idea!

[redsquirrel]

I am using the Earth and Space book. I also have the TM. I find the TM to be very, very helpful. It has the answers for the discussion questions (not that necessary, but nice) a tiny bit of scripting for some of the lessons, book suggestions for taking the lesson further, and answers for the experiments. The TM has a schedule for the experiments and the readings for every chapter. Not every reading has an experiment.

 

If you look on the CPO website for Earth and Space or Life Science or Physcal Science, it has "student record sheets'. Those are the experiments. What I did was just go through all the student record sheets and write down all the materials we needed for the experiments. I am sure I spent more than 50$ for Earth and Space. I got it all together and I have pulled it out as needed. Home Science Tools had everything we needed. I think there were a couple I couldn't pull off at home. In those cases, it was nice to have the TM. The TM has reproduced copies of the experiment sheets all filled in. That allowed my son to do the math necessary for the experiment.

 

I have my son read a subchapter (very clearly marked) and then we go over the questions at the end orally. At the beginning of the year I had him write the answers out, but that was just drudgery.

 

I do supplement with the occasional movie from Discovery Ed or Netflix documentary. I also print out the graphic organizers and have my son fill those out. Often I have him do those while we are discussing the chapter.

 

I didn't use life science in 5th grade so I don't know what that is like. I am hoping to use CPO physical science for 8th grade, but it presents some challenges. The lab material is not easy to come by. It requires some specialty equipment like a photogate that has some CPO specific functions. It is used quite often and to not have it would really cut into quite a lot of the experiments. I also really want the teacher's book, and it is hard to come by. I need to sit down and go through all the experiments and see if I can substitute any TOPS science stuff. Or, focus more on TOPS and see how to make the CPO text work for me.