God's Design for Science series

[socody]

I have seen a lot of science posts lately, but I wanted to add my own-- does anyone have any opinions on the God's Design For... Science series? I like that it can be used with 1st through 8th graders and I like that it is decidedly Christian, but it doesn't look like it includes a lot of experiments or memorization?

[hollyhock]

I guess that depends on your definition of experiment. There is some type of experiment or activity with each lesson. Occasionally it's just a worksheet but most of the time it's something to do. For example, today we read the lesson about the composition of sea water in the oceans. The activity is to dissolve a whole pile of salt into water, then paint a picture with it on dark paper. Once it dries, the salt is left behind, demonstrating how the water in the ocean evaporates and leaves the salt behind.

 

For memorization, I'm not quite sure what you are wanting to memorize, but there is a small list of vocabulary words at the beginning of each lesson.

 

We like GD science here. We've done the Life series and now we're just finishing up Heaven & Earth. It's not the most exciting thing out there, but I love combining my kids, we really like the activities and it gets science done.

[SilverMoon]

 

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Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon

[Hunter]

It's dry and exacting. If you are using other dry and exacting books for math and grammar, it will be too much of the same thing. The student will be likely to start pacing themselves and slow down with everything.

 

I found that when I slacked off of science and social studies textbooks, my son's scores in math and grammar were higher, and surprisingly even their science and social studies were too.

 

Less is more, when it comes to science and social studies.

 

I have a couple of the series on the book case and love them for reference and hope some day to buy the whole collection. I just would think twice, 3 times, 4 times before assigning lesson after lesson after lesson from these books.

 

I like these books. I like these books a LOT. I just don't like USING these books :-)

Edited April 26, 2012 by Hunter

[alisoncooks]

Well --not to jump in on the OP's thread-- but those that did not care for the God's Design series...what did you end up using?

[GalmiBorn]

We have used Water/Weather and then Plants, and now Animals. (Yes, I know it's out of order). The kids enjoyed it but we only used it as a starting point then used library books to add. Right now, with animals, we are reading, making a notebook page and enjoying Old Mother West Wind stories and Nature Readers. Its simple and gets DONE! My kids are K, 2nd and 3rd.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Well --not to jump in on the OP's thread-- but those that did not care for the God's Design series...what did you end up using?

 

Apologia Elementary series. I also like RSO chemistry, which grandpa is the teacher for. We have done Apologia astronomy, Zoo 1, Human Body (@co-op), botany, and now are doing Zoo 2. I think it is perfect for a 4 or five year rotation. I read aloud to both boys and they take some notes. We do some experiments. Since the co-op uses these, sometimes I don't do much experiment because the co op teacher does several of them at a time. My older even dissected a fetal pig with 3 other kids at the end of human body class last year when he was 8!

We are really enjoying Zoo 2 now. They ask for it every day.

By the way, God's Design looks too dry and boring. I can't imagine using it.

[Guest]

We used God's Design for Life this year and enjoyed it. My kids were 4 & 6 for the majority of the year and it held their interest. We did some of the activities, but mostly just read. It got done and they actually did learn a lot. I don't feel it has enough content for older elementary/jr. high. Although we enjoyed it this year, next year we are going to use Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space and/or Apologia Astronomy. I have them both and haven't quite decided if we are going to use one or both.

[Hunter]

My kids were 4 & 6 for the majority of the year and it held their interest. We did some of the activities, but mostly just read.

 

Reading my own post and then reading your post got me thinking. I don't think there is anything at all wrong with the books. I think the only thing wrong was the way I was USING them.

 

When I look at the books I am always drawn to them. I read them with great interest, when I use them as a resource. I only get into trouble when I start using the comprehension questions.

 

Recently I was using Rod and Staff Grade 4 Geography and it make an awesome read aloud. I think I need to just start buying certain textbooks without the TM, so I won't be tempted to use them in a way that doesn't work for me.

[RootAnn]

We tried to use the OLD (original) version of God's Design for Chemistry.

 

Completely dry & boring. I almost fell asleep reading it on science afternoons. The kids mostly liked the experiments but got basically nothing out of them.

 

They were both on the young side for that particular one (recommended 3rd - 7th), but they ironically both ended up with the same amount of (non-) understanding.

 

Best quote for the year was when the younger was answering a question about the three states of matter: "solid, liquid, and gratitude."

[Paintedlady]

Here's a link to a post I wrote earlier today.