Adventures with Atoms & Molecules? Or something new since WTM 2004e recommendations?

[Seasider]

Looking for "real" chemistry curriculum for an eager elementary scientist. Think actual lab equipment and experiments, perhaps a step beyond "household" chemistry, iykwim. DD wants test tubes, beakers, etc.

 

Can you share your thoughts on this curriculum, or suggest something that has come along since the last edition of WTM was published in 2004?

 

If you have used Adventures with Atoms & Molecules, would you please share a bit about how you used it and anything you did that helped make it successful?

 

Thanks!

[Dolphin]

We did book 1 of Adventures in our 3rd grade year. My husband really likes it, and he is a phd chemist in drug discovery. He is pretty fussy about the science we use. We also used her recommendation for physics last year.

 

We got our supplies from home science tools. We got this kit It was fun, and at the younger grades you don't want to teach them the wrong information, but the most important thing is for them to think science is fun, not hard or boring.

 

We got a real lab book. DS dictated to me, and then he drew pictures underneath of what he did. We kept it relaxed, I read through the chapter with him, we looked things up together, did the experiment and then the lab book. Easy peasy and chill.

 

Now this next year.....

[Haiku]

Looking for "real" chemistry curriculum for an eager elementary scientist. Think actual lab equipment and experiments, perhaps a step beyond "household" chemistry, iykwim. DD wants test tubes, beakers, etc.

 

 

Then do NOT go with Adventures with Atoms and Molecules. It is not lab chemistry. We used it for a few weeks and dumped it. The experiments are super-boring and the kids figured out very quickly that the answer to every question is yes, which means they lost interest in actually doing the experiments. There was no suspense.

 

Tara

[Staceyshoe]

Have you looked at Ellen McHenry's The Elements? Very kid-friendly but still excellent information about chemistry.

[FairProspects]

Have you looked at Ellen McHenry's The Elements? Very kid-friendly but still excellent information about chemistry.

 

This is based on cooking, right? That won't work at all for my ds with big-time food allergies.

 

Is there anything that is real chemistry that is not food-based?

[Forget-Me-Not]

We're using Elemental Science Chemistry this year, which uses Adventures with Atoms and Molecules and some other books. I didn't feel like AAM was nearly rigorous enough on it's own, and I was pleased to see that Elemental Science expands quite a bit beyond it.

[Dolphin]

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Edited July 29, 2012 by Northwest_Mama
taking out my own snark.

[Seasider]

Okay, thanks for all the replies, I am off to shop! Hope I can find some online sample pages, kicking myself for the umpteenth time for missing the local curriculum fair in the spring!

[2_girls_mommy]

We did 3rd grade chemistry as laid out in WTM, using AAM and the Usborne Science Encyclopedia and had a great year.

 

Yes, like a PP said, the obvious answer to each question is yes, but they learn a lot about chemistry as the experiments build on each other. My kids enjoyed the experiments a lot.

 

We did the full WTM science w/it. We did the experiment, wrote up a lab report, wrote out definitions, read the encyclopedia for more info, and dds looked up online links from the Usborne. Then they drew diagrams or wrote a summary of things they learned. We did a month long science fair project based on the things we were learning at home and learned a lot in depth on their chosen subjects with that. We checked out videos from the library and went to the science museum exhibits that applied to what we were learning as well.

 

It made for a great year and we all learned a lot. We didn't have official beakers for science class for that year, but we would have used them if we had them I am sure. We did have science aprons that we colored that had a picture of an atom on them!