Good science curriculum?

[PeacefulChaos]

I have a question about science.

I know that science can be a difficult thing to recommend, curriculum wise, because there are such varying views of what is truth and what isn't, and I have NO desire to get into any of that here. I'm just curious about what is out there that you have liked, and why, etc. :)

 

Here's our background:

We did exactly what WTM suggested for science last year (one in 2nd and one in K/1st, but we did the first year cycle of animals/human body/plants for science) and I just felt like we weren't doing anything. So I decided that this year I wanted to try an actual curriculum instead.

We are doing Apologia Astronomy --- and I don't like it. :glare: We'll finish it up (the plan is to do one lesson every 2 weeks, which I think will take us through most of the year) but I'm kind of like :rolleyes: about it... the text is kind of boring (but that may be the case with all science curriculum, Idk) but more than anything I get annoyed because I don't find it necessary to include scripture verses in the notebooks for the kids to copy (actually, I find the notebooks to be rather pointless in general - most of the stuff just seems like busywork to me), nor do I find it necessary to be reminded multiple times in the text, 'Isn't God awesome? God made the universe so that... (blah blah blah)'

I'm a conservative Christian and in general my beliefs seem to line up with those of the curriculum - however, I don't see the need for a science curriculum to be so overly Christian-y. I know that sounds awful, but does anyone else find that annoying?

Anyway, so I'm trying to decide what we'll do next year for Chemistry and I obviously have no plans to use Apologia again. Not to mention all the rest of the years of science ahead of us... sigh.

Recommend away!!!

[Julie Smith]

Mr. Q science

 

The first book, life science is free. :)

 

http://www.eequalsmcq.com/

 

And for the audio version of the book

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=318441

Edited August 22, 2012 by Julie Smith

[MrsBanjoClown]

We are also Christians, but I won't use Apologia for that very reason. We are using BFSU, and I love it. I will preface this by saying that I am a former science teacher with a degree in Bio/Psych. It takes a little teacher prep in that you read the lesson beforehand, but he gives you a lot of ideas as to how to present the lesson. We do one lesson/week and some of the lessons will take 2 weeks. I just read ahead and see how I should plan it. This week's lesson is on organizing living things into the plant and animal kingdoms. Today was such a pretty day, we took the lesson outside. I had made cards using index cards with the names of different plants and animals. I used sidewalk chalk to write "Plant Kingdom" and "Animal Kingdom" on the patio, and divided the cards up between the two boys. Then I let them read the cards and put them into the correct category. It is teacher-intensive in that there is a lot of discussion, but there is no busywork. He also gives examples of books you can check out from the library or buy that go along with each topic. Some of them I read to the boys and others I put in their book basket for free reading time. We do science 2 days a week for about 20-30 minutes (sometimes longer depending on the lesson).

[JoyceTWTM]

We used a lot of library books.

[NittanyJen]

For Chemistry, we loved NOEO. The books that come with it are loaded with experiments (the YSC kits are a minor number of the experiments) that are fun and relevant. I replaced the geology unit at the end with the rock and mineral unit study units from The Happy Scientist.

 

The experiments in the boos are easy to supply. Have a lot of vinegar, baking soda, and food coloring on hand ;)

[PeacefulChaos]

Bumping :)

[PeacefulChaos]

Any more, anyone?

[redquilthorse]

We just started Noeo Chemistry (the intermediate level one) for my 9 and 7 year olds who love science. We really like it. The reading level is maybe upper elementary, but the experiments are not difficult or complicated (so far). The readings are not long, either. My 7 year old probably doesn't digest as much as my older son, but he is hanging on with the reading. He likes the experiments, mostly.

 

We also used Bob Jones for science for the last 2 years. It's a decent science program. I picked the grade level that was in between my two school aged kids and they did it together. We switched this year because my son asked to do Chemistry, and BJU elementary books don't focus on one area of science at a time. They dabble in multiple areas of science each year.

 

We did Apologia Botany with a co-op a few summers ago and found it too dry, so I understand.

[hsbaby]

I JUST wrote a post praising REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry! We are loving it....especially after using Apologia which we also thought was dry and boring:)

[Tracy]

I am also Christian, but I feel the same way you do about science. We are using BFSU and are very happy with it.

[SunnyDays]

We decided against a different program for the same reasons. There are some things that need deeper explanation than, "... and God created them that way." :) (I don't disagree, I firmly believe in a Creator... but that isn't science.)

 

We are going to use Mr. Q this year, the Life Science and the Earth Science/Astronomy. We'll follow up with library books, videos, and more on topics where he wants to go deeper.

[PRTGSw2K]

We started using Apologia Zoo3, and I just packed it away last week for the same reason. I'll hold onto it until next yr and see if he likes it better then.

 

I've decided to just use Magic Schoolbus videos/books and library books related to the videos. He's only in 1st, and I want science to be FUN.

[Emagine]

So happy to see the comments about Apologia. While we enjoy the Astronomy my kids are bored with the text. Now I do it 2 days a week, weed out some of the bulk and get down to it. We have the other books, but I do not know. My kids are just not into this but love Science otherwise. We do tons of the TV shows, DVDs, 4H has Eco Bots and other things. I think this year I will wing it while I research more.

[ErinE]

Have you looked at Elemental Science? We are doing Physics this year and I've been pleased with the results thus far. Essentially it gives you a list of books and a reading schedule with corresponding activities. The materials required haven't been too hard to gather and I made adjustments when I didn't have the items. There are two schedules: 2-days and 4-days.

 

I purchased the teacher's text and the student workbook, but I don't use the notebooking pages in the workbook. The kids do all their work in composition books. We read the day's assignment, the kids narrate (oldest writes his own), and then we do the experiment with the kids writing or narrating a summary. I've found it's very WTM-style without any planning required.

[Emagine]

I googled Elemental Science. It mentions different things like lapbooks etc.. is this it?

 

www.elementalscience.com/index.html

 

It is confusing at first to glance at lol.

[Hunter]

I only started this a couple months ago, but I really like Evan-Moor Daily Science. It's like BFSU in workbook form. It focuses on big ideas and then uses weekly silly questions to use concrete things to illustrate the big idea.

 

We don't do the workbook pages. We just do them orally and then do copywork and art. I also flip through the pages and drill information from past pages over and over.

 

It's very easy to supplement the concrete topic, if you want to do more science. But I never feel an overwhelming need to flesh out the concrete topic as I know it's not the priority. As long as the big ideas are being mastered, I know it's enough.

 

I find the series very flexible to work with, and the big ideas are important enough and quick enough to cover that I never feel so overwhelmed that I want to skip the lesson. I really need curricula that works equally well, when I am sick and when I am healthy, as I bounce back and forth, and can get VERY frustrated when I have too much or too little to do.

 

Some people would be very disappointed in these workbooks, thinking it's not "real" science. Not enough experiments and not rigorous enough. What I like is that the student is LEARNING "big ideas" and that it is flexible for me to use. But beware, there are those that will find it cheesy and incomplete.

[Beth78]

I have both my girls (4th &7th) doing the Creek Edge Press earth and space task cards for science. I like that I can adjust work for each kid and pick what I want for the main spine encyclopedia, books and videos. For the Video subjects they suggest I pick Beakmans world so they have a easy to do "lab". It hasnt mentioned religion at all so Im still free to teach what I want there too.

[mumto2]

We really enjoyed Ellen McHenry's Chemistry courses.

[grantmeawish]

THis is my first year homeschooling my 2nd grader. We are 6 weeks in and started with Apologia botany. I really liked it but my son was bored to tears. I found Mr. Q science and the first year is free. We have only done it a couple weeks, but my son is enjoying it. Its worth looking at. I am saving the Apologia texbooks and hoping we come back to them when my kids are older.

[Julie Smith]

THis is my first year homeschooling my 2nd grader. We are 6 weeks in and started with Apologia botany. I really liked it but my son was bored to tears. I found Mr. Q science and the first year is free. We have only done it a couple weeks, but my son is enjoying it. Its worth looking at. I am saving the Apologia texbooks and hoping we come back to them when my kids are older.

 

If you don't already know, you can download the audio version of Mr. Q life science from here:

 

http://www.traximages.ca/~inge/mrq/

[ErinE]

I googled Elemental Science. It mentions different things like lapbooks etc.. is this it?

 

www.elementalscience.com/index.html

 

It is confusing at first to glance at lol.

 

No lapbooks here! My kids can't stand them.

 

I'll speak to the Physics curriculum. Essentially, the teacher's workbook is a week-by-week schedule of readings, definitions, experiments, and projects. There are two assigned biographies although I'm adding a third scientist at the end. The student workbook has notebook pages, but I opted to use a composition notebook. I divided the notebook into sections: definitions, summaries, experiments, projects, and biographies. For my youngest, I do all the writing while my eldest writes on his own. They also draw pictures.

 

Things I like: the formatting makes printing easy, the materials really are mostly things around the home (and easily adaptable if the items aren't available), and it tells me exactly what to do.

 

It's not perfect, but I've found it adaptable and easy to use once I printed the weekly schedules. I keep the materials list in my planner and throw items in a science bin rather than recycling if needed.