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Science experiments for an 8 week co-op?


TKDmom
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I'm going to be teaching science at our co-op this winter and I need some ideas. I'm going to offer it to kids 8-12 yo, and I think I'd like to chemistry (or maybe physics. And I wouldn't be terribly opposed to biology if I had some good experiments :tongue_smilie:). Whichever subject I do, I'd like it to be one cohesive subject that can build on itself over the weeks. I'm just finishing up a term where I taught random science experiments to k-6 kids and it felt too scattered for me.

 

Do you have any ideas I could follow for a scope and sequence? The directors are leaving it totally up to me to decide the content of this class, and I hate making decisions like this. It needs to be experiment heavy. I don't have high hopes that parents would be doing any sort of homework with the kids between classes, and I don't want to spend our class time filling out worksheets or reading books.

 

What are some fun science units, experiments, or full curricula that you have used?

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I'm going to be teaching science at our co-op this winter and I need some ideas. I'm going to offer it to kids 8-12 yo, and I think I'd like to chemistry (or maybe physics. And I wouldn't be terribly opposed to biology if I had some good experiments :tongue_smilie:). Whichever subject I do, I'd like it to be one cohesive subject that can build on itself over the weeks. I'm just finishing up a term where I taught random science experiments to k-6 kids and it felt too scattered for me.

 

Do you have any ideas I could follow for a scope and sequence? The directors are leaving it totally up to me to decide the content of this class, and I hate making decisions like this. It needs to be experiment heavy. I don't have high hopes that parents would be doing any sort of homework with the kids between classes, and I don't want to spend our class time filling out worksheets or reading books.

 

What are some fun science units, experiments, or full curricula that you have used?

 

I would definitely try to find a topic to focus on. At our co-op we've done electricity, simple machines, structures, diversity of life (big focus on the cell, classification, using a microscope), human body, chemistry, etc.

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We use BFSU and I taught an afterschool science class for a couple of weeks last fall using the physics strand from that book. We talked about gravity, friction, inertia and momentum, heavy on the experiments. There isn't a chemistry-specific thread, though.

 

I used (and you might find useful) a different edition of this science experiment book to supplement with quickie demonstrations, including some that everybody could do.

 

Another woman did a class using owl pellets. Those were nice because (of course) every one has a skeleton (or two), but there would be a number of ways to make that part of an 8 week thing - food chains, skeletons and their adaptations, etc.

 

Have fun!

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Lots of experiments in the Janice VanCleave books. She was doing them with a group of kids at her church I think so I think they would go well in a group situation. For specifically chemistry, can you borrow someones Pre-Level 1 Real Science 4 Kids? We did that last year and it seemed to cover a great deal in a short time and my dd enjoyed the experiments.

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I'm also using BFSU in a co op situation (and at home). Even book 1, while it says K-2, has a lot of topics that are typically not covered until older grades. It's pretty easy to take what is in the lesson and use that as a jumping off point to find other activities or demonstrations. You can get the PDF or Kindle format of it pretty inexpensivly.

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I'm also using BFSU in a co op situation (and at home). Even book 1, while it says K-2, has a lot of topics that are typically not covered until older grades. It's pretty easy to take what is in the lesson and use that as a jumping off point to find other activities or demonstrations. You can get the PDF or Kindle format of it pretty inexpensivly.

 

Your Pinterest board is what gave me a lot of ideas for the science class I'm just finishing up. It also pushed me to try BFSU again and I got all three volumes on my iPad. :)

 

I have yet to open them up and read them though. :tongue_smilie:

Edited by bonniebeth4
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The Ellen McHenry courses are designed to be used in the situation you have with the age children you have so it should be a good fit. And it is not too expensive.

 

I sat down during dc's TKD class night and read the sample chapters. I think I'm in love. :001_wub: I could see just how well it would work for me to paraphrase the text to the class and work through some of the activities with them. I only have an hour a week with the kids (rather than the 3 hours she suggested), but I bought the full book to see if it would work for me. Even if I don't use it for the co-op, I'm going to do this unit with my kids.

Edited by bonniebeth4
Un-correcting autocorrect
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Lots of experiments in the Janice VanCleave books. She was doing them with a group of kids at her church I think so I think they would go well in a group situation. For specifically chemistry, can you borrow someones Pre-Level 1 Real Science 4 Kids? We did that last year and it seemed to cover a great deal in a short time and my dd enjoyed the experiments.

 

You know, I've used part of RS4K before. I think I still have the student workbooks on my computer. I hadn't thought to look at those for ideas.

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We're doing Backyard Ballistics and it's been a blast... (think this is the name of the book, too :))

 

:D it sounds like fun, but I wonder if the directors would be happy having me doing ballistics. I'll have to look up the book for my dh. He has fun doing that kind of stuff with the kids.

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I ran a science co-op for 4 years and wrote all my own labs. If I was going to do it again, I would use GEMS guides. I didn't know about them at the time!

 

Have you used any of them at home? I'm overwhelmed by the selection. I reserved the few that my library has to look them over. It looks like doing a GEMS unit would severely limit our scope, but give us a chance to really get into one or two topics in depth.

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