Janice VanCleave Science Books? Anyone use them?

[acsnmama]

We got a Janice VanCleave book about Volcanoes from the library, and it looks great. 20 lessons/experiments which I think would be awesome. My son learns so much through short lessons and experiments, plus this would give opportunity to do monthly studies.

 

I just was wondering if anyone else has used these books, and how you like them?

[serendipitous journey]

I actually don't like them, really, for teaching science ideas; but they can be fun activities. For easy-to-use books with projects that give kids a good intuition for science, my favorite is this series. It is designed for a teacher with little money to spend, and uses very common supplies mostly -- you can just flip through and do something. Button likes it, too!

 

Hands on Earth Science Activities for K-6

Hands-on Physical Science Activities for K-6 (physics)

Hands-on Life Science Activities for K-6

 

I've linked you to the current, 2nd edition; my copies are from the first editions. The new ones look, to me, like an improvement; but if price is an issue, you could search for the first editions and get them used. They are certainly excellent resources.

[acsnmama]

Thank you!

[Farrar]

They're okay. I like that they have a scope and sequence to them. If you went through them, then you could presumably hit a lot of basic concepts and they do increase in complexity and take many topics further. However, they're straight up demo experiments pretty much every time. Try this, see this. That definitely has a purpose in science, but it's not very dynamic - not as fun as getting something that you can really play around with or test. And sometimes the materials for the payoff really isn't worth it in her experiments. I remember we did a bunch of them from the chemistry book and most of them required that I go get something (citric acid, steel wool... stuff that's not terribly hard to find, but not stuff you just have around...) and then the demo lasts a minute. And in some cases, the connection to the big ideas that I'd like to illustrate is tenuous. When we're studying something, I tend to use them as a jump start and pick and choose a few things that I think will work for us.

 

For younger kids, especially K-2nd or 3rd, I think the Neil Ardley series is better - here's an example of one of them - they're OOP but most of them are cheap and many libraries have them. They're thinner, but they have appealing pictures (though of a very late 80's look), use simpler materials, and many of them give the kid something to play around with at the end - a sort of little science toy, or they create things that are just more fun to mess around with. Not in every case - these are mostly demo type things too, I just think they're better for younger kids.

 

For a deeper look at things, I really like the Boston Children's Museum Activity Books. They're OOP, but easy find. They require a LOT of set up, but in this case, the pay off is HUGE. They're intended for middle school, but many of the activities can be appreciated by younger kids. However, they really only cover physics concepts - no earth science or biology - though there is a baking chemistry one.

[Esse Quam Videri]

We use JVC Earth Science with ES and we've had many experiments that were flops. It's nice that they use everyday household materials, but I have found very little value in the experiments we've done. Maybe that has to do with it being Earth Science, though, and not necessarily a JVC thing.

[MooCow]

Our Classical Conversations co-op uses them. The kids seem to enjoy them; our tutor is amazing

and could make anything fun though....

[mumto2]

We did pretty much all of her Lets Play and Find out about series when my dc's were little. I just added a few other library picture type books and we had great science. We enjoyed them.

 

I own several of the older ones that I bought used. I do use them. I admit mainly for group situations where we need a presentation idea or to entertain little ones when needed. Great ideas and some things do require easy stuff that I have on hand.

 

If you can get them from your library I would.