Science Woes

[moonlight]

I need help!

 

I'm going to try to give details. I'm hoping it clears up the mess in my own head. 

 

I have a 10 year old that loves science. He especially loves Chemistry. We have done Ellen McHenrys The Elements. I'm wondering when he could do Carbon Chemistry?  It seems to me that DS will end up with a STEM major and career.

 

I'm looking for science for him for next year. I want it to cover Bio, Chem, and Physics and possibly Earth Science and Astronomy. We tried Life of Fred Physics and it didn't seem to be working for him even though he loves the math books. One of the most important considerations be that it be secular.

 

I am willing to pull it all together with different curricula. I just don't know where to start. I have a toddler so I want to design something that is completely hands off for me so that it can get done. I don't want him to wait around for me.  I do all my planning at night while the little one sleeps and I have a 6 year old that needs a lot at this stage.

 

I live in the UAE. No libraries here, but money isn't really a problem since we have a generous education allowance. I have already built up a good library and can add more to it. Living books appeal to him. He loves to read. I think some documentaries would be fun for him too.

 

I want to do Science twice a week for about an hour and then do one afternoon of a hands on project or science kit.

 

I think in terms of output I don't necessarily want much. Maybe something to add to memory work, but I am thinking of adding Lyrical Life Science to coordinate with the topic we are currently studying. And a science fair project.

 

I think at this point, I want science to cover a wide variety of topics. The following summer, I want to take the topics that sparked an interest and take them deeper. I think I definitely need help figuring out what topics to go into and then find books from there. 

 

Some topics I am thinking of:

 

DNA

 

Genetics and how evolution has played a role in it 

 

Human Body systems

 

Zoology 

 

Astronomy since we have a great telescope

 

Natural Disasters

 

Learn to use a microscope. Maybe do a unit on "The World in a drop of Water."

 

McHenry's Carbon Chemistry 

 

Electricity with snap circuits

 

Does anyone know how I can pull something like this together into something workable? Any advice, ideas, curriculum, projects?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Mom4coupons]

:listening:

 

[dereksurfs]

Take a look at these free texts covering Life, Earth and Physical Sciences if you haven't already: http://forums.welltr...-workbooks-pdf/

 

You could always use a quality Science textbook in combo with the other things you have in mind like McHenry's Carbon Chemistry and Snap Circuits.

[moonlight]

I'd also like to add that I would like to do short investigations/explorations throughout the year since this would be our first year adding something like that in. DS is doing a science fair project in which he tested how effective different cleaning products were on bacteria. He didn't come up with the idea though, but has done daily observations.His hypothesis was correct, but found that he might have introduced new bacteria in one of the petri dishes.

[Lily_Grace]

Perhaps try Intellego? They do unit studies, mostly computer based but with hands on investigations you can complete as well.

[moonlight]

Thanks..I think I looked at Intellego at one point, bit not sure what came of my search.

 

I'm going to add this since this is serving as a record of my own thoughts.

 

We have the desert and ocean here. Maybe some sort of study of the environment here.

 

Here in Abu Dhabi, we have had cloud seeding which creates (artificial) rain. As a result of that we saw more rain in a week than we have seen in the last 3 1/2 years we have been here. Some sort of project involving that would be very cool. Study weather and patterns.

[Mandy in TN]

Lyrical Life Science is Christian. I can't remember any specifics, but it is definitely Christian.

 

Glencoe publishes an integrated science series for middle school. It looks like Glencoe Red may cover most of those topics. Here is the ToC: http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=HARDCOVER:USED:9780078600494:35.00#table_of_contents Also, if you google Glencoe Red Science there is a good amount of support materials available free online.

 

We will be using Paul Hewitt's Conceptual Physical Science (his jr high text) next year and it covers some physics, some chemistry, and some earth and space science. It doesn't cover biology topics, but the short investigations you add in could be the biology topics.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[dbmamaz]

two thoughts - The Jason Project, which can be done completely on line and with a downloadable text; ck12 flexbooks, free on line - you can sign up as a teacher to get access to the teachers guides

 

Jason Project technically is middle school, but if your son is so big on science, that might work. Oh, theymight have renamed themselves Jason Learning?

 

oh, and someone suggested this, but i havent looked at it yet http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2012/mastering-scientific-mumbo-jumbo/

[Walking-Iris]

Thanks..I think I looked at Intellego at one point, bit not sure what came of my search.

 

I'm going to add this since this is serving as a record of my own thoughts.

 

We have the desert and ocean here. Maybe some sort of study of the environment here.

 

Here in Abu Dhabi, we have had cloud seeding which creates (artificial) rain. As a result of that we saw more rain in a week than we have seen in the last 3 1/2 years we have been here. Some sort of project involving that would be very cool. Study weather and patterns.

 

 

Finally someone who admits it. Now if Americans could just stop screaming "conspiracy theory " every time someone says they do the same here and realize that it is happening. Is your government and media open about the program? Here ours does everything to deny they even do it.

 

If you find anything that admits and details this field of science or any weather related thing that takes it into account please let me know. I'm stressing teaching my kid about weather and clouds when they are so obviously changed by man made methods. It has to be talked about.

[moonlight]

I found a couple of books on Amazon that seem to talk about cloud seeding, but I'll have to order them before I know how accessible they are for kids. If you do a google search, you can read all about the cloud seeding in the UAE!

[moonlight]

I read a Wikipedia entry about cloud seeding this morning and it was quite eye opening about how prevalent it is.

[Bocky]

Have you looked at Pandia Press Real Science Odyssey Level 2? It is just out, so we haven't done it yet, but I liked their Chemistry a lot. It is secular. It covers your life science topics, including learning to use a microscope. The Units are: 1 Organisms, 2 Cells, 3 Genetics, 4 Anatomy and Physiology, 5 Evolution, 6 Ecology, 7 Classification.

[kiwik]

Talking of cloud seeding does anybody remember the books about child science detectives ? They were around in the seventies so then and earlier for publishing - there was one story about cloud seeding and I remember one about a woman who got 2 kittens each year and killed them when they weren't little cute kittens any more. I had forgotten about them but they were quite good.

[TarynB]

 

Finally someone who admits it. Now if Americans could just stop screaming "conspiracy theory " every time someone says they do the same here and realize that it is happening. Is your government and media open about the program? Here ours does everything to deny they even do it.

 

If you find anything that admits and details this field of science or any weather related thing that takes it into account please let me know. I'm stressing teaching my kid about weather and clouds when they are so obviously changed by man made methods. It has to be talked about.

 

Sorry OP, off-topic:

 

US mainstream media does report on cloud seeding and it is discussed where I live. Here's an ABC news article from last fall about it here in Texas: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/cloud-seeders-make-rain-drought-stricken-texas/story?id=17321980#.UZBEzcq2mKI

[lewelma]

Sorry I took so long to respond! I am swamped with science fair woes!

 

I'm looking for science for him for next year. I want it to cover Bio, Chem, and Physics and possibly Earth Science and Astronomy.

Do you want to do all of these topics next year?

 

I want to do Science twice a week for about an hour and then do one afternoon of a hands on project or science kit.

Are you going to be involved in the hands-on afternoon?

 

Some topics I am thinking of:

DNA

Genetics and how evolution has played a role in it

Human Body systems

Zoology

Astronomy since we have a great telescope

Natural Disasters

Learn to use a microscope. Maybe do a unit on "The World in a drop of Water."

McHenry's Carbon Chemistry

Electricity with snap circuits

Seems like you have quite a few ideas already. Personally, I like to organize by time to keep me motivated. So 1 topic per term or 1 topic per month. Do you have a way you like to organize things, because that will inform how many topics you can cover and how you will schedule them.

 

So here are a few questions:

 

1) Do you want him to read and watch documentaries and then do a hands on afternoon? If so you have already organized your schedule.

 

2) Do you already have the books you need for the topics you list above or are you looking for recommendations?

 

3) You say no output, but does your ds *want* to show off his knowledge with a presentation or poster? Does he like to draw molecules, things he sees under a microscope or diagrams of the human heart? Some kids really like this kind of stuff in moderation because it allows them to share what they have learned.

 

4) For the hands on afternoon, do you need kits or are you going to pull it all together yourself?

 

5) For the science investigation, will you be able to help with this? Do you plan to do it over the summer when you choose 1 topic to go into more depth?

 

6) Do you have access to the internet? or will you have to buy all the docos you need? There is quite a bit on youtube that is worth watching which is why I ask.

 

7) Do you want him to do some research of his own interests on the internet? or is this more about reading books that you have found? (which is fine)

 

8) How do you plan to check that he understands what he is learning?

 

 

A few last points:

 

My understanding is that a 10 year old who has already done Elements, could handle Carbon Chemistry.

 

As for pulling it all together, you are just doing a survey of science. This is quite common and not a problem.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Hunter]

One mistake I have learned over my decades of teaching, is that I often think I need to teach everything every year, and use the same program/methods every year. I think I need to space the subjects out evenly. I tend to try and do some things too prematurely.

 

Students/children develop, and they are able to tackle some things so much better as they mature and have better 3R skills. It's okay to stick to the science that a student has mastered the 3R skills so far, to take the majority of responsibility himself.

 

I have come to the realization that it is not negligent to let a student observe and record at their current 3R level, and social ability to access what they can easily observe and record. Bigger and better can often wait. It can wait until they are socially capable of pursuing opportunities on their own.

 

We've all seem The Karate Kid and how washing cars prepared the student for when the actual martial arts training began.

 

All of Art Robinson's children pursued STEM careers and none of them took formal science until mid high school age.

 

Are you and your son reading biographies of scientists? They are full of ideas of activities that a child can do in a child's environment. Jane Goodall watched chickens as little girl and then applied some of that to later watching chimpanzees. What is abundant in YOUR area? Not just the exciting, but the everyday? E. O. Wilson studied ants.

 

I had a little one that was highly/profoundly gifted and looked like he was headed for a STEM career. I stressed so badly. I wore myself out over details. My advice is to pull back; focus on character development; focus on the 3Rs; provide books, books and more books; and use what you HAVE readily available until he develops enough skills and social maturity to make some contacts with interesting people and things to study. You don't need to filter down high-school level activities down to now. IF his interest in hand-on science continues, rather than narrowing down into just math/computers or fizzling out altogether, a well read student with good character and enthusiasm and excellent 3R skills can make up for a LOT of lost time, just like a well trained car washer can learn martial arts faster. Yes, I know it's a silly dramatized movie, but you know what I mean.

[momacacia]

I'm not saying the OP should go this route---feed your kid's interest---but Hunter has a great point. I know a Chemistry PhD (he actually works in corporate and people management now, but a really smart, interesting guy) and I asked him what should I do with an 8 year old who loves science. His response was something like this: "you mean in addition to just pointing out the wonder of the world? Well, you let them flunk this, door poorly in science that, do poorly in academic this, then they finally get their act together in college and end up in the sciences. BUT they can't be bad at math. They gotta do math."

 

Interesting, I thought. His life experience anyway, and helps me stress the fundamentals and not stress over the icing, but to just develop love and interest of the icing for now.

[moonlight]

Sorry I took so long to respond! I am swamped with science fair woes!

 

 

Do you want to do all of these topics next year?

 

Ideally, I would like to...maybe the sub topics I mentioned and astronomy and a weather study here. That might have to be a more extended study. Something similar to what you do, but I would really have to spend time figuring it out. Also, a study of birds would be good. I think I have to narrow it down to one topic a month though.

 

 

Are you going to be involved in the hands-on afternoon?

 

For the most part, I should be more available. Having a toddler around makes it difficult.

 

Seems like you have quite a few ideas already. Personally, I like to organize by time to keep me motivated. So 1 topic per term or 1 topic per month. Do you have a way you like to organize things, because that will inform how many topics you can cover and how you will schedule them.

 

So here are a few questions:

 

1) Do you want him to read and watch documentaries and then do a hands on afternoon? If so you have already organized your schedule.

 

I think that would work-reading and documentaries and then the hands on afternoon.

 

2) Do you already have the books you need for the topics you list above or are you looking for recommendations?

 

I definitely need book recommendations so I can buy them ahead of time.

 

3) You say no output, but does your ds *want* to show off his knowledge with a presentation or poster? Does he like to draw molecules, things he sees under a microscope or diagrams of the human heart? Some kids really like this kind of stuff in moderation because it allows them to share what they have learned.

 

He's not big into output, but wouldn't mind it a bit. I think a little output would be fine. Things like drawing a human heart and then that can go into memory work for review..

 

4) For the hands on afternoon, do you need kits or are you going to pull it all together yourself?

 

I would definitely prefer kits.

 

5) For the science investigation, will you be able to help with this? Do you plan to do it over the summer when you choose 1 topic to go into more depth?

 

I think I'll have to help with this. I want to do some smaller investigations and observations during the school year and something more detailed over the summer.

 

6) Do you have access to the internet? or will you have to buy all the docos you need? There is quite a bit on youtube that is worth watching which is why I ask.

 

I have access to the Internet and can watch some stuff online. I prefer documentaries i can buy so we can watch them without Internet issues.

 

7) Do you want him to do some research of his own interests on the internet? or is this more about reading books that you have found? (which is fine)

 

For the most part, reading books I have found for content build up. I don't mind him doing some Internet research of his own if needed, especially if he gets more interested in a topic that we don't have enough books/ info on.

 

8) How do you plan to check that he understands what he is learning?

 

Don't know. Maybe with the memory work stuff and through the smaller projects? But I really don't know what my goal is here. I think I'll have to think about it some more.

 

A few last points:

 

My understanding is that a 10 year old who has already done Elements, could handle Carbon Chemistry.

 

As for pulling it all together, you are just doing a survey of science. This is quite common and not a problem.

 

Ruth in NZ

[moonlight]

I would like to add that I am not overly stressed about science, but I would like to give him more of what he enjoys. I'm only committing 3 days a week to science so that we can have enou time for other subjects.

 

Math is big around here. It's hard not to since DH has a PhD in Math and is a Math Professor! He constantly encounters math students who should "know better" so we need to make sure ours does!! :-)

[lewelma]

Ok, I've finished a plan. Please adapt it as you see fit!

 

Goals

Content. survey multiple fields of science by covering a few in depth topics

Skills. Improve: Reading skills, Microscope and telescope skills, Presentation skills, Memory skills, independence

 

Annual Schedule – 9 months

Months 1-4) Biology: Genetics, Human body, zoology, microbiology. (1 each month)

Months 5-6) Chemistry: organic chemistry (not sure if this will take 3 months)

Month 7) Physics: Electricity

Month 8) Earth Science: Natural Disasters

Month 9) Astronomy (this needs to go during your darkest month)

 

Weekly Schedule

Day 1: Read 1 hour

Day 2: Read 30 minutes, work on presentation

Day 3: Work on hands-on kits

Day 4: Documentary

 

Output

Presentation once per month on topic under study. You may want to spend some of your Language Arts time teaching him how to make a presentation. Organize thoughts, make note cards, oral speaking tips etc.

 

Assessment: Use the questions he asks you thoughout the week to evaluate his understanding. Observe his hands-on skills and teach as required. Evaluate his presentations informally.

 

Resources – It is very difficult for me to suggest resources because it really depends on your ds's reading skills. I will share what we have used, but many of my resources took us longer than a month to read. I would suggest that you start very targeted threads asking for book ideas for each topic:

 

Books:

Genetics: The Cartoon Guide to genetics; The stuff of life; (these may be too hard)

Human body: The Way We Work

zoology:

microbiology

Chemistry: organic chemistry

Electricity

Natural Disasters: Eyewitness Earth http://www.amazon.co....0729126&sr=1-1

(this is not natural disaster specific, more earth science in general)

Astronomy : The Way the Universe Works http://www.amazon.co....0729156&sr=1-1

 

Documentaries

Genetics:

Human body:

Zoology: David Attenborough has lots and lots of videos

Microbiology:

Chemistry: BBC Chemistry: A volitile history. The periodic table of videos online. Numerous Modern Marvels on Chemistry topics

Electricity. There are some Modern Marvels on Electricity topics

Natural Disasters: BBC Planet Earth

Astronomy: BBC Planets,

 

Hands on. I'm not great at kits, but here are some ideas

Genetics: I would suggest that he does a genetic map of your family tracking a couple of traits as far back as he can. Hemophilia in the royal family – you can find a lot of info online.

Human body: measured heart rate and lung capacity

zoology: Owl pellet dissection, fish dissection, bird observations, zoo?

Microbiology: Microscope

Chemistry: I think there are activities in the Carbon Chemistry, you will have to check. I used RS4K's lab book which has the standard labs of testing pH with purple cabbage, making silly putty, making solutions vs suspensions, etc.

Electricity: Snap circuits

Natural Disasters. I'm a bit stumped on hands on activities for this one. But perhaps he could focus more widely on earth science. My kids: studied weather maps, observed fronts, identified clouds, joined local geology club, collected and categorized rocks, and went on field trips to see road cuts

Astronomy: Telescope observed the night sky and moon cycles,

 

Ok, that's it for me. I am sure that others can fill in the gaps that I have left.

HTH,

Ruth in NZ

[moonlight]

Thank you so much for your help Ruth! It's a lot to think about, but now I have a working plan that I can tweak.

 

I especially love the idea of tracking genetic history...DH and I both have asthma and eczema in our families. It should e fun for DS to try to figure out...

[cschnee]

You might like The Story of Science by Joy Hakim (3 volumes). It is great with the Student Quest books and you can add related docs and more experiments from Adaptive Curriculum.