Have you tried Critical Thinking Co.'s Science Detective Software?

[umsami]

Or... the Developing Critical Thinking through Science?

 

If so, what did you think?

 

TIA :)

[redsquirrel]

I haven't seen the Science Detective software or the books, but I have used Reading Detective. They are for the same purpose, to improve reading comprehension. They are fine, if a bit tedious. I am having my 8th grade son do one exercise from Reading Detective per week. The series gives you a reading passage and then asks questions. Every sentence in the passage is numbered. The reader answers the questions and has to give the number of the sentence that supports the answer.

 

The "Reading Detective' series are divided in half between fiction and non-fiction reading. In Science Detective the reading is all drawn from elementary age science material. Again, it is fine to work on the skill of attending to reading, but I am not sure it is a great tactic for science education. I was going to get either book, but came upon Reading Detective first, so I went with that.

 

I own both volumes of "Developing Critical Thinking Through Science" but have never really used them. They were passed on to me by another homeschooling mom. She suggested them for elementary ages science. I keep thinking they should be great, but they just look really, really simple. That was part of what the mom who gave them to me liked about them. She said she kept them around for times when life was hectic and science wasn't getting done, or when she had no money to spend on science. That can be a good thing!

 

Volume one has stuff like holding a mirror over a steaming kettle to show condensation and then some discussion questions about it. It also has the old put a paper towel in a cup and put the cup open side down into water and the towel doesn't get wet. So, I would put it at a pre-school to maybe 1st grade level, frankly. It is scripted, and that can be a big help as well. Now, I think it would be a really fun pre-school science program, but tedious for a bright second grader.

 

Volume two is thicker and covers more ground. It might be good for a later elementary age. Again, it uses very simple materials from around the house and that can be very good! It calls for stuff like straws and cotton balls, food colouring and index cards.

 

They are both scripted and the student is supposed to really think about the answers. However, often it seems to be just a bit obvious. That said, if you have a hard time getting science done and you can gather the materials it could be great. For the price and for what they say about it at Critical Thinking Press I would expect more. I think the issue for me is more that they overestimate the age range. Volume 1 they say is for grades 1-3 and volume 2 is for grades 4-8. I think it is more like volume 1 is for K-2 and volume 2 is for grades 3-5. I am not sure how they can say that each exercise is 10-30 mins. If it was done at home I think it looks more like 5-10 mins. Again, that can be a good thing.

 

So, I am not sure if that was helpful to you. Let me know if you have any questions. I have both books on my shelf right now because we are studying physical science and both volumes are limited to that. I keep thinking I can pull something out of one of them for my younger (8 year old) boy if I am in a pinch.