Middle School Chemistry, specifically a McHenry question

[Haiku]

My kids are less than a year apart in age but have dramatically differing abilities. My dd is very nerdy and intellectual and LOOOVES science. My ds is extremely physical and has a great sense of humor but struggles with language processing issues that make reading and listening comprehension hard for him.

 

I really would like to keep them together for science, as I simply don't have time time to teach two separate curricula. For the past two years we have been doing the Holt Science and Technology books. Both kids say they like them, and I feel that each is getting what I want them to out of the books, but ds has told me several times that he doesn't feel like he's learning much from them. I feel that he is, but if he doesn't, then that's a problem. I also feel that I have been gearing our science instruction to dd,and perhaps ds is getting the shaft.

 

I have spent the morning looking at middle school chemistry programs for next year (7th grade for dd, 6th grade for ds). It looks like McHenry would be a good fit: lots of good info for dd, lots of activities to cement the info for ds.

 

ETA: But I'm worried McHenry is too food-focused. Dd is allergic to dairy, and we are vegan. Would the ACS materials work better?

 

So, I have two questions:

 

Is it going to become unrealistic to keep a highly science-minded and academic kid and an academically struggling kid together in science as they get older?

 

Is McHenry actually what I am hoping it will be, which is a program that works for kids with differing learning styles and abilities? I'm slightly worried that the information will be too dense for ds.

 

Thanks for your time.

[EKS]

I'd use both McHenry and ACS since neither is enough by itself for a full year (IMO). 

[Haiku]

Would you use them concurrently or consecutively? Would using both The Elements and Carbon Chemistry make a full year or no?

[Crimson Wife]

There may be a few food activities in Ellen McHenry but nothing like Mr. Q's Advanced Chemistry where kitchen science is the focus of the labs. My DS is doing "The Elements" while my oldest is doing Mr. Q this year (she used Ellen McHenry the last time through the cycle). The last couple of labs my DS did was one on steel wool rusting and one where he used gumdrops & toothpicks to build models of compounds (you could easily substitute fruit for the gumdrops).

 

If you want a good "hands-on" chemistry resource, check out Dr. Dave's Teaching Manual from Royal Fireworks Press: http://www.rfwp.com/pages/dr-daves-teaching-manuals/#book-dr-daves-teaching-manuals-chemistry

[Crimson Wife]

Would you use them concurrently or consecutively? Would using both The Elements and Carbon Chemistry make a full year or no?

My DD did "Elements", "Carbon Chemistry", and John Hudson Tiner's "Exploring the World of Chemistry" to make a full year. The Memoria Press study guide to the Tiner book wasn't out then but I did get it for my DS.

 

The plan for my DS this year was Ellen McHenry's "Elements", the Tiner book with the MP guide, and the Dr. Dave book. Possibly "Carbon Chemistry" but I wasn't sure whether that might be a bit too advanced for him.

 

As it turns out, Science Olympiad is sucking up a LOT more of our time than I had originally anticipated. The new plan is to finish up "The Elements", then shelve chemistry until after the regional SO competition in March.

[Momling]

We're doing Elements this semester and Carbon Chemistry next semester.

 

It's not really food focused, as far as I can tell... They did build some molecules with marshmallows and toothpicks, but I'm sure you could substitute grapes or apples or some kind of vegan gummy candy?  We did several sugar cookie batches with Cells and the Brain, but those were all optional activities.

 

Elements takes about 8 weeks at a chapter per week (read the chapter, do the activities, play some games, watch youtube videos, take a quiz on some part of the periodic table) , but then we're also doing a lot of supplementing and reading of other books to stretch it out for an extra month.  We've been watching "The Periodic Table of Videos" and "Crash Course Chemistry" on YouTube and they've read "Chemical Chaos" (Horrible Histories).  I'm hoping to find some more fun books about Chemistry.  My overall goal is to present chemistry in a fun way, with lots of content... but not comprehensive... kind of a 'pre-chemistry' before they get that giant dry high school chemistry book.

[Staceyshoe]

I'll just speak to the food issue since we have a lot of food issues in our house.  At the time we did McHenry's chem programs, I had one child who had anaphylactic allergies to 6 of the top 8 food allergens.  My other child was completely dairy and gluten free.  Because of this as well as personal preference, I'm not a big fan of food-based activities.  We skip them with no problems.  McHenry's programs do have a few activities involving food, but most lessons list several hands-on activities designed to teach the same concept.  We simply chose the non-food activities.  With the video clips and games to reinforce those concepts even further, there really isn't a problem with skipping the food activities.

[tjdan]

For anyone with serious food issues- one of the major things in a lot of chemistry curriculums (not just McHenry) is building molecules.  While they all use different ways to do it, food is usually used.  Just buy a molecule set of plastic or wood to use instead.  For one thing, it can be used a lot longer, and kids can use it to make a lot more complex molecules than you can make out of marshmallows or gumdrops.  There are a lot of different choices, but Ein-Os is fairly inexpensive and easy to use: http://www.amazon.com/Tedco-32387-MOL-EIN-Os-Molecular-Models/dp/B001PF36Q4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1383407668&sr=8-3&keywords=molecule+set and there are much more complex ones made by Molecular Models and 3B Scientific.  We started with the Ein-O, then got a bigger wooden set from Molecular Models to make more molecules (what can I say, my son loves to build them).  Keel University (Britain) has an awesome site with molecule cards you can print from their Make it Molecular program- we've made some pretty complex ones, and it includes molecules for fuels, foods, aromatics, cleaners, etc.  Very cool- http://www.keele.ac.uk/makeitmolecular/freeresources/  You definitely need a molecule kit for some of these- marshmallows don't build huge molecules well!

[SeaConquest]

For anyone with serious food issues- one of the major things in a lot of chemistry curriculums (not just McHenry) is building molecules.  While they all use different ways to do it, food is usually used.  Just buy a molecule set of plastic or wood to use instead.  For one thing, it can be used a lot longer, and kids can use it to make a lot more complex molecules than you can make out of marshmallows or gumdrops.  There are a lot of different choices, but Ein-Os is fairly inexpensive and easy to use: http://www.amazon.com/Tedco-32387-MOL-EIN-Os-Molecular-Models/dp/B001PF36Q4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1383407668&sr=8-3&keywords=molecule+set and there are much more complex ones made by Molecular Models and 3B Scientific.  We started with the Ein-O, then got a bigger wooden set from Molecular Models to make more molecules (what can I say, my son loves to build them).  Keel University (Britain) has an awesome site with molecule cards you can print from their Make it Molecular program- we've made some pretty complex ones, and it includes molecules for fuels, foods, aromatics, cleaners, etc.  Very cool- http://www.keele.ac.uk/makeitmolecular/freeresources/  You definitely need a molecule kit for some of these- marshmallows don't build huge molecules well!

 

Do you have links to the more complex models as well? Thanks!

[tjdan]

If you follow the link to Keene University's Make it Molecular page of Resources, they have a number of categories: like Medicinal Molecules, Food and Drink, Biomolecules, etc.  Each of these link goes to a multi-page site of pdf's of molecules- page through them and you'll find some more complex ones (Lineolic Acid http://www.keele.ac.uk/media/keeleuniversity/group/makeitmolecular/downloads/biomolecules.pdf or Tartrazine http://www.keele.ac.uk/media/keeleuniversity/group/makeitmolecular/downloads/Food%20and%20Drink.pdf for examples).  There's page after page of them, and you can print them with either the colored backgrounds or a white background.  We have a whole binder of molecule cards now, and my son pulls them out to build molecules regularly.  For those just starting, there's also much simpler molecules as well in each category, so you can print them out and sort them in order for complexity, if that helps.

[AimeeM]

I think that McHenry would work beautifully for your situation.

However, I do also think that, come high school, you'll need to separate them. DD sounds like she is going to need much more for science, whereas DS will need just what is required; eventually text/class options are going to reflect that.

[FairProspects]

Can't Zomes be used to make the molecules? That's my plan for that chapter.

[mumto2]

I kept my two together for McHenry but have now sort of separated them. McHenry was great. Possibly our best science ever. We used toothpicks and sculpty clay for the molecules.

 

We tried biology together and ds just could not keep up. Currently doing chemistry together but dd is doing Apologia anatomy on her own. They enjoy experiments together so would like to preserve that.

[Haiku]

A friend of mine mentioned recently having my dd do high school bio with her daughter. I think that would be a great plan, as dd adores her daughter and I know it would be academically rigorous. At that point I believe that I would separate the kids and have ds work on a different science so that he wouldn't feel like he was being left out. I know he feels frustrated because he wants to like science, but he feels that there is a lot of information coming at him quickly, and he also has a lot of trouble remembering the terms. When the kids were younger, memorizing science vocabulary was a big part of our memory work, and as long as we worked on it every day, he remembered the definitions, but we have chosen to focus now on memorizing longer poems, so we are not doing science vocab any more, and as his word recall is poor, he simply can't keep up with all the vocab. Like I said, I feel that he is getting what I want him to from science, and we are using a middle school text and he is only in 5th grade, so I feel he's doing fine, but he doesn't. He does enjoy reading the Horrible Science books, though, and he remembers a lot of stuff from that.