If you were to put together a 6-week co-op class on science experiments...

[Peplophoros]

...where would you start?  No specific scientific areas (biology, chemistry, etc.)  I'm just trying to find teachers for our science experiments classes (two groups: ages 7-9 and ages 10-13) by helping them with initial resources.

 

Also, what is the best science supply store?  I was looking at one a month and can't remember for the life of me what it was!!

 

Thanks!

[My3girls]

I wouldn't! I would run for the hills! Lol. Good luck.

[Gentlemommy]

Design Squad lesson plans from PBS. It uses household items and is FUN! We've done two while the public school kids were here (snow days at school) and today they came over asking what the experiment for today was lol.

[lisajoyfulness]

The science teacher at our co-op classically homeschools his children, so he has planned the lessons based off of scientists throughout history. It has been a lot of fun. They have an optional worksheet to complete before class that always asks the students to write down something about the time/place the scientist lived, a contribution they made to science and something they thought was interesting about the scientist. Then in class, he goes over a brief history and they do an experiment related to a discovery the scientist made. With Galileo they dropped objects of varying weights and saw that they fall at the same rate. With Volta, they made batteries that powered a tiny light bulb using pennies, zinc circles and salt water soaked construction paper squares. It seems like a nice structure to implement that covers many fields of science and with there only being 6 weeks in the class, you could just do big name scientists.  

[Lori D.]

Well, actually, I did something similar last semester, with 2 co-op classes (one for ages 6-8, one for ages 9-12), each 1 hour long, all about rotating through hands-on experiments at "centers", after I did an interactive teaching for about 10-15 minutes at the start of class so they would know how to connect the hands-on with the subject matter. It also REALLY helped the learning process that I purposefully made my classes build on one another, or at least referred to past classes.

 

I will say, that starting with an already-created program and springboarding from it would have been MUCH MUCH MUCH less time consuming than creating everything from scratch and researching for experiments each week ! ! All that said, the classes were wildly successful, very much enjoyed, and the students learned a ton. :)

 

Things that were key to making it work smoothly:

1. Limited class size (no more than 12-15 students at MOST!)

2. At LEAST 2 mom assistants in the class each week in ADDITION to the teacher

3. Have EVERYTHING measured out, pre-cut, prepped for each student IN ADVANCE

4. Dollar Store disposable table cloths -- on floor or on tables, just fold it up with the mess on it, throw it away!

5. Be SURE to lay down FIRM class ground rules and have some way of regaining student attention DURING class; make sure parents are on-site, so you can send a rowdy student out if needed

6. For mail ordering your supplies, plan on ordering 3-4 weeks in ADVANCE of needing it for the class, to allow for shipping delays.

 

 

Where I got supplies:

- my recycling bin (plastic containers)

- Dollar Store (paper plates, plastic spoons/cups, straws, foil pans, etc.)

- Grocery Store (we did a number of chemistry experiments -- salt, baking soda, vinegar, flour, sugar, etc.)

- Costco (paper towels -- we went through almost a roll per class for clean up)

- Rainbow Resource (kits for demo, sets of rocks for testing, posters for visual/info portion of class, other supplies)

- Science Bob Store (geodes, giant mica, chromatography filter paper, etc.)

- Home Science Tools (student-sized goggles, etc.)

- Amazon (pack of plastic eye droppers, geology scratch plates, etc.)

- KNG (sturdy poly-cotton aprons for lab aprons -- they only come in packs of 6, but are GREAT!)

 

 

Resources that could work well for your ages:

- experiments from some of the TOPS units (#95 Try This on For Science  /  #34 Pendulums  /  #42 Focus Pocus  /  #23 Rocks & Minerals

- PBS Zoom Science

- Mark Twain Media/Carson Dellosa Expanding Science Skills series (worksheets for guided experiments)

 

 

Topics that would be a good fit for that age, and reasonable for doing as a group or classroom setting:

- rockets / flight

- simple machines

- light

- dissection (examples: owl pellets, cow eyeball, squid)

- robotics

- "kitchen chemistry"

- "egg drop" (design contraption to hold an egg and keeps egg intact when dropped from a 2-3 story building)

- rock testing / types of rocks

[scrapbabe]

Well, actually, I did something similar last semester, with 2 co-op classes (one for ages 6-8, one for ages 9-12), each 1 hour long, all about rotating through hands-on experiments at "centers", after I did an interactive teaching for about 10-15 minutes at the start of class so they would know how to connect the hands-on with the subject matter. It also REALLY helped the learning process that I purposefully made my classes build on one another, or at least referred to past classes.

 

I will say, that starting with an already-created program and springboarding from it would have been MUCH MUCH MUCH less time consuming than creating everything from scratch and researching for experiments each week ! ! All that said, the classes were wildly successful, very much enjoyed, and the students learned a ton. :)

 

Things that were key to making it work smoothly:

1. Limited class size (no more than 12-15 students at MOST!)

2. At LEAST 2 mom assistants in the class each week in ADDITION to the teacher

3. Have EVERYTHING measured out, pre-cut, prepped for each student IN ADVANCE

4. Dollar Store disposable table cloths -- on floor or on tables, just fold it up with the mess on it, throw it away!

5. Be SURE to lay down FIRM class ground rules and have some way of regaining student attention DURING class; make sure parents are on-site, so you can send a rowdy student out if needed

6. For mail ordering your supplies, plan on ordering 3-4 weeks in ADVANCE of needing it for the class, to allow for shipping delays.

 

 

Where I got supplies:

- my recycling bin (plastic containers)

- Dollar Store (paper plates, plastic spoons/cups, straws, foil pans, etc.)

- Grocery Store (we did a number of chemistry experiments -- salt, baking soda, vinegar, flour, sugar, etc.)

- Costco (paper towels -- we went through almost a roll per class for clean up)

- Rainbow Resource (kits for demo, sets of rocks for testing, posters for visual/info portion of class, other supplies)

- Science Bob Store (geodes, giant mica, chromatography filter paper, etc.)

- Home Science Tools (student-sized goggles, etc.)

- Amazon (pack of plastic eye droppers, geology scratch plates, etc.)

- KNG (sturdy poly-cotton aprons for lab aprons -- they only come in packs of 6, but are GREAT!)

 

 

Resources that could work well for your ages:

- experiments from some of the TOPS units (#95 Try This on For Science / #34 Pendulums / #42 Focus Pocus / #23 Rocks & Minerals

- PBS Zoom Science

- Mark Twain Media/Carson Dellosa Expanding Science Skills series (worksheets for guided experiments)

 

 

Topics that would be a good fit for that age, and reasonable for doing as a group or classroom setting:

- rockets / flight

- simple machines

- light

- dissection (examples: owl pellets, cow eyeball, squid)

- robotics

- "kitchen chemistry"

- "egg drop" (design contraption to hold an egg and keeps egg intact when dropped from a 2-3 story building)

- rock testing / types of rocks

. As always Lori , you rock with your amazing list of resources. Thanks!

[AmyontheFarm]

:lurk5:

[cintinative]

I'm thinking of doing the Inquiry in Action curriculum available for free from ACS as a co-op class--not 6 weeks though.  Has anyone done that?

[chelsmm]

We had a great time with electricity this year.  My kids are 6 and 8, so we kept it pretty simple, but it was a lot of fun.  Static electiricty, testing different materials, and making simple circuits. 

[mom31257]

Why not use the "Try Before You Buy" materials at Pandia Press? You get several lessons, labs, and even worksheets for the students. The labs are usually easy to pull together with stuff from the store or around the house. 

 

 

[Mandylubug]

I'm teaching a 10 week science class based on the book Chocolate Fever. We are experimenting with solids liquids and gasses and reading a chapter or two each week too.. Each week we do some fun experiment or project with chocolate. It is a very casual, fun class

[Incognito]

I've done a 4 week set with upper elementary kids and I've adapted it for a current 10 week set with lower elementary kids.  I am building off of the human body this time.  Ellen McHenry has lots of fun things - we are using various things, including body bingo (the kids color it one week, cut it out and glue it another, then we play another week). 

 

General structure: something to occupy them instantly upon entering (coloring), group discussion time, some music/discussion, centers. 

 

For our 10 week set here, the first week I did an overview, talked about cells and had a good discussion with the kids to try to get a feel for what they know/where they are at.  They colored some body bingo stuff for their boards, then did centers for the remainder of the time (centers included building organs out of lego, playing operation (that's a stretch, but I needed something active :)), body charades/taboo type game, and a few more).  I also used music (They Might be Giants and Lyrical Life Science). 

 

In the coming weeks, we will make fake blood (using beads and such for the cell types), fake boogers (we'll talk about real boogers but then also talk a little about the chemistry behind the fake stuff we are making with glue/borax), poop (this one really grossed out the upper elementary kids I did, so I am doing it a few weeks in this time ;) - google homeschool make poop or some such and a nice family has done a demo of it)...

 

We'll also do a bit with skin (finger prints, let's read and find out science books), nervous system (Ellen McHenry's brain hat and we'll make a nerve cell out of those bendy wax yarn things, probably integrate snap circuits into a center as an example of conducting impulses being like electricity), bone stuff (comparing human and dinosaur skeletons, as well as possibly playing with real bones) and some other stuff I'm not thinking of.

 

For both age groups, I've found the active, science-minded little boys gravitate towards the class.  That makes it fun, but also extremely exhausting.  I'd encourage your teachers a lot with chocolate and presents! :)

 

 

[City Mouse]

I loved the activity books from AIMS Education Foundation when I taught in a classroom. Most are small group activities that don't work as well one-on-one. When I taught kinder science in a private school, those books were my science curriculum. There are some different books for different grade levels, and some are k-6. 20 years later, I can still remember one activity where I put Velcro on the ends of those cheep birthday party noise makers that unroll and the kids used those as "tongues" to "catch" paper insects with matching Velcro that I hung from the ceiling.