MamaSprout Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I'm trying to decide between Derek Owens Physical Science or just doing this lab kit. The company sent me .pdf of some sample labs, and it looks like it could be used as a stand-alone if I had kiddo write out definitions for all the terms and do all the math in the experiments. The idea of doing a lab every week sounds cool, and the labs look do-able but I'm not sure 1. it would actually get done, although kiddo could do these without me. 2. it would be enough math- although there are formulas to apply in the labs I see- v=d/t, that sort of thing. Derek Owens is very strong in math. Please weigh in. Somehow I think I'm completely overthinking this. I feel like it will be an educational crisis if I pick "wrong". Last year really wasn't a good science year for us. I want to do physical science this year, bio/ life science next year, then start with a "physics first" sequence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 What is best depends entirely on the child. My kids would have hated anything hands-on and preferred to just read. Other kids may thrive with a lab heavy curriculum. I do not consider it important to have a very math based middle school physical science. I would prefer a curriculum that focuses on the concepts and builds a strong knowledge base. They can use math when they take actual physics and chemistry. I dislike a heavy emphasis on writing out definitions. Memorizing vocabulary words is not science. FWIW: I teach physics at a university. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I vote for Derek Owens. Playing with materials--which is what is happening when you do disconnected lab activities--does not teach science. To really learn anything, you need what Mr. Owens will provide in his (excellent) lectures. And I would argue that the lecture (or book, if you're using a textbook) is *more* important to learning science than labwork. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 Wow. Okay. That was easier than I thought. Kiddo likes hands-on on her own terms- i.e. origami and paper miniatures, but it's a struggle to get her to do assigned hands-on stuff (art project for contest for example). I'll skip the lab. I think we'll try the Derek Owens sample chapters, unless there's something better out there. I'm completely open to suggestions. Thanks! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Hands on for middle school definitely. If you want a text book to go with it though Hewitt has Physical Science Explorations (cheap on Amazon). Another option for around $160 (that includes shipping) is Exploration Education. Hands on, has a text (on CD) and a thorough lab/work book. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 Hands on for middle school definitely. If you want a text book to go with it though Hewitt has Physical Science Explorations (cheap on Amazon). Another option for around $160 (that includes shipping) is Exploration Education. Hands on, has a text (on CD) and a thorough lab/work book. DC nixed Exploration Education. It seemed like it would be great for us, but she doesn't want to read from a screen and wasn't wowed with the balsa wood stuff. I work almost full-time. Are there any support materials for the Hewitt book? Oddly, In conversations with her she says from science she wants, "Math and to blow things up." Not sure about the blowing stuff up, but hopefully I can get her a good foundation with the math part so she can move on to the fun stuff. Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 I'm going to wander off of my own topic. Has anyone ever read this book: Thinking Physics http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Physics-Understandable-Practical-Reality/dp/0935218084/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339217185&sr=8-1 I think we'll probably go with DO, but I want some fun reading around to spice things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 What is best depends entirely on the child. My kids would have hated anything hands-on and preferred to just read. Other kids may thrive with a lab heavy curriculum. I do not consider it important to have a very math based middle school physical science. I would prefer a curriculum that focuses on the concepts and builds a strong knowledge base. They can use math when they take actual physics and chemistry. I dislike a heavy emphasis on writing out definitions. Memorizing vocabulary words is not science. FWIW: I teach physics at a university. What did your kids do for middle school physics/ physical science? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Whether hands on is important for me doesn't matter. My kids love hands on so I make it happen. They would find it too boring otherwise. Understanding the concepts is important but I lean towards applied science so Regentrude would be a much better person for books recommendations. My boys tend to read whatever they can find on the libraries shelves in the math/science section. DS9 just spend more than 6hrs at the library yesterday slowly digesting the aug/sept 2015 issue of Make magazine. Has anyone ever read this book: Thinking Physics http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Physics-Understandable-Practical-Reality/dp/0935218084/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339217185&sr=8-1 My boys read the book. We borrowed from the library. Didn't take them long to finish the book though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Whether hands on is important for me doesn't matter. My kids love hands on so I make it happen. They would find it too boring otherwise. Understanding the concepts is important but I lean towards applied science so Regentrude would be a much better person for books recommendations. My boys tend to read whatever they can find on the libraries shelves in the math/science section. DS9 just spend more than 6hrs at the library yesterday slowly digesting the aug/sept 2015 issue of Make magazine. My boys read the book. We borrowed from the library. Didn't take them long to finish the book though. We are huge Make fans here! Love it! That's dd's idea of hands-on. She also does great with LEGO Robotics (just a huddle here, though), and the one-off kits for model rockets and planes. She has done all of Middle School offerings from the Department of Defense's STEM education programming (Starbase). We never seem to get homeschool science labs done, though. Our library doesn't have the Physics book, so I'd need to buy it. She's read a lot of "living" math and science books- every thing in the children's/ YA section at our medium sized library, so I'm getting to the point where I should buy some probably, anyhow. The selections at the library tend to be more life science-based because that's what most kids want to read, I guess. She's pretty well done elementary math/ prealgebra, although there are a few things we want to do before jumping fully into Algebra 1. She thinks she's ready to move into "real" science, whatever that is. I know she's mostly past what she can just read and learn without some direct instruction. We're in the car the other day talking about model airplanes and she starts chattering on about Bernoulli's principle, so she's got a little foundation in physical science. She's also into it right now, so I guess I'd like to roll with it. We've got Life Science on the shelf, but it can wait a year until she's interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Our library doesn't have the Physics book, so I'd need to buy it. She's read a lot of "living" math and science books- every thing in the children's/ YA section at our medium sized library, so I'm getting to the point where I should buy some probably, anyhow. The selections at the library tend to be more life science-based because that's what most kids want to read, I guess. ... We're in the car the other day talking about model airplanes and she starts chattering on about Bernoulli's principle, so she's got a little foundation in physical science. She's also into it right now, so I guess I'd like to roll with it. Use inter library loan/Link+ if you can. We have been using the adult non-fiction for many years. The physics collection at my local libraries combined with the astronomy collection would be about the same size as the life sciences luckily. For us, it is the chemistry section that is lacking. Check out Sears and Zemansky's University Physics With Modern Physics at your library. I forgot which edition my younger boy used for Bernoulli's principle, sonic boom and airplanes in general. He is interested in the aerodynamics of jet fighters. The books on rockets and airplane design are in the adult non-fiction for our libraries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted September 15, 2015 Author Share Posted September 15, 2015 Just resurrecting this thread to follow up. Derek Owens Physical Science is hit. So far, it's our most successful science "curriculum" ever (excepting complete self directed study- which she didn't want to do this year). This kiddo was hungry for the nuts and bolts of science and the video format is working very well. I'm considering looking at DO for math classes, too. I'm using his PreA to finish up some topics right now. I'd like her to do Algebra 1 at full speed next year. Thanks! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisabees Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Glad to hear it is working out! You just never know with these kids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Just resurrecting this thread to follow up. Derek Owens Physical Science is hit. So far, it's our most successful science "curriculum" ever (excepting complete self directed study- which she didn't want to do this year). This kiddo was hungry for the nuts and bolts of science and the video format is working very well. I'm considering looking at DO for math classes, too. I'm using his PreA to finish up some topics right now. I'd like her to do Algebra 1 at full speed next year. Thanks! Hi! Just checking in to see how your daughter is liking DO Physical Science now with a few more months under her belt? Also, how old/what grade is your daughter in this year? I'm considering it for my DD11 for next year which is 6th/7th for her. She'll be doing Algebra 1 concurrently, which seems about right. Would you agree? Thanks in advance for any info you can share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJosMom Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Hi! Just checking in to see how your daughter is liking DO Physical Science now with a few more months under her belt? Also, how old/what grade is your daughter in this year? I'm considering it for my DD11 for next year which is 6th/7th for her. She'll be doing Algebra 1 concurrently, which seems about right. Would you agree? Thanks in advance for any info you can share. I'm not the OP, but my 8th grade daughter is half-way through DO Physical Science and absolutely loves it! This has been the first time that I can say that about science. WRT math, she has taken AoPS Intro to Algebra A and has had no problems with the math. I think doing Algebra concurrently should be just fine, but if you are concerned, you might want to email Mr. Owens. He is very, very good about answering questions and is very approachable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 Hi! Just checking in to see how your daughter is liking DO Physical Science now with a few more months under her belt? Also, how old/what grade is your daughter in this year? I'm considering it for my DD11 for next year which is 6th/7th for her. She'll be doing Algebra 1 concurrently, which seems about right. Would you agree? Thanks in advance for any info you can share. My Dd still loves it. We hit a small hiccup in the force chapter, but she had skipped most of the notes for that section. I had her re--do that section and we've sailed through since then. I do have a digital copy of CPO Physical Science that I have referenced if I want to explain something, but dd has done it 98% on her own. Dd is not yet officially in Algebra because her mother is mean :glare: . She's very math strong, and has done part of Jacobs Algebra and other various resources. Algebra 1 concurrently should be fine if your dd understands simple formulas with one variable. We know we will use Derek Owens for Physics. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinaJ Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Are those online classes or a book curriculum you are talking about? I see they have live classes in Atlanta area as well. Seems very organized. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted January 21, 2016 Author Share Posted January 21, 2016 For us, the package, which I don't think is available anymore. I would have been reluctant to commit to the class because we hadn't used any of DO's classes before, and dd is young. It's worked out very well for us. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinaJ Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Thanks. I looked online and didnot see any curriculums/books for purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted January 22, 2016 Author Share Posted January 22, 2016 I think he offers an option to do the online class for half price. It's access to the videos and .pdf of the tests and homework, but not the grading and feedback. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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