Charlene Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I have been planning to do Human Body as the science topic for ds grade 1, dd grade 3, and ds grade 5 this year. I like the looks of the guest hollow human body curriculum and have been planning to use that. However, it just occured to me that maybe I should do dinosaurs instead because me grade 1 boy loves dinosaurs and is very interested in everything dinosaur related. I haven't really seen this as a science topic that is common with homeschoolers. Is there a reason for this? Would it be acceptable to study dinosaurs for the full year of science? I am thinking we would cover archaeology and paleontology and maybe study how dinosaur anatomy differs from and is similar to other animals etc. in addition to studying the different types of dinosaurs and the different individual dinosaurs. I know there are more than enough books on dinosaurs out there! I am thinking I would read from different dinosaur books each science day and then have him narrate orally what he learned each day and maybe draw a picture. I am pretty sure my grade 1 boy would love this. The problem is, I am homeschooling 5 kids plus I have a toddler. I would like to combine kids as much as possible for science, history, and geography. I am not sure if the grade 3 and 5 kids would be interested in studying dinosaurs. If they are, would this be good enough for them for science too. We are also planning to study ancient history this year, so I think dinosaurs would go well with that. Any comments? Suggestions? Advice? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 Well, if it's not done much (which, I'm not sure... I think most people just don't tend to do unit studies for science) I assume that it's not done much among homeschoolers because it's sort of controversial between the young earthers and non young earthers. ;) We're doing "dinosaurs" (and a few other topics - evolution and extinction) for 6th grade "science" at my kids' request. So there's definitely a wealth of materials to make it interesting for your older elementary school kids. And there's enough material to spend the whole year on it without a question - books, videos, etc. In fact, aside from zoology, it's probably going to be the easiest science topic you could do for a variety of ages simply because there are so many resources at different levels. For your even older ds, my boys are going to try Coursera's Dino 101 in the fall, which is supposed to be a very good introduction to MOOC's for younger users. Why don't you do it as a half-year study? That way your youngest's interests are basically determining the focus for the first half of the year and no one will get beyond sick of dinosaurs. Then let something your older kids are interested in becoming the focus for the second half of the year for science. Of course, all of this assumes that you're okay with unit studies for science. However, I'd say that science isn't like trying to do history in order like WTM recommends. There are great reasons to do that... but science is a web of interconnected information in a very different way. I think jumping around is totally fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExcitedMama Posted August 5, 2015 Share Posted August 5, 2015 I have been doing a prehistory study with DS before starting ancient history but I am doing it more as history with some science thrown in. He enjoyed it but he was never that big on dinosaurs so it was just one part in chronological order. I've been impressed with how much he did retain though and he's brought up different facts that have related to other things. You might consider adding in other prehistoric creatures. I think DS has preferred learning about Mammoths, Saber tooths and cave bears more than dinosaurs. There are some great out of print books on Amazon that were $.01 plus like $3.99 shipping that were great and very detailed that could be used for more information for your oldest. I think DS liked the excavation kit the most where he got to dig out the bones and put together the skeleton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlene Posted August 6, 2015 Author Share Posted August 6, 2015 Farrar- that is a great idea- to do dinosaurs for half the year and something else for half the year! I just asked my daughter what she would like to do for half the year and she said space/ solar system. That was unexpected. The dino 101 course looks interesting too. And, interestingly it seems to be presented by the University of Alberta, which is in our city, and it is the University I went to :) Are there age restrictions for the course? Interesting idea to include other prehistoric animals- I will look into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted August 6, 2015 Share Posted August 6, 2015 There's age restrictions for Coursera - like pretty much everything else on the internet, you need to be 13 to get an account. I have been going back and forth about how to register the kids... right now I just registered myself and we're going to see how it works - if I need to, I'll register another account. In any case, many people who have their younger kids do MOOC's let them do it on their account. Once kids are in high school, you might want to be able to show that you did it and put it on a transcript so you definitely want them to have their own accounts at that point, but for middle and elementary school kids, I think they're mostly just "sitting in" and it's no worries. But, like I said, I heard this one is excellent for younger ones - several people have talked to me online about their upper elementary and middle schoolers enjoying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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