Do You Do Science in your Homeschool?

[luuknam]

Given the broad definition, I cannot imagine anyone would answer no to the question. 

 

Obviously people have answered 'no' though.

 

Why?  It's not a public poll.  

 

I suspect people who aren't into science are more likely to gloss over threads with the word 'science' in the name, and people who are into science are less likely to gloss over it. I don't have proof though. You could do another poll without a specific title, e.g.

 

The meta-poll poll

 

1. Did you see my poll about doing science in your homeschool?

a. Yes, and I voted Yes on at least one question

b. Yes, and I voted No on all questions

c. Yes, and I voted some sort of Other

d. No, I did not see it, but I teach science at least twice a week

e. No, I did not see it, and I don't teach science twice a week

f. No, I did not see it, and other

 

ETA: and maybe some option for "yes, I saw it, but didn't vote", and then various options with that.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Obviously people have answered 'no' though.

 

 

I suspect people who aren't into science are more likely to gloss over threads with the word 'science' in the name, and people who are into science are less likely to gloss over it. I don't have proof though. You could do another poll without a specific title, e.g.

 

The meta-poll poll

 

1. Did you see my poll about doing science in your homeschool?

a. Yes, and I voted Yes on at least one question

b. Yes, and I voted No on all questions

c. Yes, and I voted some sort of Other

d. No, I did not see it, but I teach science at least twice a week

e. No, I did not see it, and I don't teach science twice a week

f. No, I did not see it, and other

 

ETA: and maybe some option for "yes, I saw it, but didn't vote", and then various options with that.

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[luuknam]

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

 

And then you should do some other kind of poll, and a meta-poll about that poll as well, to see how the meta-polls differ.

 

And then, I'm pretty sure people are going to start to feel rather annoyed by all your polling about polls. But I could be wrong, so you should do a poll about that then. :)

[Jackie]

I voted no, posted my reasons for voting no. Science is integral to our entire being here but we only "do science" once per week.

 

But I don't know why people wouldn't vote no. I've also said on other threads that I don't do spelling, don't do a reading comprehension program, and don't do chronological history - and I'm not the only one for those, either. I also post that I do what some see as an insane level of grammar for my young kid, a crazy level of foreign language, and I have a weird setup for math.

 

What good is a forum if you don't participate even when you're the weird one?

[Brit29]

Yes. In fact, I'm researching local science clubs for DD right now. Hard to find any that will take a child, no matter how into the subject she is. 

 

 

[ScoutTN]

Some years it is better than others, but we always do science. Who could skip such fun stuff?!

This year we are doing a block and loop schedule in the afternoons, so we do science 4x a week for two weeks, then history for two weeks, repeat. That is just planned studies, though. Science, especially nature study, happens almost everyday.

 

Today we talked about how a female body develops, how cuts heal, why we have only seen nuthatches at our feeder a few times when there are zillions of chickadees and titmice, why it gets dark earlier now than it did a few weeks ago and discussed the Nature episode about wolverines we watched last night on PBS. This is a history week.

[Mrs Twain]

Plenty of people feel guilty or are embarrassed that they don't do much science or that they skip it altogether.  Many of them will not vote in this poll because of feeling embarrassed or guilty.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Plenty of people feel guilty or are embarrassed that they don't do much science or that they skip it altogether.  Many of them will not vote in this poll because of feeling embarrassed or guilty.

Perhaps you could do a poll on how many people would feel embarrassed or guilty about voting on an optional but completely anonymous poll.   

[MomatHWTK]

Ahh... Science shaming.  :001_rolleyes:

[ElizaG]

For the purposes of this poll, "doing science" can mean allowing and encouraging interest led scientific exploration, nature study, using a text book and/or workbooks, outsourcing science in some way, and a combination of the above.  The one thing I ask for it to be a "yes" answer is that it is intentional in some way and happens twice a week with some regularity.  (Ok - that's two things.)  I went back and forth on the minimum twice a week thing.  If you can make a good case for me changing that, I might do it!  

I don't want to be obtuse here, but I'm assuming that the word "you" in the title refers to the parent (rather than to the family in general), and "intentional" means that the specific experiences are managed by the parent in some way.

 

Is this correct?

 

Or does it also count if the children (intentionally) do some of those activities on their own initiative, alone or with siblings, at least twice a week -- and the parents have (intentionally) made books and materials available, but only get involved on a less frequent basis? 

[Melissa in Australia]

yes. We start science from around age 3, and do it a minimum of twice a week. thinking about it we do science before teaching to read. Science with young children is so much fun.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I don't want to be obtuse here, but I'm assuming that the word "you" in the title refers to the parent (rather than to the family in general), and "intentional" means that the specific experiences are managed by the parent in some way.

 

Is this correct?

 

Or does it also count if the children (intentionally) do some of those activities on their own initiative, alone or with siblings, at least twice a week -- and the parents have (intentionally) made books and materials available, but only get involved on a less frequent basis? 

I wanted to make it broad enough to accomodate those who have an unschooling approach that is intentional even if child led.  If a parent has intentionally made books and materials available and the kids ignore them totally then it wouldn't count.  But if kids get involved with it then I count it as learning time.  What I'm trying to gauge is how much science learning is taking place on this board.  I know that I can't measure how much the kids have actually retained but I'm going to assume that kids who engage with the material in some way are learning.  

[ElizaG]

I wanted to make it broad enough to accomodate those who have an unschooling approach that is intentional even if child led.  If a parent has intentionally made books and materials available and the kids ignore them totally then it wouldn't count.  But if kids get involved with it then I count it as learning time.  What I'm trying to gauge is how much science learning is taking place on this board.  I know that I can't measure how much the kids have actually retained but I'm going to assume that kids who engage with the material in some way are learning.  

Okay, thanks for the clarification.  I thought we had to be acting on the intention at least 2x/week, which I'm pretty sure I'm not.   (And if I am, it's not intentional!   :laugh:)

 

I'll go back and change my answers. 

[Luckymama]

We've "done" science daily since fifth grade. It's just part of who we are.

 

Now the "doing" varied greatly from day-to-day, that's for sure :)

[....]

Yes, I teach science daily with the older two kids and twice a week with the middle two kids (and no, I don't have any negative opinion on anyone not teaching science every day or whatnot).

 

13 yro and 12 yro are doing Holt Biology (it's a textbook used in high schools here).  I let them pick what chapters we're going to cover.  We're coming up with our own lab projects and we also watch different science videos on Youtube.

10 yro and 7 yro are following TWTM and they're doing Biology per grammar stage WTM.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I voted our present situation (2 graduated, one in high school), but how we did things in the past ...

 

In the early years with my older two, we unschooled science.  I didn't buy curriculum.  We had museum memberships.  We had tons of books and materials around the house to experiment.  We did lots of trips to the arboretum, forest preserves, etc.  My kids did science nearly every day because it interested them.  If they weren't so on-fire for science, I would have had to be more intentional about it.  When they got to late elementary, we started science clubs where we would have a theme using the WTM cycle, set up a plan of what we were going to do and rotate houses to do the hands-on stuff (experiments/demonstrations.)  We would do the reading for background info at home before the meeting (2xs a month) and write up summaries of what we did after the meetings.  But, my kids didn't really find that challenging and still read a ton using materials we had around the house.  We stopped getting kids magazines and started getting Science News and other magazines meant for adults.  Although science was done formally once or twice a week, they did something related to science almost every day.  Probably because I laid a foundation when they were little about how cool science was.  Both of these kids are science majors in college.

 

With my youngest, we had to be more intentional about science  because she wasn't as drawn to it like her older siblings were.  She didn't necessarily choose science in her spare time.  So, I started science clubs with her when she was in first grade.  She is loving science at the high school.  The only thing holding her back right now is the math.  She is much more interested in people and relationships and thinks she may want to do something in psychology. 

[mamiof5]

Voted yes for elementary and middle school. Haven't got to highschool yet. Yup, we follow a curriculum, read books, watch videos etc...with so much science to learn about why wouldn't we do it? :)

[SilverMoon]

I voted yes to all three, but I do not intentionally *do* science with my kindergartener at all. He is exposed to science because he lives in the world around him and we encourage observation and curiosity.

 

Every one older than him (2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th) does science of some form (actual curricula, living books, documentaries, etc) daily.

[Guest]

We do intentional science almost every day, from Kindergarten on. I'm astounded that anyone would not. For the past several years, I have done NOEO science, which is divided in a fashion like Classical: Biology one year, Physics, then Chemistry the next year, becoming more in-depth with the next level. My youngest is in Biology, Lvl 2, and has done two levels of Physics and one Chemistry. He also has had an extremely fantastic co-op science teacher each semester (two per year), who has done Astronomy, Chemistry, and Physics with him multiple times.

 

P.S. I did try, many years ago, to do a split schedule of history three days a week and science two, but that never worked well for me. I don't like jumping between subjects and work and college has already made it harder to consistently do everything each day that I want to do. It works better for me to intend to do four days a week history, four days a week science (co-op on the last day); that way, if work or college classes cut into my day too much on Tuesday, I could still make up for it Wednesday.

[Rosie_0801]

Science is a blocked scheduled subject here, so while we very much do science intentionally, it isn't a neat twice a week thing. It might be every day for a week or not at all because we're doing geography or architecture or something. We do our nature study tours to specific sites around the state six times per year unless the place is on fire. Then, of course, topics come up in conversation when something strikes our fancy.

[Mystie]

Given the broad definition, I cannot imagine anyone would answer no to the question.  

 

It is intentional that my home is filled with science books that are kid-friendly.  It is intentional that my dh and I share our science hobbies with the kids all the time.  It is intentional that I cover a lesson of BFSU or similar when a learning opportunity presents itself.   So the kids are reading and doing science all the time.  But I do not have a "science" slot twice a week (I do have once a week) but science is being done on an almost daily basis.  

 

Yes. This. This is science for elementary students in our family, too.

[deerforest]

I have absolutely no way of answering this question. I am a former scientist (I work in the corporate technology world now outside of my original field). Science is a part of every day of our lives. Do I make her memorize vocabulary or do busy work or do endless science demos? Uh, no, absolutely not.

 

I long since gave up on homeschool education "curricula" because all I care about pretty much until she gets to high school is that she has a strong foundation in scientific thought. I don't care if she can regurgitate facts or definitions. We've done some McHenry for fun, but we haven't been satisfied with any others.

 

I care that when things like the announcement of Homo naledi happened, she was so incredibly excited because she understands the significance of the find. We followed their research blog while it was happening, and we met one of the primary scientists. I'm now scheduling a field trip with him again in a few weeks, and when I emailed him, he absolutely remembered her because she's probably the only elementary student who ever visited his lab! I care that I arranged a puffin tour over our summer vacation, and when the scientist doing the lecture that day was the one who started the research, she was riveted and then she spent a long time talking to the interns about their research. I care that I arranged a homeschool research field trip with the lemur lab. I care that I'm scheduling a field trip with NOAA because she wants to learn more about weather.

 

I have her reading Bryson, Dr. Art, Dawkins, Hakim, Pollan for some big picture discussions about science this year, but we live science here. We talk about it or do it in the real world every day. I make a serious effort for her to meet and see scientists doing real work in the real world.

 

She can't decide whether to be an aerialist, marine biologist, or paleoanthropologist. I don't care if she does any of them as long as she continues to think critically about the world around her, and no elementary or middle school science curricula I've ever seen encourages that like I can. 

 

ETA: I started to read others' posts only after I posted my response. I obviously feel strongly about this in my homeschool. But, I honestly don't care what others do in theirs!

[Mimm]

Yes. Some weeks were rough and science is one of those things that fall by the wayside when we're sick or exhausted or Spring comes and we're desperate to get out of doors. :) Science is my weakness and I outsource it as much as I can to co-ops and this year to my husband. Next year probably an online class.

 

[Miss Marple]

Just a thought about the teaching history vs. teaching science thing.  Do you think it might have something to do with the "bent" of the mom/teacher?  I know that I felt far more comfortable with science...shoot, I could wing it clear up to high school.  And the boys seemed to catch my excitement and, therefore, they would not let a day go by without some science being done.  OTOH, I truly loved history because it was something that was sadly lacking in my own education.  I felt as if I were learning it for the first time in a truly fascinating way.  We did history...but probably not as easily as science.  It took more preparation, more planning, etc. on my part.  Maybe it need not have, but my insecurity with it necessitated more planning.  

 

However, if the poll were about history, I would still have voted...even if I didn't do it as often as others.  I've raised teenagers...I'm beyond shaming!

[deerforest]

Just a thought about the teaching history vs. teaching science thing.  Do you think it might have something to do with the "bent" of the mom/teacher?  I know that I felt far more comfortable with science...shoot, I could wing it clear up to high school.  And the boys seemed to catch my excitement and, therefore, they would not let a day go by without some science being done.  OTOH, I truly loved history because it was something that was sadly lacking in my own education.  I felt as if I were learning it for the first time in a truly fascinating way.  We did history...but probably not as easily as science.  It took more preparation, more planning, etc. on my part.  Maybe it need not have, but my insecurity with it necessitated more planning.  

 

However, if the poll were about history, I would still have voted...even if I didn't do it as often as others.  I've raised teenagers...I'm beyond shaming!

 

Probably. I'm equally comfortable with both, and my approach is nearly identical for both--understanding how to critically evaluate information, be it historical, scientific (or anything!) is one of my top teaching goals.

 

(I have a double major in both a science and humanities subject, and I was an unusual recipient of both Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi in college so I truly am a weird hybrid of science and humanities interest and knowledge.)

[pehp]

We do spotty nature studies when the spirit moves me.  I had to vote no, but my son attends an outsourced science class at a 'real' science and math school once a week.  So it doesn't fit into the survey: I don't teach it, and it's only once a week!  

[Carrie12345]

Other, because it's nearly every day (for all levels) during part of the year, and once or twice a week during the winter.

 

My elementary and middle schoolers participate in environmental science classes and camps year round.  My middle schoolers compete in the Junior Envirothon (and will move up to the high school level) which includes studying at home and getting together with teammates.  My 8yo also takes a science class at our co-op. (The girls did last year, not this year.)  And they do a bunch of nature stuff right outside on our property.

 

And THEN we do science at home on top of that, but not always twice a week.