Open and go middle school science

[MusicMama]

Help! We haven’t been having success with Biology for the Logic Stage from elemental Science. I need something that is not so teacher intensive. I have a young sixth grader and the text for Biology for the logic stage is bare bones. The lessons are very teacher intensive. She is doing the readings and I’m having to carefully explain the material each and every week. I need her to be able to complete a chapter even if I’m not able to give a full, detailed lesson. So I need to jump ship. Any ideas for a curriculum that is a better fit? Thanks!

[bensonduck]

We love Oak Meadow science. It is written to the student and the projects are very open ended. There is often a choice between writing a few paragraphs on something, drawing something or creating some sort of artistic representation, or doing a hands on exploration of a topic. We have been very happy with it so far. 

[Farrar]

You could try Real Science Odyssey. It's not quite open and go though.

TOPS has kits. You could choose 3-4 for the year and then pick some books for her to read.

I just feel compelled to add that "open and go" and "science" are not two phrases that go well together for the most part.

[Roadrunner]

The most “open and go” will be a textbook to read and no labs. For middle school that would mean to me picking up books based on topics of interest and just reading. Or outsourcing. But the latter isn’t always open and go, because you might be stuck doing all the labs. ?

 

[Holly]

I also purchased Biology for the Logic Stage for this year.  We only got to a couple lessons and I didn't see how we'd continue to make it work.  :(  I have tried so many science programs over the years, and I guess I just hate teaching science.  ?

We were already using Memoria Press for our other subjects, so I just switched my 11yo & 8yo to it.  It's definitely open and go.  The downside is that there really isn't hands-on or labs scheduled.  They highly recommend adding nature study for the younger years, but nothing is really scheduled.  We are using their Book of Astronomy, so we'll be observing the stars throughout the year as our "lab".  

[8filltheheart]

2 hours ago, Holly said:

I  have tried so many science programs over the years, and I guess I just hate teaching science.  ?

This makes me sad. Teaching science before high school does not need to be stressful. @Roadrunner's reading through a stack of interesting science books and throwing in the odd research report is really and truly all it takes to equip kids with solid scientific understanding. Science can truly be enjoyable and low key and lead to kids with excellent scientific understanding. Reading whole books that they enjoy written by scientists or authors sharing a subject that they love sparks kids' interests and leads to them making observations and creates ownership over understanding.

So, @MusicMama, I second Roadrunner's suggestion. Is this for the 10 yr old? Books like A View from the Oak, Scientists in the Field Series, Jean Craighead George's naturalist books, etc are all great for that age.

[2_girls_mommy]

We have liked Memoria Press science in general with no labs. In the younger years we did the Bird unit and the Astronomy. Our hands on for those was just experiential- camping and looking at the stars, going to the planetarium, girl scout badges, joining a few meetings of the local Audobon Society for meetings and a bird census, etc. 

For middle school and even for high school review/read alouds, I really like the Tiner series they have. Very easy to open and go. 

One of mine liked the new Science in the Age of Reason textbook. It says for K-6th grade ,but she used it for 7th grade doing the older kids' notebooking activities. It has a lot of hands on, but they were all simple and using household objects, so she really did them on her own very easily. 

Another thing that has worked well for us are the Thinking Tree journals. We can assign a stack of books for a science topic and they just spend some time working in the Thinking Tree journals that directs them through their own books. Things like read and draw from your book here. Write definitions here. Do a hands on and write and draw about it here. Explore a career related to your science topic and write about it here. It is really like a self directed notebooking pages workbook that can be used with any encyclopedia, internet, or stack of library books. Mine is currently using Life of Fred preAlgebra/Biology, the Usborne Science Encyclopedia, internet, a microscope, and an Apologia Biology text with her Thinking Tree science journal. Her co-op teacher does labs with her for 9th grade. 

In middle school she used a journal, a chosen encyclopedia for a year like The World of Animals, a video series that goes along with her topic for the days it tells her to watch a video (something like Crash Course,) and a stack of books on the topics.

Edited October 15, 2018 by 2_girls_mommy

[ScoutTN]

My kiddo that age also loves, loves documentaries and shows like Nature on PBS. 

Edited October 16, 2018 by ScoutTN

[Dmmetler]

Uzzingo if you’re OK with online. Very open and go, virtual labs, extra worksheets if you want to use it. Easy to add labs to that match the virtual ones for certain topics. 

 

Unless thry changed it, Singapore Science was about the LEAST open-and go I tried. The student questions expected a lot more than in the book, so I had to pre-study and Teach the lesson so DD could read the book and do her part. And the labs were very classroom oriented. 

[carrierocha]

My 6th grader reads Real Science Odyssey Bio 2 on her own. I love science so I do the labs wuth her, but the labs are written so the student could follow the instructions with  minimal guidance. To me, that seems pretty open and go.