I need secular science suggestions 5th-7th. Please!!

[SereneHome]

Here where we are:

DS10 (will be 5th grade) was doing RSO Chemistry this year which he found too easy (but I think he still learned new things)

DS11  (will be 7th grade) was doing RSO Biology - we didn't get far, he was getting lost and I am not a Science person at all so couldn't help much.

I know DS10 will want to do more chemistry, but shouldn't he be doing something else at this point? If not, which Chemistry? He loves experiments, but also actually wants to learn things

DS11 - I have no clue where to go with him and what curriculum to try.

We did try Elemental Science - no one liked it.

I am open to any and all suggestions. It does have to be secular.

Thank you!!!!

[Runningmom80]

You be the chemist https://www.chemed.org/programs/activity-guides/

 

middle school chemistry https://www.middleschoolchemistry.com

 

I haven’t used these. I intended to and then reverted back to the typical homeschooler neglecting science. 

 

for the 7th grader, have you checked out Uzinggo? My Ds did both the middle and high school courses and really liked it. You can get it on the HSBC 

 

https://www.uzinggo.com/who-benefits/homeschool

Edited July 5, 2020 by Runningmom80

[J-rap]

When my kids were that age, I skipped more typical curriculums and used unit-focused workbooks.  I bought most of them at a Lakeshore Learning store.   They have a website, though I'm not sure if you can actually browse all of their many science workbooks online.  We did studies on plants, planets, cells, categorizing, animals, you name it.  Each one lasted 4 - 6 weeks.  We had so much fun with those!  You can pick and choose, and they always had fun and simple experiments to do at home.  (And were very affordable!  Everything was contained in one simple workbook.)

As I remember, a lot of those workbooks were also available in Rainbow Resources.  We're Christians and at first I thought I wanted Christian-focused science books.  I soon learned that they had a certain bent that I didn't agree with, so we generally went with secular science books.

 

[hs03842]

A couple of thoughts:

Your kids are close enough in age that you can get away with doing the same science curriculum with them both at the same time.  If your younger child understands the material better it may help fill in some blanks for your older child due to collaboration. (I'm doing the same level 1 course with both of my children this year.)

Since you're not really in to science yourself, choose something to do purely for fun with the understanding that you are a student as well.  Take the  pressure off of your self to get everything right and make it about discovering the right answers.  This mentality works well for certain branches of science but not others.  Astronomy and environmental science come to mind as good options.  RSO has an Astronomy 2 that you could use with both of them and see how it goes!

Regarding your son's interest in chemistry:  Why in particular does your younger son love chemistry?  Does he just like mixing things up?  Is he intrigued by the actual content as written (learning about the periodic table, historical scientists, atoms, bonds, etc.)?  Actual chemistry is very abstract and boring.  I would say that if he just likes mixing things and doing experiments then you can sporadically plan those throughout the year for fun while also pursuing another aspect of science for course work.  As a former public school science teacher I can tell you that there is no point in doing the "experiments" if he is not also connecting what he is seeing to a science concept.  The lab work is meant to display in real life the science concept that is being read about in other studies.  It is very common for children to "love chemistry because of experiments" but when you get to the brass tacks of actual chemistry they don't enjoy it.  I have met adults who are in love with chemistry and other science loving adults who find it tedious and boring--they gravitate towards geology or physics.  I would suggest providing him with chemistry related reading material that is geared towards kids and see if his interest extends to a deeper knowledge of chemistry.  If so it would be very easy for you to provide him with fresh learning material to do as a hobby while you round out his science education with other material.

 

Edited July 5, 2020 by JoyKM

[daijobu]

BFSU is secular and a fantastic curriculum, but very hard to implement.  You need:

• a Type-A planning type personality.  You need to be organized and constantly looking ahead 2-3 lessons to prep.
• an excellent public library system with lots of non-fiction science books for children
• money because you will be purchasing all materials yourself
• time to prep and practice the demos in advance, as well as order materials, put books on hold, and generally wrap your head around the flow charts
• a fairly strong understanding of elementary science principles and a general understanding of how the universe works.  A few knowledge gaps are okay, and a willingness to learn is a must.  

If you have all these things, BFSU is just terrific and will be a great supplement to the chemistry your student has already studied.  In fact, he'll get a bigger picture into how biology and physics interplay with chemistry.  Good luck!  

[hs03842]

6 minutes ago, daijobu said:

If you have all these things, BFSU is just terrific and will be a great supplement to the chemistry your student has already studied.  In fact, he'll get a bigger picture into how biology and physics interplay with chemistry.  Good luck!  

I'm going to look in to this myself--thanks for the suggestion!

[Lori D.]

Exploration Education ? (levels: gr. 1-3; gr. 4-6; gr. 7-10)
Mr. Q Science ? (gr. 1-12)
CPO Science ? (middle school)
Science Fusion ? (K-8; classroom-based)
Supercharged Science? (gr. 1-3; gr. 4-6; gr. 7-8)
Oak Meadow (by grade; purchase just the science components) -- grade 5; grade 7
Singapore Science ? (gr. 1-6; gr. 7-8)
Prentice Hall Science Explorer series ? (gr. 6-8)

[SereneHome]

On 7/5/2020 at 1:18 PM, JoyKM said:

A couple of thoughts:

Your kids are close enough in age that you can get away with doing the same science curriculum with them both at the same time.  If your younger child understands the material better it may help fill in some blanks for your older child due to collaboration. (I'm doing the same level 1 course with both of my children this year.)

Since you're not really in to science yourself, choose something to do purely for fun with the understanding that you are a student as well.  Take the  pressure off of your self to get everything right and make it about discovering the right answers.  This mentality works well for certain branches of science but not others.  Astronomy and environmental science come to mind as good options.  RSO has an Astronomy 2 that you could use with both of them and see how it goes!

Regarding your son's interest in chemistry:  Why in particular does your younger son love chemistry?  Does he just like mixing things up?  Is he intrigued by the actual content as written (learning about the periodic table, historical scientists, atoms, bonds, etc.)?  Actual chemistry is very abstract and boring.  I would say that if he just likes mixing things and doing experiments then you can sporadically plan those throughout the year for fun while also pursuing another aspect of science for course work.  As a former public school science teacher I can tell you that there is no point in doing the "experiments" if he is not also connecting what he is seeing to a science concept.  The lab work is meant to display in real life the science concept that is being read about in other studies.  It is very common for children to "love chemistry because of experiments" but when you get to the brass tacks of actual chemistry they don't enjoy it.  I have met adults who are in love with chemistry and other science loving adults who find it tedious and boring--they gravitate towards geology or physics.  I would suggest providing him with chemistry related reading material that is geared towards kids and see if his interest extends to a deeper knowledge of chemistry.  If so it would be very easy for you to provide him with fresh learning material to do as a hobby while you round out his science education with other material.

 

I have no idea why I am just seeing this now.....I need to get more organized!

So......yes, he very much likes experiments and explosions, but he actually liked Elemental Science chemistry - learning about atoms, particles, whatever else. I just couldn't do it bc I am NOT a science person at all and *I* needed something that I could remember and understand for longer than 5 seconds. So, we switched to RSO chemistry and he found a lot of it boring bc he already knew it. He didn't even want to do most of the experiments bc he knew the outcome.

I just need something beefier but something *I* can implement, if that makes sense

[MJlovesJesus]

I am a school science teacher, and I use these free textbooks as supplementary material sometimes. Some of the activities require special materials, but many can be done with household items. It is secular, and each year contains a mix of topics (although you could certainly take just the chemistry topics from a few different years if you wanted.) There are also links to videos and such.

5th grade

7th grade

[mellifera33]

My kids have liked the science books from Nomad Press. They include a few activities after each chapter, using common materials, and are easy to build on to create a unit study if that's the direction you want to go. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by mellifera33
wrongly used adjective :)

[Violet Crown]

For middle school, we use a combination of TOPS Science units and the Isaac Asimov series "How Did We Find Out About...". (The Asimov books are a low reading level, but full of things most middle schoolers* don't know.)

The Nebel/BFSU books looked so good, but I have zero science background and didn't understand most of the concepts and we were all just frustrated by them. But my friends with science/engineering backgrounds tell me they are the best thing ever and their kids love BFSU science.

*ETA: Okay, most of my middle schoolers. Or maybe just me.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Violet Crown

[Violet Crown]

12 minutes ago, mms said:

Oh I forgot about TOPS! Yes, second those - they are very complete kits and discovery oriented.

Asimov’s works can be somewhat dated but they are standard science reading at our house. I  Isaac Asimov.

Yes we happened to be reading the Comets one before we drove out to see Neowise, and at the end he talks about how much better we are at determining comets' orbits here in 1973. It was very informative! Did you know there's a thing called the Oort cloud that's chock full of comets? Oh you did. I didn't.

[talantine]

I have used https://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/lessonplans/ with 2 kids at 2 different times, 7 years apart. Both enjoyed it.

[ktgrok]

How about this? https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/science/exploring-the-world-of-chemistry/

[daijobu]

 

1 hour ago, square_25 said:

What ages is this best for? I keep reading about it...

 

Dr. Nebel's books consist of 3 volumes which go from early elementary through middle school science.  If you have an older student you may want to check the TOC for volume 1 first to make sure you've covered what he does, as his curriculum is a bit out of order.  For example, volume 1 teachers kinetic and potential energies, something I didn't study until high school.  Turns out there are these lovely picture books for young children that explain how a rock on top of a hill has energy.  

The neat thing about understanding this concept of conservation of energy is that a lot of the world around us can be understood with greater sophistication and less hand-waving.  Conservation of energy explains how the electromagnetic radiation of the sun gets converted into the energy that allows us to kick a soccer ball.  It explains why we should be happy for the owner of a totaled BMW, lying crumpled on the tow truck, because the energy that went into demolishing the car was energy that was diverted from crushing the human occupants.  It's all a lot of fun.  

[Shoeless]

I have been using some of Ellen McHenry's science units this summer. She has samples to download, so you can give them a try and see if you like them.  We have completed Botany and have started on Cells and Carbon Chemistry.  

They don't meet the strictest definition of "secular", to be honest. There have been one or two comments in the texts that are clearly her opinion and not a scientific fact.  I pointed them out to my son and we had a great conversation about fact vs opinion. I did not find anything factually incorrect in Botany, (I did a brief side by side comparison with a college biology text), and have not found anything incorrect in Cells or Carbon Chemistry so far (we have not finished those, however); just a throwaway comment about how (in her opinion) Schleiden's cell theory was incompatible with evolution. 🙄

We will *not* be using her "Rocks and Dirt" unit, because she makes a big point in the course description that plate tectonics is not the only "theory" out there, and how she won't be representing "theories" as "facts", and will offer the alternative "theories" for consideration. 🙄  I'm ok with ignoring an occasional opinion comment I disagree with from an author, but I'm not ok with bending facts or altering established scientific definitions to fit a particular worldview.  She didn't dig in like this on any of the other course descriptions, and since age of the earth and universe is a hot button topic for some homeschoolers, this jumped out at me as problematic and something that won't work for us.