Singapore Science: My Pals, Lower Secondary, Science Matters

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm looking on info about any of these three programs.  My kid age-span would cover all three.  How did you like it?  How was retention?  How much time per week?  I'm looking at using the minimum amount of materials- textbook and workbook only.  My kids have had a ton of informal STEM as well as some formal unit studies.  I'm looking to systematize/formalize/fill-in.  

[Sneezyone]

I have lower secondary science matters A/B which DS is using. There are a lot of components to juggle and they work best together so if you don’t know your science well or aren’t willing to dig in, it may not work well. The textbook is thin. The meat is in the supplementary books (practical/labs, guide/test prep, and teacher input). I would skip the workbook and replace it with the practical guide. There’s a lot more meat in it that could be pared down for oral exercises. It helped me better understand the level of mastery and content knowledge (lots of applied knowledge questions) I should expect.

We started the year learning about scientific equipment and investigation so he knows the tools and the whys of doing science. We’ve since expanded into the what questions. There are only 9 units per level. We spend a month-six weeks on each topic. We go through the texts and do labs then DS does some supplementary reading.

Retention has been very good here b/c of the hands on introductions and explanations. We have a lot of lab gear. It takes about 2-3 hours a week but not all of it is mom-time. The first half of each unit is me-intensive and then I get 1-2 weeks when he’s reading/discussing.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Sneezyone

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thanks!  My background knowledge is strong, but I will look into the teacher's materials all the same.  I hate lots of components though... sigh.