Thoughts on Great Science Adventures books?

[Night Elf]

I'm looking at the GSA Discovering Earth's Landforms & Surface Features. The website says it's for grades K - 8. That is a HUGE span. My kids are 6th and 7th grade. Is the material fairly interesting or does the entire book seem like busy work? I have one child who is very hands-on and the other is only hands-on when it's something he finds interesting.

[Confuzzled]

I used the biology book for part of 2nd grade. It got old really fast. It's a lot of cutting and pasting. My daughter starting dreading science everyday.

 

It does have different levels of assignments so it can be adjusted for different ages. For instance, the upper grades are required to write more detailed labels and information in their lapbooks than the lower grades.

 

We were so glad to stop using it! Now science is my daughter's favorite subject again.

 

Kris

[charlotteb]

We used that exact book 2 years ago. At that time, I had a 4th grader and a 1st grader. We all learned quite a bit from it and the kids still remember parts to this day. As the pp said, it has different activities for the age levels. It uses pictures of pencils to show the levels (one pencil for younger kids, more for older). It also has a key for different types of activities, such as a hand next to a hands-on activity. So those aspects, we enjoyed it.

But.... cutting and putting together the books did get old fast. So we tried something else the following year.

[prairiegirl]

I tried GSA when my oldest was in Gr. 2. The cutting and pasting gave me hives so we didn't get too far in it. There is alot of information in it but I just couldn't handle all the books that you had to put together. Your children are older and would be able to do everything themselves so it might work for you.

[jejily]

We are just finishing up GSA: Tools and Technology. I used it with my 5th grader and another 6th grade boy I homeschool. I won't do one of those again.

 

Here's the thing that is not made clear with these books: You have to copy, cut, and staple together 24 mini booklets. This is the "text" for the kids. I'm sure they are all formatted the same, but in the T&T book, there were 24 books to put together. And I had to put together TWO COPIES of each one, because the boys have difficulty sharing, at times. Ultimately, I was glad they each had their own copy.

 

More importantly, and maybe it was just the Tools book, but this was WAY too simple for even my 5th & 6th graders, and to make it challenging enough for junior-high age kids, you'll have to supplement quite a bit. They give suggestions, but it creates a lot more work for you to come up with the resources to flush the program out for older students.

 

Lastly, the whole learning concept is based on having the students put together what they call "graphic organizers" for each lesson -- a variety of mini-books, similar to examples you'd find in Dinah Zikes Big Book of Books. They do provide all the graphics, but in the T&T study guide, my 5th & 6th grade boys thought the graphics were really baby-ish. (They featured an elephant and a mouse.)

 

We stuck it out, although I skipped a lot of the mini-books. We are, literally, finishing up the last two lessons today and tomorrow. I'll be glad to be finished with this.

[Tami]

I have it and can't recommend it for the same reason the other posters gave.

 

Two better options are Prentice-Hall or CyberEd, imo. The Project Earth series is another option Jessica gave. All of these are secular. As far as hands-on, I love the Science In a Nutshell EarthWorks cluster. These are fantastic!

 

HTH!

[Lori D.]

My take on Great Science Adventures:

Each is a framework of how to study a specific science topic, broken into 24 lessons, plus the reproducible pages for making little "minute books" suitable for lapbooking. To make this a complete science, you really need to get the items for doing some of the experiments, and also check out additional books from the library for some in-depth information. On it's own, it might be enough teaching info for a 3rd-4th grader, and the "artsy-craftsy" appeal of the little booklets is probably at that level as well.

 

 

How GSA works:

You end up making 24 booklets (one for each lesson), plus a little paper "bookcase" to hold them all. As far as time: you'd need to photocopy all of the paper booklet masters, and if you sat down and cut and folded all of them up in one sitting, I'd guess it would take you 6-8 hours.

 

As far as what the book teaches, while listed for grades 1-8, I'd say realistically each book is probably best for grades 3-5. Maybe for a 2nd grader good with scissors who loves crafts and who is bright in science, or for a 6th grader for some of the extended science labs.

 

 

What each Great Science Adventure looks like:

Each lesson is more of an outline on how to teach a specific topic. Each lesson is 2 pages long, containing:

- bullet point list of key concepts to cover

- list of any related vocabulary words

- directions for a longer "science fair" type experiment

- directions for putting together the booklet and sentences to dictate/write in the booklet (simplier or more complex levels here, depending on your student's ability)

- activity idea and how to turn the activity into another booklet, or research/paper ideas for older students

- suggested other activities, books, or resources

 

See sample pages at http://www.christianbook.com by searching for the particular book you're interested in.

 

 

I bought several of these; only used a few pages out of the Tools and Technology one to make some of the booklets and graphics for a science co-op, and ended up selling them, as they just didn't fit our sons way of learning/enjoying science -- they like lots of "real books" and hands-on experiments and kits (and I like kits that have just about everything already in them so I don't have to pull it together), and they never liked cut/paste/coloring activities. GSA just didn't match up for us in any of those areas.

 

BEST of luck, whatever you go with! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

Great Science Adventures: opinions?

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31691&highlight=great+science+adventures

 

 

Great Science Adventures by Dinah Zike

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30090&highlight=great+science+adventures

 

 

Opinions on Great Science Adventures by Dinah Zike

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23749&highlight=great+science+adventures

[Lori D.]

>>> I'm looking at the GSA Discovering Earth's Landforms & Surface Features. The website says it's for grades K - 8. That is a HUGE span. My kids are 6th and 7th grade. Is the material fairly interesting or does the entire book seem like busy work? I have one child who is very hands-on and the other is only hands-on when it's something he finds interesting. <<<

 

 

For a 6th and 7th grader I'd HIGHLY recommend doing the Reader's Digest "How Earth Works" (RD HEW), along with the TOPS Rocks & Minerals unit, which comes with a supply kit. The RD HEW covers loads of earth science topics with two-page spreads, each with text, lots of photos and illustrations and some TERRIFIC experiments/hands-on -- we did at least half of them! We also went deeper informationally with library books and the website Rader's Geography 4 Kids: http://www.geography4kids.com/ The DK book "Geology, Geography and Meteorology" also had terrific information on earth science; that book was compiled in a hardback book with 12 other topics, called "The Ultimate Visual Dictionary" (Buy it used cheap at Amazon, or see it at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756626064/ref=s9subs_c1_14_img1-rfc_g1_si1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0MVTCN8EQJSM1ZYBSCYH&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383351&pf_rd_i=507846 )

 

Also, the PBS series "Savage Earth" would be a great supplement; it might be available at your library or at Netflix. You can also see clips and get great teacher info at the PBS companion website: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/

 

 

The TOPS was a great unit for adding even more hands-on/experiments. The combination of all the above kept the science fun, allowed us to go deep where we were interested, but still gave us 2-pages of coverage in overall earth science topics.

 

BEST of luck in finding what works for your family!

[Night Elf]

okay, passing on GSA. Thanks everyone! I appreciate the other suggestions. I was thinking of adding GSA in because of someone's blog who supplemented Sonlight Core 5. I'm off to check out some of those suggestions. :)

[Linda (Australia)]

Like others have said, there is a lot of cutting and pasting - but, as already mentioned, the children remember the material! And for some children, cutting and pasting is exactly what they like.

 

We used 'Tools and Technology' a few years ago, and my guys can still tell me the info they learned - so, the material certainly is retained.

 

But yes, the cutting and gluing can become too much. What we now do is use the 'God's Design' , but in their notebooks, we incorporate a lot of the Dinah Zike ideas - the making of flip-books, lift-the-flap books, etc., as well as mobiles, displays and such.

 

'The Big Book of Books' from Dinah Zike shows all the folds, and this, combined with God's Design, is excellent! I see Dinah has a new book coming out, specifically designed to be used with notebooks - so I'll be purchasing that one!

 

Hope that helps.

[K8LYN]

I think GSA has it's place for younger students- especially since we have one laminated 'classroom set' of the little books and we are planning on completeing the lapbooks together. Again one set. Why should I phtocopy the information, when we can share! I make the mini-books ahead of time since I laminate them.

 

I have also removed the binding and placed the lessons in sheet protectors in a 1 inch three ring binder. Some of the lessons are a little weak, so I add information from the web, other resources etc. Slip them into sheet protectors and put them with the lessons.

 

We utilize the library for living books on the same topics so the kids don't just get the info in the GSA book. I use it more of a guide as topics to cover and some ideas for fun activities.

 

I would not recommend this for older elementary and middle school. I use it with our co-op of Preschools-3rd graders. We are not planning on using it as our 'core' science past 5th grade.

Again, the topics and organization are nice. Some lessons can be combined and/or extended. It is a nice map for teaching these topics and the kids find the information builds from the previous lesson nicely.