| Author | |
lapazfarm
Forum All-Star
Joined: July 21 2005
Location: Alaska
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6082
|
| Posted: March 11 2010 at 7:45pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
Angel wrote:
I have found that as we work on projects we do often check multiple books... actually, my dd recently requested more information on how biologists classify organisms, so I handed her a copy of the Apologia Biology textbook we have hanging around the house and she read about classification and did the biological key activity (with a little help from me). This answered her question, and she went happily back to The Amateur Naturalist.
|
|
|
This is a lot how we use textbooks, too. I have a college textbook that I like that we use often for reference. Just yesterday we pulled it out because we were not satisfied with our Seaside Naturalist's level of info on Arthropod classification. We found what we needed in the biology text, then moved on.
Angel wrote:
Erin does make a good point. If this is what has worked for us in the past, why change? My only problem is organization, especially for my oldest. How to keep a course going at the kind of depth and for the amount of time required to earn a high school credit (with lab)? Up till now, we've been rather flighty. |
|
|
Here is where I think looking at a sort of Reggio approach of project-based learning, conferencing with your kid and coming up with a project plan ahead of time would be helpful. Then you could do daily check-ins and weekly meetings to keep them on track, or adapt the plan as needed based on what is discovered while researching.
If I may share a bit of experience from my past,
when I taught at an Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound school we kicked off every "learning expedition" (basically a glorified unit-study) with a set of "leading questions." These were questions carefully crafted by the teacher to be very open-ended and very deep, so that students could approach them from many angles.
One example (say, for an earth science unit) would be something like:
"How does the earth continue to change over time?"
From this question we can see that to answer it completely, research could encompass both past, present and future processes of change on the earth. It may involve researching changes to both living and non-living systems, and could even involve political/ethical issues as well as science, math, economics, etc.
In other words, you could spend a lifetime on this one question! And typically we would craft three questions per expedition, and these would carry us over either 9 weeks or a semester's time, and incorporate every subject area.
I believe that if you were to craft a few questions like this, along with your child's input, you could certainly draw up a project plan to last as long as you wish.
__________________
Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 14656
|
| Posted: March 11 2010 at 7:45pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
This link contains further information about the Science Scope book and has some sample pages. I wasn't sure if I had an older version since I bought mine used (perhaps only older versions included high school information?)...but this page confirms that the book does indeed cover high school science topics. I have no idea how this would compare with an AP level high school science scope and sequence; I was just looking for basic/framework info.
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
lapazfarm
Forum All-Star
Joined: July 21 2005
Location: Alaska
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6082
|
| Posted: March 11 2010 at 7:51pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Ha! We must have been posting simultaneously, Jen. That science scope looks like a great tool!
__________________
Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 5:54am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Mackfam wrote:
| ETA: That sounded bad - I didn't mean they were superior because they were college level...I could see how they would be helpful, but I think I'd rather have a few high school level texts, really. And, I realize I don't have any high school level texts to pull off the shelf as a reference. |
|
|
 That's ok; I know what you meant. I tend to pick up used college level texts, too. It's just in the past couple of years I've started collecting high school texts, mainly because I started thinking about high school. We *have* used the Apologia text a few times this year, though, so I suppose it was a worthwhile purchase.
Thanks for the information on Science Scope, etc! They look interesting -- helpful for many different levels.
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Betsy
Forum All-Star
Joined: July 02 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1962
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 7:52am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I have been enjoying this conversation very much and just picked up the Bill Bryson books from the library yesterday.
I don't want to derail this conversion, so maybe this should be moved to it own topic, but I will post it here first.
How do you plan on dealing with the religious side of Science. I am specifically thinking about: What the Catholic Church teaches currently on Science, Misconceptions or Errors that have been attributed to the Catholic Church (i.e. Galileo, etc.), Darwin and Evolution, and other Christian beliefs, like the New Earth (I am currently interested in this one because I have a few HSing friends that believe this and I don't understand it much or how to approach it)
So...what do you do? Would each of these fall into different "subjects" like Religion and History and you would deal with them there? Do you not worry about them? Do you just casually talk about them?
I am all ears!!!
Betsy
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Donna Marie
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2530
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 9:56am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Mackfam wrote:
| This link contains further information about the Science Scope book and has some sample pages. I wasn't sure if I had an older version since I bought mine used (perhaps only older versions included high school information?)...but this page confirms that the book does indeed cover high school science topics. I have no idea how this would compare with an AP level high school science scope and sequence; I was just looking for basic/framework info. |
|
|
I have Science Scope and it does help planning things. I really was uncomfortable about a year ago doing a CMish type of high school science, but my children work that way best and this helped me keep my place. I also needed a way to keep them on track in their note-taking as their notebooks weren't cutting it as good review tools. I wanted them to remember at a glance. It is one of those books that have earned their keep on the shelves.
I can pull it of and answer anyone's questions...well I can at least try 
There is a simple little checklist in the back of the book where I can plug in each child's name(ok just 5 of them at a time and the level covered (primary, intermediate, junior, sr high) It is easy for me to eyeball if someone has missed something. A lot less remembering on my part (I am starting to feel challenged in that area as I am divided amongst so many)
I actually used this book alongside the Dinah Zike science books
and used Dinah's recommendations to facilitate teaching them note taking in each area so they have good coverage in their notes....
Big Book of Science for K-6
Big Book of Science for Middle and High School
Dinah has lists that are divided into subject area, skills to be covered and how many parts to include in their notes...a visual/kinesthetic must for several of my children. I felt that at least so far (we are at a 9-10th grade level in the upper ranks now) we have what we need covered.
We then used this book so they could alter the foldables (if they didn't want to make a big project of their work) so they could easily be created on they fly and fit nicely into their composition books or binders wihout added bulk using ordinary notebook paper and highlighters and such:
Notebook Foldables
I have one other of Kathryn Stout's books Maximum Math, and it has helped us tremendously keeping a birds eye view on everyone knowing what they are doing and where they are going next...it made for easier projects and rabbit trails for K-8. As with Science Scope, I could make sure we covered everything. They were 'my' planning spines. It was my way of making sure that they had a syllabus to follow even though we didn't fit well with syllabi but the kids wanted to know when they studied on their own 'what came next' and 'how much do I do" I am VERY visual and I needed help and I think I have FINALLY? got it!
HTH!
__________________
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Donna Marie
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2530
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 10:07am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Arg...I cut and pasted the links from a blog post that I am still editing...they won't work...
hmm
I will be putting up my post later on today anyway if you need them...
__________________
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
lapazfarm
Forum All-Star
Joined: July 21 2005
Location: Alaska
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6082
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 10:37am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Betsy wrote:
How do you plan on dealing with the religious side of Science. I am specifically thinking about: What the Catholic Church teaches currently on Science, Misconceptions or Errors that have been attributed to the Catholic Church (i.e. Galileo, etc.), Darwin and Evolution, and other Christian beliefs, like the New Earth (I am currently interested in this one because I have a few HSing friends that believe this and I don't understand it much or how to approach it)
So...what do you do? Would each of these fall into different "subjects" like Religion and History and you would deal with them there? Do you not worry about them? Do you just casually talk about them?
I am all ears!!!
Betsy |
|
|
I prefer to use secular materials for science, and I add in our Catholic beliefs where appropriate, on a casual basis.
__________________
Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 1:09pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Looking forward to your blog post, Donna Marie! Will you be sharing what is in their science notebooks, too? (hint, hint. )
My ds is exactly what you describe: the kind of kid who needs a syllabus in order to work on his own, but doesn't do well with any of the standard syllabi out there.
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Erin
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5814
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 1:46pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Betsy wrote:
How do you plan on dealing with the religious side of Science. I am specifically thinking about: What the Catholic Church teaches currently on Science, Misconceptions or Errors that have been attributed to the Catholic Church (i.e. Galileo, etc.), Darwin and Evolution, and other Christian beliefs, like the New Earth (I am currently interested in this one because I have a few HSing friends that believe this and I don't understand it much or how to approach it)
So...what do you do? Would each of these fall into different "subjects" like Religion and History and you would deal with them there? Do you not worry about them? Do you just casually talk about them? |
|
|
Betsy
I find it best to talk about matters as they come up. So if we came across a reference to Galileo we stop and talk right then. I find all my children love these discussions and they all get involved.
Regards Evolution/Creation Science we have taguth the children that they are both theories, what both think and the Church's position. We use resources from both sides of the spectrum.
__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 3:15pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
As far as dealing with the religious side of science... I do plan on making it a little more formal in the high school years, asking my children to read Church documents, books, etc. that make the Church's position on the matter clear. (The Chris Baglow book linked earlier in this thread looks like it falls into that category.)
But I also expect that we will continue our habit of talking about issues as they come up -- particularly when watching science shows. (The questions become pretty immediate at that point.) I do have some Protestant/Creationist materials around, but I don't let the kids use those without discussion either just because they're Christian. Again, we talk about the Church's position on evolution.
In order to field these discussions, though, I do find that I have had to do quite a bit of reading myself.
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Betsy
Forum All-Star
Joined: July 02 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1962
|
| Posted: March 12 2010 at 5:19pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Angel wrote:
In order to field these discussions, though, I do find that I have had to do quite a bit of reading myself.
|
|
|
Yes, this is my take on it too. I have to be prepared and well read to do these casual conversations justice.
Also, Theresa, I agree with you in using just Science texts!!! At least in the HS age. I had assumed that I would need to add the Religious Science material myself, I was just trying to brainstorm how to do that (formal vs. casual, etc)
Betsy
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: March 17 2010 at 6:44am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I just read this blog post from Harmony Art Mom about Making Apologia Science Texts Work For Our Family. She talks about how they try to use them in a more Charlotte Mason manner. She makes the point that her boys are not aiming to go into science in college, so she's not worried about providing them with a course that's too academic. I thought it might be helpful to someone. 
And... yesterday I got my copy of Faith, Science, and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge. Jennifer in TX linked the First Things review of this book earlier in the thread. I have not thoroughly read it yet, but after skimming and browsing, I have to say it is *just* what I was looking for. It seems to cover the position of the Catholic Church toward science very thoroughly, starting with the general relationship, then going through Galileo, the Big Bang and the creation of the universe, Darwin and the evolution of life, scientific atheism and fundamentalist Creationism, issues involving human dignity, and finally, human evolution. It is a textbook, but it is well-written, and after every chapter in addition to the standard study questions, it has a series of well-done "practical exercises" which look really thought-provoking. It also provides "supplementary reading" in the form of excerpts from important documents (which makes it alot easier to look them up for the whole thing.) I also found lists of Catholic scientists, which would be good for rabbit trails.
Anyway -- I like it a lot. It could be done all at once or (how I think we'll use it) spread out over a number of years. But it definitely fits that missing piece I was looking for!!!
(And as an aside, it also starts with physics and ends with biology.)
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Donna Marie
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: New Jersey
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2530
|
| Posted: March 23 2010 at 11:24am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Ok Angela...I
FINALLY
put the post on my blog...
real life seems to flow at a different faster pace than I ever remember it doing before...maybe I should chalk that up to being outnumbered??
__________________
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: March 23 2010 at 2:15pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Donna Marie wrote:
Ok Angela...I
FINALLY
put the post on my blog...
real life seems to flow at a different faster pace than I ever remember it doing before...maybe I should chalk that up to being outnumbered?? |
|
|
I *thought* that the more kids you put into a single space actually sped up time. There must be a mathematical formula for that somewhere.
Going over to take a peek at your blog post now, Donna Marie.
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: June 17 2011 at 12:58pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I thought I would update this thread after a year of living it out.
First of all, I have to tell you that I received some independent and feel-good confirmation recently that this way of doing science works. I took the kids to a fossil site nearby for their annual members' day and my kids had a chance to talk to a paleontologist. After chatting with my 14 yo ds for a bit, he told him where he taught and to come look him up in a few years! Ok, so maybe that was a little shameless bragging, but trust me, it's more about him than me. The only thing I do is to give him the books! (And drive him places. )
Anyway, at the beginning of this thread I mentioned that I was buying Bill Bryson's _Short History of Nearly Everything_. It took a while to get going in this book, but when my ds did, he really enjoyed it. He did some writing on questions mentioned in the study guide I (think I) linked. The Faith, Science, and Reason textbook is also great and can be used as its own course or (how we've used it) skipping to pertinent chapters.
This coming year he's decided he wants to do physics, so I guess we're doing "Physics First". We're going the conceptual/math lite route. I'll post some resources later when I have more time.
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
lapazfarm
Forum All-Star
Joined: July 21 2005
Location: Alaska
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6082
|
| Posted: June 17 2011 at 1:09pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Angel wrote:
This coming year he's decided he wants to do physics, so I guess we're doing "Physics First". We're going the conceptual/math lite route. I'll post some resources later when I have more time. |
|
|
We are doing physics this coming year as well. I think I have it mostly worked out and it should be tons of fun, but I'll be *really* interested to see what you come up with.
__________________
Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Erin
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 23 2005
Location: Australia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 5814
|
| Posted: June 17 2011 at 4:54pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Angela
I'm so interested to read your update, love to know more and re-inspired to put some more energy into organising our science plans.
__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 14656
|
| Posted: June 17 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Angel wrote:
I thought I would update this thread after a year of living it out.
First of all, I have to tell you that I received some independent and feel-good confirmation recently that this way of doing science works. |
|
|
This is so wonderful, Angela! But seriously...I never had any doubt - your kids are really quite gifted!!!
I'm landing in much the same place with high school science, although my validation really arises from just getting my hands in it, allowing us to *be who we are* and let the year progress comfortably. We settled into a very nice routine with science as the year progressed, and managed to eliminate anything that didn't fit, which of course, was the one and only text I included in the plans.
I think that for the most part, my 9th grade science plans stayed true to how we typically approach learning here with just one exception - a text that was not the right choice, for us or for a 9th grade student. The more we stayed with our plans, I could see how my daughter relished reading scientists like Michael Faraday, and exploring his ideas on her own. I tried using the text for its fairly good selection of labs, but even that seemed disjointed and unconnected to her.
I found it easy to quickly re-focus our efforts on living books that I had an intuitive sense of *rightness-for-us* about. (I don't think that's a word, but I can't think of another way to say that I just had a sense that __insert book name here__ is the kind of book that will invite a relationship between the author and my child.) For example, we absolutely LOVED The Flying Circus of Physics, and it prompted a number of spontaneous lets-try-to-duplicate-this-Mythbuster-style labs. Fantastic!!
I definitely see the depth and richness of learning science in this way. High school science taught in this way is not fly-over science. It is rich as it tends to allow a topic to come into focus, a richness to develop, and in this going deeper, further connections are made and developed. It's a fine example of the lesson I'm learning over and over again - be patient with the journey.
I thought we might do a formal Physics next year (10th grade), but my daughter has requested Biology based on living books instead. I built a blog for our Biology course because I love how Willa does hers and can keep all of her pertinent links together. It's been helpful especially for assignments I put together using web content, rather than a book. We're excited - there are so many fantastic books in our course - Bernd Heinrich being one of our favorites. Who wouldn't want to read Bumblebee Economics as part of their Biology course???
Anyway, glad you bumped. It's interesting to read where we were...and how we got here, which is I think where we thought we'd end up all along. So glad you got the validation/nudge to continue doing what you're already doing RIGHT!
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Angel
Forum All-Star
Joined: April 22 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2293
|
| Posted: June 21 2011 at 5:17pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Mackfam wrote:
I built a blog for our Biology course because I love how Willa does hers and can keep all of her pertinent links together. It's been helpful especially for assignments I put together using web content, rather than a book. We're excited - there are so many fantastic books in our course - Bernd Heinrich being one of our favorites. Who wouldn't want to read Bumblebee Economics as part of their Biology course???
|
|
|
Jen, can I ask how you did your blog? Did you make a post with assignments for every day or week (or whatever) and just set them to post on the appropriate date?
I started to do a blog for Garrett not last year, but the year before, and it sort of fizzled -- actually, the blog was decent, but he likes the big pile of books approach better than the organized online approach. I used Wordpress for that blog. I brought it up again this year for my dd who wants to do marine biology (she also wanted a textbook, but we'll be using your Fieldwork site heavily, too, Theresa), and she said it sounded like a great idea. So, not sure how I will go about it yet. When I did the Wordpress blog, I had it set up in "units" and not divided into days. Every unit had a page with activities, reading, links - that kind of thing.
As for physics... well, you know how we operate, Theresa. I'm still collecting stuff which we may or may not use. So far these books are in my stack:
Six Easy Pieces (Richard Feynman)
A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)
One, Two, Three... Infinity (George Gamow)
Asimov on Physics (Isaac Asimov)
Garrett requested Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku (of the Science Channel's show SciFi Science) and we serendipitously discovered that he has a radio show called Science Fantastic on a local talk radio station every Saturday from 5-8 PM. (It's also available as a podcast.)
I'm looking at the K'nex Rollercoaster physics set, too, but it's pricey and I haven't pulled the trigger yet.
I've got a textbook for reference/support: Conceptual Physics.
I'll also probably get Flying Circus of Physics on Jen's recommendation, but I haven't yet.
I know you probably have a bunch of great experiments planned, Theresa. I hope you'll share here or on your blog!
__________________
Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: high school science without a textbook
