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Martha
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The science questions are all factual, no quotes.
At least in gamma and delta they all seem to be either definitions such as:
What is the Law of Conservation of Energy and two kinds of energy?
Or lists/classifications:
What are 4 ways seeds are dispersed?
Or
Name the 8 major biomes.
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Martha
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anitamarie
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We have loved CCM this year. I think it even improved my Dd's memory. We will be doing it again next year.
Anita
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Martha
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Oh wait, there are also related science activities and explainations each week in the teacher guide to help explain the Q&A for the week. Most of them are pretty standard and common.
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jawgee
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Love CCM!! We are finishing Alpha (it's our first year as a co-op) and will do Beta in the fall.
The science questions are all factual. This year we've had questions like "What are the classifications of living things" and "Tell the characteristics of the class fish," etc. There are suggested activities to help cement the things they are learning.
I don't think I'd buy CCM just for the science...but if you see the science it might want to make you do the whole program!
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TxTrish
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Hello all. We are finishing Alpha and moving on to Beta. Still using CCM, and we really like it. Especially for those tramatic times when we seem to be "doing the minimum" I get to feel like I am at least touching all the bases with the kids.
We have had massive medical issues with hubby this year (2013) and he has just been diagnosed with MS. So, although I really like program anyway, it has really been great for us this year.
The Science portion -
from the website:
Science: Every week, students memorize a science question and its answer. The material is arranged topically according to year. Alpha Year: Life science: Animal Life Beta Year: Earth Science and Astronomy Gamma Year: Chemistry and Physics Delta Year: Life Science: Human Anatomy and Physiology and Plant Life In the Teacher Text, every science question and answer is also accompanied by at least one, and sometimes several activities that are strongly related to the memory work for that week. The activities encourage the child to directly apply and practice the science concepts. Examples of activities include a crayfish dissection, nature sketches, making sandstone, constructing models of atoms and molecules, and many others. Sample from Alpha Year, Week 4: Q: "What are the major characteristics of the phylum arthropoda?" A: "Arthropods have an exoskeleton, jointed appendages, and a segmented body."
From the Alpha TM -
Unlike other CCM subjects, science has multiple ideas for activities that are appropriate to do as the children learn the new material every week. These activities provide an interesting way to both learn the material and deepen their understanding of it. You should allow 30 minutes to cover science ever week, but the activities are planned to allow flexibility. Most weeks have several possible activities listed ranging from Lower Complexity, to Medium Complexity, to Higher Complexity. Those labels are meant to help you be able to judge quickly what might be most appropriate for your particular situation. Planning ahead for the activities is important. Each week has at least one lower complexity activity that takes very few supplies.
Types of activities:
Nature Sketching
posterboard classification projects,
lapbook projects
a shoe box.
internet printouts for labeling diagrams and various activities
animal cards (images are included in the Science Appendix, also)
Slides to look at bacteria, protists & fungi
micromounts
possible dissection activities
animal kits
animal cell model kit.
Example of mix of lower and higher level complexity activities:
Week -
1: Shoebox Activity & sidewalk chalk activity
2: Posterboard activity & sidewalk chalk activity
3: Earthworm collection & nature sketching
4. Crayfish dissection
5. Micro mount of a crab, posterboard activity
6. Scorpion mount with nature sketching; arachnid nature walk.
7. Insect mounts (using one set) with nature sketching
8. Butterfly life cycle kit with sketching, or labeling printouts.
Week 13 - Question: What are the major characteristics of the class birds? Answer: Birds have backbones, feathers, and wings, are warm-blooded, and lay eggs.
This above is the actual question for the week. Then there is a full page and a half of teaching notes for the week to go along with it.
Sometimes we do activities, sometimes not.
Beta Year focuses on earth science and astromomy. As with the Alpha year the teaching notes are only guidelines for the teacher/parent.
Week 13 - Question: What are the three main types of clouds? Answer: Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus
with pictures and suggested activities.
including matching games, make a cloud, and exten dthe discussion by explaining more specific cloud types that combine the different types and add prefixes. Straocumulus, nimbostratus, cumulonimbus and so forth.
Does this help any?
JMJ Trish
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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 30 2013 at 11:56am | IP Logged
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Wow- thanks everyone for all this great information. Trish and Martha- thanks for taking the time to write out samples of the science questions.
It's very helpful to get a feel for how the program works.
I'm thinking that you are doing other science programs along with this?
I do so wish I could get my hands on a copy of the full program to see if/how I might incorporate all of it.
There are just so many neat things available these days. My poor kids- sometimes I feel like they are little tea cups and I am trying to fill them with a swimming pool. 
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Martha
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I don't do a formal science text below 4th grade. CCM plus whatever science is in FIAR readings and discovered outdoors is about it.
ETA: 4th or 5th grade I like Real Science 4 Kids. And I have other stuff on the shelves that I'll use sometimes too. Seton or Kolbe mostly for middle school.
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jawgee
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SeaStar wrote:
Wow- thanks everyone for all this great information. Trish and Martha- thanks for taking the time to write out samples of the science questions.
It's very helpful to get a feel for how the program works.
I'm thinking that you are doing other science programs along with this?
I do so wish I could get my hands on a copy of the full program to see if/how I might incorporate all of it.
There are just so many neat things available these days. My poor kids- sometimes I feel like they are little tea cups and I am trying to fill them with a swimming pool. |
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Where do you live? Did you check the CCM website to see if there is a co-op near you?
The one I facilitate is having an open house in two weeks. Wonder if you can find one near you who might invite you to join them for a day.
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Monica
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CrunchyMom
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Melinda, If you do think you want to use another program for science and just have a "list of lists" so to speak of things to memorize, I think you might prefer Science Scope by Kathryn Stout, which was inexpensive used. I think that if you really just want a science "outline" to sort of make sure you are hitting the high points with whatever program you use, this might be a good resource. Jen Mack has recommended it a few times. It offers a lot of the same sort of information, suggestions, and lists like what Trish shared, it is just organized by subject, and within the subject, it is organized by grade level (primary, intermediate, jr. high, and sr. high).
Obviously, you'd still have to do a bit of digging and organizing to turn it into "memory work," but it doesn't sound like you are really looking for a formal science program with lessons but rather a supplement. To me, CCM would work really well if you wanted to build your science around the memory lessons, but if you are already wanting to do something else for science, I think Science Scope would help you put together your own memory work pretty painlessly.
I also have Andrew Campbell's Living Memory, and since I added tabs, it is a useful tool. There is a science section, which is helpful to skim the "lists of lists" and pull for memory work, but I certainly would not buy it just for the science! But, I imagine the science section covers the same material as CCM, just without the suggested activities to correspond. I do like having the suggestions for other subjects, though, and it will certainly be a tool we can use all the way through high school. To me, it is a nice compromise between "scrounging" and committing to a program, allowing for flexibility to choose the work that relates to other things we are studying.
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SeaStar
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jawgee wrote:
SeaStar wrote:
Wow- thanks everyone for all this great information. Trish and Martha- thanks for taking the time to write out samples of the science questions.
It's very helpful to get a feel for how the program works.
I'm thinking that you are doing other science programs along with this?
I do so wish I could get my hands on a copy of the full program to see if/how I might incorporate all of it.
There are just so many neat things available these days. My poor kids- sometimes I feel like they are little tea cups and I am trying to fill them with a swimming pool. |
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Where do you live? Did you check the CCM website to see if there is a co-op near you?
The one I facilitate is having an open house in two weeks. Wonder if you can find one near you who might invite you to join them for a day. |
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Thanks, Monica- I looked up my state, but there is only one here, and it is not close at all. We are just a very small HS group in my town. Still, though, you never know what the future holds...
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SeaStar
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Thanks for the suggestions, LIndsay.
I just need to sit down and mull all these options over. The hard thing is not having any of these resources available locally or at the library, so I can't look at them and see which would work best for us.
Back to the praying board...
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TxTrish
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We use Apologia Science for formal science.
Goes great together, really nicely.
You're right , there are so many fabolous resources available its hard to choose.
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Becca
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Thank you for all the information! I'm going to be ordering it for the fall and I'm really excited! 
One question, Is the history completely chronological? Or does it go more by civilization?
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anitamarie
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The history is chronological. The timeline is the same for all 4 years. The history sentences are by time period. The history sentences for Alpha year start with Creation and end with the Roman Empire.
God Bless,
Anita
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AmandaV
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I started a new thread on Schola Rosa as I couldn't find a specific one. So click on over if you have experience with it and can give a review.
I'm asking this for a friend nearby who is not on the boards. She is looking at using Schola Rosa next year as her main program. She and a friend are starting a CCM co-op using Alpha year, as well, but its a good 45 minutes from me and I'm not willing to do that twice a month after an two days out of the house per week this year. Also as I'm expecting in January, I don't feel up to taking on a subject to teach at the co-op. Hopefully I won't regret that -maybe if it takes off I'll join them for Beta the next year.
So the question is, have any of you used Schola Rosa? From the site it looks like it is really only beginning this Fall? Have you used parts of it? Have you looked at it? I'm just wanting to get her some reviews, and I am curious myself, though I'm pretty sure I'll stick with my own tweaking of MA with a Circe-like Classical bent.. :)
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jawgee
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We are finishing up our co-op for Alpha year, and I just got the materials in the mail for Beta year. Eeek. I'm excited. I am so thankful that there is such a great resource like CCM!
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Martha in VA
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I stumbled onto this thread while researching reviews of CCM. Could someone tell me how what year in history the Delta level goes through? We'll be studying 1850-modern day and I'm curious how far into "modern' history CCM covers. Thanks so much!
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Martha
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The last history for week 18 in Delta is about the civil rights movement and the act passed in 1964.
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pumpkinmom
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We have been using this program for 5 weeks now and we are getting ready to start week 3. It seems we need to spend about two weeks on each week of work, but they aren't memorizing much of it. It really isn't going too smoothly. My boys don't like it and they tell me they can't memorize the stuff. I try to encourage and when they do get stuff memorized I praise them.
I think my biggest issue is the fact that it seems senseless to memorize stuff outside of context. It becomes boring for all of us. I love the idea of this program but I guess it just not our style. I do think my boys need to work better on memorizing stuff. I'm tempting to come up with something that goes along exactly with what we are learning in our subjects. I do love the geography, Latin, and Great Words!
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jawgee
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Cassie, are you doing this just as a family? I don't think CCM would be enjoyable in that setting for my kids. Do you have any opportunities to join together with a couple of other families? If it wasn't for our co-op (that I organized last year), I don't think we would continue with CCM. The time with their friends is part of the draw for my kids.
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Monica
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Classically Catholic Memory?
