Jul. 2, 2008 - High School Forensic Science

    This past year we really struggled with science for our oldest.  We started out with Apologia Biology because that’s just what you do, right?  Well it is for most college bound high schoolers but we found ourselves struggling through it. 

We had to take a good hard look at , “...train them in the way they should go…” verse.   You know we all say that and know that but, “the state says…”  It’s a fine line.  How much do we do what we think is right for our child or follow along with everyone else?  It’s different for every state but the first step is to take a look at what really is required.  HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense) has a section on state laws which may be a good place to start.  You might be surprised at what you find. 

For instance in MI where I live most people follow (and some think the requirement is) Physical, Biology, Chemistry and then Physics for high school science.   Direct from the Michigan Department of Education website, it states for Science you need only 3 credits (years), one Biology, one Physics or Chemistry and one additional science.  It does also state they need to be lab sciences.  It pays to check it out.  I’m not suggesting we don’t comply with the minimum state requirements only think outside the box at times about them!

So after much struggle in our first semester we dropped Biology and switched to Forensic Science.  It’s much more interesting for my son.  We are only half way through since we did Biology the first half of last year but it is much easier to get him to get his reading, study guides and labs done.  (Not that he doesn’t still occasionally complain…)  The topics include ballistic’s (gun parts and stuff), fingerprinting (he lifted prints for his lab), soil/hair/fiber analysis, DNA, and more…

Now, I would like to tell you he’s doing fabulous with it and it’s now his favorite subject but that’s not true.  He still hates science as much as he always had and he’s still not getting an A but at least he is somewhat interested in this topic and it’s not like pulling teeth to get him to do it.  It makes for a much better mom (teacher)/son relationship!

The program I found is available on line for free.  I recommend it though you will want to preview it and possibly modify for your child.  For instance one of the assignments uses the autopsy report for Jon Boney Ramsey.  We are skipping that part as I felt it was a little too graphic.  There’re a few things like that.  Some you may decide are okay and some you may want to modify.  As they reach adulthood they are going to be exposed to some unpleasantness in the world (especially if they are considering this field) and you may want to use this as an opportunity to put it into a Christian Worldview perspective.

Jun. 25, 2008 - Biology

Okay, I've written a blog about our struggle with Biology (I'll try and get that posted tomorrow, maybe?)  But at any rate, I just came across this giveaway for Biology 101.  It's a really neat DVD series that if I had seen before we tried what we did (you'll have to wait for the blog on that) I would have bought.  It could be a really need way to do a more ecclectic style of high school biology.

Check out this site for a chance to win one of three free copies they are giving away!  Good luck!

Gina

Apr. 1, 2008 - Science fair

This weekend was our science fair.  Spring is such a busy time for us that I didn't require my children to participate but told them if they wanted to and could do it on their own that was fine.  Ariel took a lot of the information, mostly on animals, we did with our Julie of the Wolves/Iditarod study and made it into her project.  Initially, my second to oldest had wanted to do a project as well but when Hunters safetly class came up on the same day he opted to take that.

Ariel was so excited the night before and the morning of the fair.  She had made a quiz game with questions and couldn't wait to quiz people who visited her display.  We bought a bag of penny candy for her to reward those who answered correctly so she was popular with the kids!  She just loves to talk (can't imagine where she gets that), so she was in Heaven sharing her knowledge with anyone who would listen!

With our science fair we try to do a competition with something the kids can create.  Last year it was catapults.  This year we did race cars.  It was a fun project for them.  Grandpa came and worked on the cars with them.  They created a plan on paper and then he helped them cut and create.  We had been sick the last two weeks so they only got painted the day before but it was dry!   They raced in age groups which was nice so more kids could win.  My youngest got 1st and my other two who participated got second places.  They enjoyed that but more than anything they just had fun with it!

The blue and red car is Taylors, he was at hunters safetly so the girls ran the car for him. 

Gina

Feb. 29, 2008 - Weather field trip

We got to go on a field trip this week to our local TV studio for a look at how they do the weather forecast. Mike Hoffman of WNDU, South Bend Indiana was very fun and informative with the kids.

My youngest daughter was so funny, that morning she decided to make a “Weather notebook”.  From the time we arrived in the parking lot to the car ride home she was “taking notes”.  Now, you have to remember she is in 2^nd grade and this is very “free” writing, not copy work.  I’ve tried to read it with her and we are able to decipher most of it. 

I just asked her if I could quote from her book.  You would not believe how excited she is!  This is from the top of page 2, “theay hav los iv sat lits owt sit”.  Did you get that?  Translation:  They have lots of satellites outside.  I’ve tried to write above the words what they actually are so hopefully someday she will look back and be able to see what she was thinking and laugh!  I’ll end this part with a quote from page 8, “I hop you er havin fin reding thes book.  Translation:  I hope you are having fun reading this book.  What is so cool is she is writing and writing away, creating a habit of writing!

This day was one of those “opportunities” I spoke of in yesterdays blog.  We just happened to hear another mom was planning on doing this and invited us.  It’s nice we can be flexible with our schedule and take advantage of these things.  We just started our unit on Weather in Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space so it worked into our plans very nicely (just as if God planned it!)

They had the most fun I think with the green screen!  All the kids got a chance to stand in front of it and see themselves in the monitor.  It was fun to hear them try and “do” the weather.  It made you realize they really do pay more attention to the news when it’s on then you think they do!

Jan. 31, 2008 - The Atmosphere

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on some science so here’s the latest on our lesson on the atmosphere. 

The assignment (from Christian Kids study Earth and Space) was to recreate the layers on the wall.  We didn’t make ours’ as large as the recommendation but you get the idea.  The girls really had fun creating the troposphere (one closet to earth), showing all the tree’s, weather etc… 

I really liked this one as it was something we didn’t need unusual supplies to create!  I’m not always so good at having the dirt, gravel, Epsom salts or whatever on hand.  These hands on things just really help the kids remember not only the facts but the experience.  I want them to grow up with some fond memories of our “school” time.

Jan. 10, 2008 - Water Folderbook

As you can see, these are very child directed.  We use the templete pack from Hands of a Child and they really do it themselves.  Most of the books we do look similar to this.  This year we’ve got two planned that are “pre-done” the rest are their own creations.  I kind of like it that way.  It helps them learn to plan.  Are they perfect? No, but that’s okay.

We didn’t get all the labs done with this unit.  Two of them needed gravel and dirt  (wrong time of year for that.)  Thought I had some potting soil in the shed…guess not.  Oh, well moving forward!

p.s. I just tried to place the link for the templete pack from Hands of a Child but apparently the site's not working right now.   I'll try again later.  It's at handsofachild.com if you want to try yourself.

Nov. 12, 2007 - Creation Museum

We finally got to go to the New Creation Museum.  Some friends of ours went the same day so we got a group rate (you need 15 or more).  It was an awesome day!

The museum is done so well.  Everything is very professional, much like Disney type displays/movies etc…, except of course without the million years.  Have you ever been to Epcot?  We love it, great place to learn but many references you have to “filter”.  We even skip the one on the sea because there’s so many but I digress…

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We ate lunch in the picnic pavilion.  God blessed us with a mild but windy November day.  The grounds there are beautiful.  I can only imagine in a few years what it will look like when it all “grows” in!  As we walked over they had a walk through a “swamp” looking area with misters going.  It looked really cool. 

We did do the Planetarium and enjoyed it.  I was hoping for a curriculum to go along with it!  There was so much in the presentation.  To really take it all in I think you’d need it at home where you could watch it over and over or take notes.  They do have a book but you know being the homeschool mom I’m thinking CURRICULUM!  My oldest was at least “mildly” interested and he really does HATE science and certainly what they presented would be high school.  My younger kids enjoyed it too but it was a lot of information.

So if you’ve been thinking of going, go!  Many of the concepts were not new to my kids since that’s all we teach them but it was very reinforcing.  There were many “new” discoveries too that give the kids “ammunition” so to speak.  Things like the dinosaurs red blood cells and soft tissue found recently.  If you do go don’t miss the Men in White show.  It’s the best.  Great effects!

Oh, and yes, we did of course buy something at the book store.  My 12 year old wanted a book on evidence of Dinosaurs.  He promised a report after he read it so we got it for him.  I also had looked at the Pilgrims Progress curriculum and finally got it.  I think we’ll use it next fall.  It will fit in where we’ll be with our MOH II.

Gina

Oct. 1, 2007 - Science project

Last week we had a day with “found” time.  Our choir and orchestra instructor called while we were at Band (7:30 a.m.) and said she had hurt her foot and was on crutches so she wouldn’t be teaching that day.  In an instant we had 4 ½ hours FREE!  Nothing was PLANNED!  Yippee!

We each decided to work on a project.  I chose to bake bread.  The house smelled great! 

My youngest Lexie decided to work on a science activity that had gotten scratched from our first week (due to my lack of planning on not having enough salt for salt dough, oops!)  Here’s her results.

It’s one of the activities from Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space.  The colored layers are supposed to represent the different layers of the earth (inner core, outer core, upper mantle, lower mantle, and crust.)

What fun “found” time can be!

Gina

Sep. 4, 2007 - Science timeline

We began our school year today!  All in all it went pretty well.  One thing we accomplished was our science timeline.

Somewhere I had read about doing a timeline in a notebook and connecting the pages of cardstock.  Here’s what we did as my interpretation of what I read.  We took colored cardstock (standard 81/2X11) and 3 hole punched two pieces to be the cover and last page.  We then took 4 more pieces of cardstock and trimmed off 1 inch on the long side. 

We wrote our title on our cover page and decorated it.  Then we drew a line across each of our pages, 5 ½ inch from the ends (exactly in half.)  We taped them side to side with good quality clear tape.  You could use packing tape but I didn’t want it too wide since we’ll be writing on the paper later. 

Once that was done we chose to date our first page “creation – 0”, second page 0-1500, third page 1500-1800 and our last page (back cover) 1800-present.  I chose these based on where I felt most of our information would go.  There are not too many things we’ll be studying from creation to 0 but there are a lot of things from 1700-2000 so those years got more space.  Hope that makes sense.

The kids can leave it in the notebook to look at it or work on it or they can unclip the back page and pull it out full length.   We plan on glueing in some timeline figures as well as writing and drawing some of our own images and notes at various dates.

We’re using Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space this year.  I think making the timeline was the highlight of our first day!  How is your back to school going?

Gina