Interest Led Science and The Big Field Trip!

The only subject I didn't actually have a set "curriculum" for this past year was science.   I was fairly confident I could piece together units that interested the children from resources we already had at home.  When I sat down to really look back at the year I was so proud of what the children had accomplished.  What I'm most proud of is that the curriculum was interest led by Miss B and GMan!

These are the topics we studied in science over the past year:

The Water Cycle

The Human Body

The Solar System/Space Travel

Mammals of North America

Trees and Flowers

Seashells

Dinosaurs
Random Experiments (Color Changing Milk, Cleaning Pennies, Pop Bottle Science, The Amazing Egg.... and more!)

In typical homeschool fashion, when we took a field trip last week to Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, all of our learning came FULL CIRCLE!    It was a  review of our science year, and I hadn't even planned for that.    I knew the museum was fabulous, but we hadn't been in several years and I just wanted a fun day with friends.  

I want to share our trip with you because there are some GREAT resources we used throughout the year which you might want to take advantage of as your are planning for the upcoming year.

Our first stop in the museum was in the new Nature Quest exhibit!  Wow - what a wealth of information and FUN we found here.   The children had just finished a small unit about trees, and we found many things to reinforce our learning, including this awesome replica of a tree to show the growth rings.  We've also been gardening and learning a lot about flowers, and Nature Quest had so much information about both!

Next stop was the Sensing Nature area, where the kids did everything from playing with HUGE bubbles, to forecasting the weather, learn about sound waves, and learn a little more about the miracles inside the human body.   Here's GMan watching how his pupils respond to light.  Remember when we studied the human body WAY BACK IN THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR?  We had used a great CD Rom, My Amazing Human Body, which was so much fun, and we also did a unit based on the Magic School Bus book,  Inside the Human Body.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is how much homeschoolers learn from EACH OTHER!    We went with another family to the museum and their oldest child was so good with the younger ones.

 We also spent a couple of weeks doing a Download 'N Go Unit about Seashells.  Lo and behold, there was a huge seashell exhibit (The World of Shells) at Fernbank, with a huge display about the Chambered Nautilus, one of the kids' favorite shells.

Next, during the Walk Through Georgia exhibit, there was a display about mammals.    One of the children's favorite books this past year was the Burgess Book of Animals, all about mammals found in North America.   This book can be read free online - it is a gem!   I did a huge post about this book and another DVD about mammals we got from the library, as well.

Dinosaurs have been the focus of GMan's science for the past month.   I put together a dinosaur unit (you can find it here) and we all learned so much.    The look on the kids' faces when we walked in the museum and saw the huge replicas of the dinosaur skeletons was priceless!

Each of our science units were done together by my nine and six year olds.  I geared materials up or down for each child and I think it worked well.   Next year I am contemplating using an Apologia text so I have more structure.    While all of these units were fun, I was worn out planning everything!

What was your favorite science unit from this past year?   Do you have a favorite resource?  (Mine has to be all of the Magic School Bus books -- they are awesome!!)

*Linking up to Science Sunday and Favorite Resource This Week --- visit these sites to find some awesome ideas! 

Science With Tops Learning Systems

Our current science unit is all about plants. We've planted our garden, read books about planting and seeds, are working on a seeds lapbook, and starting this past week we began a five week Tops Science unit about corn and beans. This unit came from Sonlight science, so they sent everything we would need in a nifty box - boy, did that make preparing for this unit EASY! (If you get the stand alone unit, however, the teacher's guide is very specific about what you will need, and it's a lot of common household items.) The webiste also provides a TON of teaching tips and resources.

The very first day my daughter made her lab journal - very official for her. There are 25 total days in this study, and most of the days have lab sheets to fill out in detail. It was easy to assemble, and then she decorated the cover.

I helped her with making a balance (great direction following skills here!), a bean pole, and a planter for her seeds. Starting tomorrow we will be planting.

This particular unit is recommended for grades 4-10. It is challenging, but nothing we can't handle, and I love the sophisticated, yet humorous layout of the lessons. Here's a sample from their website:

I would recommend science from Tops - looks like they have a ton of resources/materials to choose from. We're enjoying it so far!

What's your favorite science resource??

Science Sunday - Bill Nye The Science Guy Videos for FREE!

Science the past week has consisted of planting, flowers, seeds - you get the picture! We planted in our garden and also in pots on the deck. We planted two pots of Marigolds for on our deck... we are curious whether these will bloom before the Marigolds in our garden. What's your HYPOTHESIS?

Here's a great resource we have been using -- free Bill Nye the Science Guy videos! Follow this link to VEEHD, where you can watch free of charge. It took a few minutes to load a plug-in on my Mac, but it is worth the wait. ITunes also has Bill Nye's episodes available (f0r $1.99 each), but I think FREE is better, don't you?

Enjoy!