science curriculum (middle school)

BinahYeteirah

Sun, May 13 2012, 6:29 pm

Yes, I am using BFSU with my kids. This year, they were a 4th grader, a 1st grader, and a 3/4-year-old (plus the baby who is too young to participate) and we used the K-2 level. We plan to continue with the K-2 level this coming year. I feel the curriculum can be adjusted to fit several different levels, so even though my oldest is two or three years above the suggested range, I think she still gets a lot out of it. The same goes for my preschool age kid; even though it isn't designed for him, he enjoys tagging along and I think he is gaining something.

It isn't what I would call an "open-and-go" type of curriculum, but it's not too difficult to pull together. I will say that I am very relaxed about science; we get to it when we get to it and we keep it fun. To prepare, I read the lesson, put a bunch of related books from the library on hold, and gather any needed materials for the demonstrations. Reading the lesson is the most difficult aspect, because the author is more verbose than he needs to be in his instructions, making simple things sound complicated. The book lists suggested reading that you can check out from the library (or buy if you like and have the money). I get similar titles at different reading levels to accommodate each of my kids. The higher reading level books naturally have more detailed information, so my oldest can learn about the topic at a more advanced level. most of the needed materials for the demonstrations are things you would have around the house or could easily obtain.

I don't remember the ages of the child(ren) you are homeschooling, so I cannot make a recommendation on which level you should get. Even if the child(ren) are middle school age, it depends how much science education they've had up to this point. Many schools don't do a lot. I haven't seen the next levels, so I am not sure how much knowledge is assumed. I think the demonstrations do require more equipment in the higher levels (microscope, etc.).

granolamom

Sun, May 13 2012, 8:30 pm

thanks binah

I'm homeschooling an 11 yo, he's had a decent amount of science in school up until this point, he remembers most of what he reads but its been so dry and boring he's totally turned off from science (unbelievable travesty to me!)
the BFSU site seems to imply that even when starting 'later on' one would start with the first book to be sure that the student doesnt have any gaps. but I dont want to bore him any further! he's a pretty strong student but easily turned off.

I'm a bit confused also, about how to use the book. maybe once I get it this will be more clear, but the concept of 'threads' that you pick and choose but still need to follow sequence seems contradictory and confusing to me.

:::sigh::: I'm wishing I had started hs'ing sooner

BinahYeteirah

Mon, May 14 2012, 12:39 am

granolamom wrote:

I'm homeschooling an 11 yo, he's had a decent amount of science in school up until this point, he remembers most of what he reads but its been so dry and boring he's totally turned off from science (unbelievable travesty to me!)
the BFSU site seems to imply that even when starting 'later on' one would start with the first book to be sure that the student doesnt have any gaps. but I dont want to bore him any further! he's a pretty strong student but easily turned off.

I'm not sure what to recommend with this. Many of the concepts are actually quite advanced. I think that you could definitely skip lessons if you feel that your son really gets those particular concepts. You could talk with him, maybe using some of the discussion questions suggested in the lessons to feel out what he really understands. Sometimes kids are made to learn vocabulary and study for tests, etc., yet don't really understand things. I think that is one of the reasons the author wrote the curriculum; his students had had years of science, but didn't understand the most basic concepts of science thoroughly. For example, despite learning about gases and states of matter, many kids think that air is "nothing". I paid about $15 for my used copy of BFSU. It's relatively inexpensive and you can sell it if you don't think it will work for you. Some people buy the e-book or .pdf; one of them is only $5 on the author's website. It's nicer to have a hard copy if you do actually end up using the curriculum, but it is a cheap way to check it out. Maybe you could even get it from your library or through an inter-library loan.

granolamom wrote:

I'm a bit confused also, about how to use the book. maybe once I get it this will be more clear, but the concept of 'threads' that you pick and choose but still need to follow sequence seems contradictory and confusing to me.

Yes, this part seems to bother a lot of people using or considering using the curriculum. If you go to the Yahoo group for BFSU, the author posted a suggested sequence for the lessons. Other people have posted the sequences they used online in various places. If you do decide to use the curriculum, you can simply follow one of these. I have not done that at this time, largely because, so far, I have not planned ahead which lessons I do. In the K-2 book (not sure if it's the same through the other books as well), there are four threads of lessons. Each lesson has some prerequisite lessons (excepting the first few lessons that do not assume any prior knowledge) that must be done before doing that lesson. So, in order to do a lesson about air being a mixture of gasses, one must have already done the lessons about the states of matter, air being a substance, the particulate nature of matter, distinguishing materials, distinguishing plants and animals, and kinetic and potential energy in order to fully understand the lesson. So there is some flexibility in the order of the lessons, but the prerequisites limit that. I think the idea is to show how the different fields of science are interrelated, rather than doing a year of all life science or earth science without seeing how that relates to the other areas in science.