Friday, October 22, 2010

Education Question

My sister is teaching science this year
to various ages of orphans in Romania
(she has a degree in science FYI)
and is looking for more ideas for
science curriculum,
especially curriculum that has experiments/activities included.
I know that various of my readers
are homeschooling
their children.
So can you suggestion curriculum for the sciences?
We are looking for a wide spectrum of ages -
from grade 1 to 10.
Right now they are going over background
concepts in Science,
like gas/liquid/solids
and density;
experiments that can demonstrate
the background scientific concepts
would be helpful.
Also if you know of authoritative websites for
science experiments
or good science textbooks or workbooks
that are not in a set curriculum
that is also good to know.
We are hoping that Rebecca can get more supplies when
God willing
she is back in the States for Christmas.
Please share any / all of your suggestions...
even if it is just other places to look
or people to ask.
Thanks!

10 comments:

Peacocks and Sunflowers said...

A friend of mine in Seattle does this: http://www.candyexperiments.com/ Science and fun - though I can imagine children might be reluctant to use up sweets in an experiment!

DebD said...

I would recommend she check out Rainbow Resources. They have tons of science activity books and curriculum.

http://www.rainbowresource.com
Good luck!

elizabeth said...

Thanks Anna - I will pass this along... yeah, hard to lose sweets this way but still, will let my sister know!

Thanks Deb! I was hoping you would be able to comment! :) Really appreciate it!

biss said...

M. would like to know what the picture is.

elizabeth said...

Biss -

tell M. that it is part of a big glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly - http://www.chihuly.com/ -that I took at the Meijer Fredrick Gardens in MI in August...

Martha said...

How old are the children? If they are younger than 7...they really should not be doing EXPERIMENTS that are "magical" but having EXPERIENCES. I have taken classes on science and clarification of this...often experiments are interesting, but not easily understood. We do a lot of simple water table activities...using:
*large bin
*funnel
*hose
*small containers
*turkey baster
*soap
*manual egg beaters (use with soap to make foam)
a child can explore the properties of water, make predictions, watching it overflow, how fast it goes through the funnel, learning physics, a little chemistry, measuring cups? or using old recycled containers from your kitchen!
Also you can do the same things with sand...simple, but valuable.

elizabeth said...

Hey Marfa,

Thanks for your comment... the kids are from the 1st grade through the 10th grade and even older. So I would say most of them are over the age of 7 for sure...

really appreciate your thoughts, thanks!

Martha said...

I see that it varies from Grades 1 to 10 and just to get her thinking:

http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/science/SciLearnExp5_E11.05.pdf

These are appropriate open-ended questions you can ask the students, that will help them to use critical thinking, no one answer will be correct...and good for any age!

elizabeth said...

Thanks Marfa! Will pass this on ... I found a lot of fun stuff when I was doing some google searching for my sis as well. But I had not found this one! :) Thanks again!

TheraP said...

I had a wonderful book once called "Teaching Science with Garbage" - and I bet your sister could improvise. I really don't recall much about it, but simply consider that the materials cost almost nothing - decaying fruits, vegetables, things like that. She likely can come up with the ideas herself, simply by considering what could be done with the "garbage".