Win a $600 Science Mastery Program!
The e-Camp Science contest is online and ready for you to upload your science experiments and projects to. It will be open to the public to vote on. This means that you can invite whomever you like to vote. Go to this link to enter a project in the contest…
My Secret to Teaching Science
How to Teach Science That Kids Really Enjoy AND That’s Easy To Teach.
You CAN do this for your own kids. It’s not that hard. You just need to know the right steps AND sequence. Kind of like baking a cake. You need the right ingredients, AND you need to mix them in the right order. In this slide-show presentation, I’m going to share with you…
- How to teach your kids science in a way that makes it a part of understanding the world around them (not as some abstract concepts in a book).
- How to make learning real science totally fun for your kids (and I mean both the hands-on experiments AND the academic stuff that they should know).
- How to get your kids super-excited about learning science (or any subject)
- The easy way to teach science, even if you’re not exactly a science guru yourself.
- How to teach your kids the kind of hands-on science that will help them be successful in life when they finally head off to college or to find a job (even if it’s not in a science-related field).
- And much, much more!
I’ve never done this type of presentation before, so please be patient with me! Sometimes I get off on a tangent and take forever to change to the next slide… but I promise, it’s worth it. If you take away only one or two small things that can really make a difference for your kids (and you), then it was worth your time.
10 Universities Offering Free Science Courses Online
Did you know that some of the most prestigious universities now offer free science courses online? Some include audio and videos of lectures, course reading, etc. If you’ve got an advanced child who’s sped through the typical high school textbook, then these courses are for you.
The best part? You can go at your own pace, and they are all free.
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Long-Term Effects of Not Fulfilling Your Child’s Passion for Science
Most kids love the idea of science – of building things, creating inventions, and getting stuff to work by using their own two hands. Kids have a natural passion for science. The problem comes in when the parent feels they can’t meet this need in their child, and they struggle with how to fulfill it.
We’re going to take a look at what happens long-term when you don’t meet this need, and how you can avoid these pitfalls by following three simple steps today. But first, let’s take a look at what passion really is.
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Having a passion for science isn’t a switch that gets flipped on one minute and off the next. Rather it is the result of small and consistent actions taken every day. If these actions empower your child and nurture their curiosity, then you’ll see the interest spark into a flame of passion and creativity.
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of textbooks and teachers out there that do the exact opposite – they slowly chip away at a student’s passion, not consciously aware that they are doing it, until one day that passion for science disappears altogether.
This article is the result of interviewing dozens of people who have had this experience specifically in science, and the issues they face today as adults. All of these folks have one thing in common: they once had a brilliant spark of interest for science, but ‘something happened’ along the way. These people are from all over the board: auto mechanics, grocery store managers, hair dressers, stay-at-home moms, newspaper journalists, and one even was still flipping burgers. They feel an innate regret about being turned off to science, not knowing why or how it happened.
We are going to take a look at the effects of not feeding a child’s passion for science, some of which might be new for you to think about. I share this with you now you can learn from people who already know what the road ahead looks like. If you find you’re doing some of the things here, don’t feel bad – someone may have not told you about this before. We’re also going to look at the three simple things you can do to avoid this type of future for your child.
Are you ready to get started?
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Seven Essential Steps to a Rock-Solid Scientific Journal
Once you’ve gotten into the habit of Grab, Title, and Record, now it’s time to put a little more structure into the ‘Record’ section. I’m going to share with you how we teach engineering students to keep their lab books at the University. This is the same techniques used by astronomers, automotive designers, nuclear engineers, and NASA scientists.
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When you use this approach when working through the activities, projects, and experiments in the eScience program, you will have a rock-solid documentation that will pass any curriculum adviser, college-entrance examiner, or state required documentation. And it will be organized, easy to use, and rewarding to flip through years later.
Once your notebook is completed, you can easily match it with your state’s requirements for science (see Bonus Ideas below), provide it as a writing sample with your college application (especially if it contains photos of you taking data, but you might want to send a copy and not the original), and show it (as you work through it) it to your homeschool organization curriculum adviser.
By documenting your work in this way, you are setting one of the corner foundations of being a real scientist. Your experiments aren’t going to be useful if you can’t tell other people about it. There’s a standard format that most scientists follow, and that’s what we’re going to cover here. When you practice these seven essential steps, your child will be light-years ahead of the game when they hit college. Your kids will not just know the steps on an intellectual level, but it will become built into their system and be a guide as they work through their experiments for years to come.
NOTE: This article picks up where How to Keep a Scientific Journal left off. Be sure to read the first part before starting here!
Here’s what you need to know:
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NEW! Lesson Plans with each unit!
You’ll notice that we now have official ‘Lesson Plans’ with each unit – simply click on the unit you want, and the link to the down loadable Lesson Plan will appear as a link on the right.
Each Lesson Plan includes objectives, key vocabulary, highlights, an outline of what your child should learn with this unit as well as activities, exercises (with answers!) and light textbook reading.
The lesson plans are still They are still under final review, but we thought you’d want a sneak peek at them first! Can you help us with the grammar and typos? Simply send us an email with corrections if you spot any, and we’ll fix it right up.
Did you know that we also have Curriculum Conversion Charts?
The Six Keys to Teaching Homeschool Science
As a hands-on science teacher who some kids think is a bit wild, I’ve found that there are certain very specific keys to teaching science well, and without getting burnt out doing it (especially important for me, because groups regularly hire me to do multi-day science workshops for hundreds of homeschool kids). Actually, these keys just the opposite of how most schools try to teach science.
You’ll learn my 6 keys to getting kids to want to learn science, and for teaching it in a way that takes less time and is more effective (Otherwise known as the 6 mistakes parents make in teaching homeschool science).
Some of the topics we’ll cover include:
- How to teach science in a way that really works. Your kids will learn better and it will take you less time to teach it!
- How you can include academic material in a way that gets kids really excited about learning more.
- How to take what kids learn from an intellectual level of understanding to an everyday applied level. This way they’ll learn the foundation they really need to be successful in college and especially when they go looking for a job someday.
- …and more!
Here’s how to access this information:
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Conversion Charts
Are you using another curriculum alongside the eScience program? This match-up sheet will help you really bring the scientific principles from your textbook to life and show you which experiments and activities work best with the chapter you currently on.
Note: The eScience program does not cover creation nor evolution so ALL families can participate with our programs. The conversion charts we provide are for most requested texts from our members. For other curriculum, simply email us your TOC and we’ll create a conversion chart for you and post it here.
Click on the link below to download the PDF file.
A Beka
Apologia
Bob Jones
God’s Design
Real Science 4 Kids
Alpha Omega Switched On School House and Lifepac Series
If you also own the Science Mastery Program, here are the conversion charts between Science Mastery and e-Science:
Science Mastery Program (Silver, Gold, and Diamond) Topics and Subject Areas
Which Materials Do I Need to Get? Determine which materials you can use from your Science Mastery box(es) with the e-Science program
What science stuff does my child REALLY need to learn?
When I teach a science class, this is the questions I get asked most: “What science stuff does my child need to learn?” Parents are wondering exactly what bases they should cover for their kids to understand science before they hit the high school or college scene.
This is a difficult question to answer, partly because it depends on what your ultimate goals are. If your child wants to just get his feet wet and see what all the fuss is about, then grab a couple of science kits and just play. On the other hand, if your kid reads every science text on the planet and is still thirsty for more, there are a few basics you can cover to be sure she is both well-rounded and happy about learning.
There are 18 main principles in science, ten of which kids need to know and understand before they hit college. (As a college professor myself, I’ve seen senior students struggle with these basics that they should have mastered years ago.) And these principles are…Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.
“What does my child really need to learn in science?”
Have you ever picked up a textbook, filled out a worksheet, or done a science activity and wondered…“What is my child really learning with this?” Parents wonder exactly what bases they should cover for their kids to understand science before they hit the high school or college scene.
Before you can teach your kid science, you’re going to need a basic science understanding yourself. We’ve prepared a science quiz to see where you are and how you’re doing. This is portion of the same quiz we give the kids during our science workshop, so you can test them again after the workshop is over to see how well they’ve pick up the stuff. So take a few minutes and give it your best shot. Good luck.
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