to our home school year! We started with static electricity, then current electricity, generators and electrical safety. We should be finishing up with making lamps from scratch. More on that later.
Our favorite resources were:
1 The Magic School Bus book- I love the original books - chock full of serious information presented in a fun way that invites co-reading. The books and computer games are also very good for reading to a wide age range. The younger kids pay attention to the semi comic book format and absorb a lot of information, the older kids retain the details and more complex concepts. The only thing they are short on is practical experiments - they have some, but not enough. That's not a quibble, I don't see how much more could be added to the books!
2 Bill Nye the Science Guy - I have most of his shows on tape, but you can usually get them at the library. Fun, manic, ever entertaining, enlightening and encouraging, when I worked at JHU, all the MD PHDs wanted to meet Bill Nye. His tapes are great, even if you want to laugh at the 90s references. We used the episodes Static Electricity , Current Electricity and a more recent episode on Electrical Safety.
3. 1001 Ways to Explore Science and Nature - This is a very useful and kid friendly book which fills the gap between Mudpies to Magnets (a truly terrific book for toddlers to kindergarteners) and 730 Easy Science Experiments (great for 4th grade and up) with a lot of overlap in either direction. In this case, we made a static electricity detector (electroscope) and had lots of fun with balloons, combs, water, salt, etc.
4. Snap Circuits - These were an expensive investment 3 years ago when Mxyl was old enough to start using them. I wouldn't have gotten them. Fortunately, Grammy stepped in and said, "How about as a Christmas present?" If I knew then what I know now, I would have sprung for them. Today Mxyl deftly explained, modeled and helped Klenda, Zorg, and Leena build a variety of circuits (including teaching me what a short circuit is and how it works!). Along the way he modeled conductors, insulators, resistors, fans, lights, telegraphs, sirens and more! WOW! Substitute teachers are cool!!!
Hm. Oob just climbed on my lap and I discovered that he had no diaper. Hm. A second Diaper Houdini. Got to go.
1 comment:
Sounds Electrifying!
yuk yuk yuk...P is very excited to see Bill Nye (the science guy..we can never say it alone)has a new show starting on the Green Channel.
We have many of his original videos
given to her by my little brother (I bought them for him when he was her age).
- We also love the Magic School Bus books and videos (got many of those from freecycle)
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