Product Review: Explore Science by Home Science Tools - Space and Plants
Home Science Tools is one of my favorite sites to look for science projects to do with the kids. They have a number of science curriculum available, guides to help you select the best curriculum for your needs, and kits to help provide some of the tools needed for experiments. They have also created their own topic specific curriculum for early elementary. Topics include scientific skills, animals, plants, seasons, space and states of matter. Guides include adaptations for advanced/older students, younger students, special needs students, and small group settings. We tested out space and plants.
Explore Science: Space
This teacher's guide creates four lesson themes. Some supplies are provided including an inflatable globe, and activity pages are included in the back. Topics covered include the relationship between the Earth and the sun, revolution versus rotation modeling (year and day), lunar phases, Earth's layers, and the solar system. We enjoyed activities modeling size with Cheerios, lunar phases with oreos, and the layers of the Earth with oreos, chocolate sauce and M&Ms. The worksheets were easy to understand and matched the lessons well. My kids don't really need the mnemonics to help remember the planet order, but they include the standard My Very Educated Mother mnemonic. The planetary distance scale was easy to follow and the kids love to model the solar system. Whether you are new to the space race or know all of Jupiter's moons by name (side note only 53 of the 79 moons are named), there are lots of fun activities to share the solar system with your kids.
Explore Science: Plants
This teacher's guide has four lesson themes. Unlike the space lessons, because these lessons involve growing plants, some of the lessons will take multiple weeks. Some supplies are included like seeds, bird seed and some plastic cups. Topics covered growing plants, plants' needs, seed dissection, plant parts and their jobs, and plants as food. We watched seeds grow through plastic to see the roots and leaves sprout. We used vocabulary like seed coat, embryo, and cotyledon. We dissected beans soaked overnight, although corn could also be used or compared. Watching the leaf bubble was a fun experiment, but note that the bubbles might be hard to see without a magnifying glass and will depend on how recently the leaf was removed. I love using food coloring or liquid water color with celery or white flowers to show how water travels through the plant. This guide uses a weed with roots attached to demonstrate that lesson and the removal of the weed demonstrates the importance of weeds. My favorite lesson was the last theme. It was great to chart out some of the plants we eat by the part that we actually eat - roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. It's great to try some of the plant parts that we haven't eaten before. My black thumb didn't help our plants survive long, but the kids learned their lessons and enjoyed the activities.
Explore Science: Space
This teacher's guide creates four lesson themes. Some supplies are provided including an inflatable globe, and activity pages are included in the back. Topics covered include the relationship between the Earth and the sun, revolution versus rotation modeling (year and day), lunar phases, Earth's layers, and the solar system. We enjoyed activities modeling size with Cheerios, lunar phases with oreos, and the layers of the Earth with oreos, chocolate sauce and M&Ms. The worksheets were easy to understand and matched the lessons well. My kids don't really need the mnemonics to help remember the planet order, but they include the standard My Very Educated Mother mnemonic. The planetary distance scale was easy to follow and the kids love to model the solar system. Whether you are new to the space race or know all of Jupiter's moons by name (side note only 53 of the 79 moons are named), there are lots of fun activities to share the solar system with your kids.
Explore Science: Plants
This teacher's guide has four lesson themes. Unlike the space lessons, because these lessons involve growing plants, some of the lessons will take multiple weeks. Some supplies are included like seeds, bird seed and some plastic cups. Topics covered growing plants, plants' needs, seed dissection, plant parts and their jobs, and plants as food. We watched seeds grow through plastic to see the roots and leaves sprout. We used vocabulary like seed coat, embryo, and cotyledon. We dissected beans soaked overnight, although corn could also be used or compared. Watching the leaf bubble was a fun experiment, but note that the bubbles might be hard to see without a magnifying glass and will depend on how recently the leaf was removed. I love using food coloring or liquid water color with celery or white flowers to show how water travels through the plant. This guide uses a weed with roots attached to demonstrate that lesson and the removal of the weed demonstrates the importance of weeds. My favorite lesson was the last theme. It was great to chart out some of the plants we eat by the part that we actually eat - roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. It's great to try some of the plant parts that we haven't eaten before. My black thumb didn't help our plants survive long, but the kids learned their lessons and enjoyed the activities.
Space and plants. I would be in heaven. Include a few dinosaurs and I will be over the moon.
ReplyDelete