Middleschool Science

Tons of options for middleschool science -- both structured and non.

Some local resources to check into:

NC Science House (http://www.science-house.org/index.html ) -- they do all sorts of programs both for middleschool students as well as teachers. It might be worth trying to set something up for homeschoolers.

They offer a great resource called LabWrite that helps students/teachers write lab reports -- online or print version: http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite/ This might be worth working through for a few official labs that we should do this year. They offer tutorials for standard labs, descriptive labs and student-designed labs (great for science fairs!). Under resources, there are many graphical/data type resources -- when to graph, when to use tables. There is also a small section specifically tied to Middleschool lab writing.

A middleschool text reviewer tied to the Science House is:
http://www.science-house.org/middleschool/index.html (last updated 5/2008). It sounds like the Science House has lots of different resources to look at. Would they do a "show and tell" of Middleschool science programs for homeschool parents? (The reviewer: John Hubisz) seems supportive of homeschoolers and said he's answered lots of homeschool inquiries.)

One of his good reviews was for CPO Science texts. (BTW: Part of a 4-company group that has middleschool resources -- should get a catalog but server was down this morning:
http://www.schoolspecialtyscience.com/ -- group includes CPO Science, Delta Education, Frey Scientific and Neo/SCI). Most of CPO's stuff focuses on Investigative Science where kids do activities to explore the different science topics.

Reading level (but Physical Science with Earth/Space might be good for Gr 7/8)
CPO Focus on Earth Science: Grade 6
CPO Focus on Life Science: Grade 7
CPO Focus on Physical Science: Grade 8
Foundations of Physical Science: grades 8-10
Foundations of Physical Science with Earth and Space Science: grades 8-10
Introduction to Earth and Space Science: grades 8-10
Integrated Physics and Chemistry: grades 8-10
Foundations of Physics: grades 10-12 and non-physics-major college students

Atom Building Game: http://www.cpo.com/sc_atombuilding.shtml
A very thorough approach (including electron shells) for talking about atoms and the periodic table. The game is $85 plus a teacher's manual -- but would work great if it was a 2 month class (or some such thing) for upper middleschoolers or lower highschoolers.

This comes from a series of supplemental material that looks good. Could this be used for 6 week science units for middleschool? (worth the $?)
http://www.cpo.com/sc_gallery.shtml

(NOTE: Lots of good links on the Middleschool Science Text Review website above)

Also, worth thinking about is how we talk about science to our kids and the fallacies/myths that are perpetrated throughout the texts and "dumbing down" of science in attempt to make it accessible to kids. This website has some examples of "Bad Science":
http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/BadScience.html

Other options:
Environthon: http://www.envirothon.org (but does it need to be a competition?)

AND NCSU's Chemistry Dept has an Outreach program:
http://www.ncsu.edu/chemistry/outreach/

"Homeschool and Loving It"

Book for homeschooling (either ebook or regular -- only difference in price is for shipping) -- table of contents looks like a helpful format to recommend to people.

http://www.homeschool.com/HLI/default.asp

Omnivore's Dilemma

Finished Omnivore's Dilemma (Michael Pollan)-- and then listened to a podcost where he spoke about Omnivore's Dilemma and his new book: In Defense of Food. Fascinating. I knew a lot of the information about the industrial food production and guessed quite a bit about the "Organics" being sold in Whole Foods (after all, how else does Whole Foods provide a perfectly consistent product from store to store and state to state), however the whole thing makes you think... And one wonders if the corn aspect in our diet has anything to do with increasing food allergies. I think it definitely is impacting weight.

Interestingly, Dad's take on the book was 100% different, maybe because what is "organic" in the very far north of Canada is much different, he's living off the land for much of his food, and he's involved in the beginning part of the food processing chain.

Pollan's premise behind his new book is interesting. I think I'm going to try to get that to read as well.

Education: Educating the Net Generation

A book available in pdf (by chapter) about how technology has changed the education game. Mostly focused on the college level but important for us as homeschoolers to know as we get our kids ready. Website itself looks interesting to look through as well.
http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen/5989

Ponderings for Me: Bookish Blog

8/1/2008: Kimbooktu
From Kimbooktu.com (a great blog focusing on all things bookish), a series of very funny and cool "book" youtube videos:
Bookish You Tube

Current Books July 31, 2008

Books being read:

• * Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollock
• * The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
• * The Einstein by

Because it's there...

Why would I try to start a blog at this time? It's there... that's all I can say. It's certainly not because I've got lots of time on my hands. I also don't know if I'm doing it for me as a form of diary and making sense of the world or for someone else.

I think I'll start with regular lists of books being read and websites open -- just to see where it goes...

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