Science in a nutshell users

[jabuford]

Is this program all activities or does it have any kind of teaching? Is there explanation to go with the activities. Will I have to back it with library books or other books?

Thanks

[Kelli in TN]

You will receive an activity guide which contains the directions for the experiments as well as some explanation of why things work they way they do. The activity journal (you will receive 3 copies so it is good for up to 3 kids) is a workbook to record results.

There is not a whole lot in the way of information, I use Nutshells alongside our textbook. We are on our 3rd one now. We would have done more, but the budget does not allow. I love them, they are easy to implement and this non-science Mom needs that!

[jabuford]

I use Nutshells alongside our textbook.

What textbook do you use alongside Nutshell?

[Suzannah]

We did it the way TWTM suggested (I think.) We would read the information at the beginning of the activity, copy definitions of any new or important words into the science notebook, look up the topic &/or new words in the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia and do the experiments and record findings in the activity journal that came with the kit. When we finished the activity journal went into the science notebook.

HTH

[Mrs Mungo]

I agree with Kelli. The activity guides have explanations but we use one book or another (the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, the How the Body/Weather/etc Works books or some other book) for additional information.

[EKS]

The ones we used (simple machines) had very little in the way of explanations. It was almost as if they were expecting you to "discover" the principles and applications of physics on your own "with your friends." Sort of like they do in school, I guess. :) Anyway, there was no answer key or any indication if our "discovered" information was accurate. Sometimes the activities were quite well conceived and the discoveries just kind of jumped out, but other times things were quite different and I would have appreciated some indication of the answer we were going for.

[Kelli in TN]

I use Nutshells alongside our textbook.

What textbook do you use alongside Nutshell?

Oh, sometimes we use Real Science 4 Kids, sometimes we use our Usborne Science Encyclopedia. We are pretty loose about elementary science.