Curriculum Review: Great Science Adventures
Great Science Adventures, by Dinah Zike and Susan Simpson
Common Sense Press
8786 Highway 21
Melrose, FL 32666
(352) 475-5757
http://www.commonsensepress.comProgram description
Great Science Adventures is a science series designed for grades K-8. The books (suggested retail price: $22) are intended for multilevel teaching. Each lesson has three separate writing assignments, one intended for nonreaders (K-1), one for 2-3 (beginning readers), and 4-8 (fluent readers).
The Great Science Adventures method is project-centered and relies heavily on making small paper books. For each science lesson, the teacher is given a list of concepts that will be covered in the lesson and a vocabulary list of science words that may be unfamiliar. These concepts are then taught through a series of activities.
In The World of Insects and Arachnids, for example, Lesson Five is called “How do insects see?” The six “Insect Concepts” listed include “Insects probably see very clearly up close, but have blurred sight at a distance,” and “Some insects can see light rays that are invisible to human, such as ultraviolet and infrared.”
Each lesson begins with the making and reading of a “Lots of Science” book, a small booklet that the student cuts out and assembles. This booklet provides basic information on the topic (about 6 brief paragraphs) along with diagrams.
Five different projects follow. For the sample lesson above, the first project, “Paper Insect Collection,” asks the student to color and cut out a small paper dragonfly (provided), glue it together, place it in a Paper Insect Collection Display Box (made in a previous lesson), fill out an “Insect Data Card” (also provided).
The second project, “Insect and Arachnid Bound Book,” asks the student to color and cut out the dragonfly and the data card, but to glue them into an “Insect and Arachnid Bound Book,” a paper booklet also created in a previous lesson.
The third project, “True Insect and Arachnid Collection,” has the child catching a real dragonfly and adding it to the “True Insect Collection” (which is set up in a previous lesson).
The fourth project, “Insect Eyes: Graphic Organizer,” is a writing assignment. The child is told to make a “Matchbook” (a small, folded-paper booklet) on the topic “Insect Eyes.” This project is age-graded. Non-readers are required to draw a picture of insect eyes; beginning readers are supposed to “write clue words describing insect eyes: compound eyes have many lenses, simple eyes have one lens”; older students are instructed to “explain the parts of insect eyes, and describe how they see.”
The final project is the “Investigative Loop,” the lab component of this program. For each “Investigative Loop,” the student is directed to follow the steps of the scientific method. First, the student reviews the topic in the “Lots of Science” book. Then he predicts the answer to a question posed by the Investigate Loop Lab (in this case, “What images do insects see with compound eyes?”), writes his prediction on a Lab Record Card, and then carries out an experiment (for this chapter, the experiment directs the student to look at various objects through bundled drinking straws). The student records his observations about the experiment, is asked to draw conclusions from it (“Why do you think the image you saw through the bundled stras appeared as it did? Draw conclusions about how insects view the world, based on this lab.”), and compares the experiment’s outcome with his initial predictions. Finally, the student is invited to investigatate further, either by performing a variation on the original experiment, or by creating his own.
The lesson concludes with suggestions for further projects; these vary from research topics to activity projects and Internet explorations.
Each Great Science Adventures book contains 24 lessons, and each lesson can take 2-4 days (or more). Titles now available include The World of Plants and The World of Insects and Arachnids for biology, The World of Space for astronomy, and The World of Tools and Technology for basic physics. Further titles are planned for biology, astronomy, earth science and basic physics, but no chemistry titles are on the schedule. For a complete list of titles, go to http://www.commonsensepress.com.Evaluation
Great Science Adventures is a good, interesting middle-grade science program. It presents basic scientific information clearly and concisely, and the hands-on projects help with retention. (I particularly liked the physics information in Tools and Technology.) A nice feature of the program is its “Timeline Book,” an accordian book which the student uses to record important dates in science. For a truly excellent science program, you’ll want to complete a number of the “further projects” suggested at the end of each lesson, since the books themselves focus on basic scientific literacy.
The publisher’s website suggests these books for K-8. From the three I was sent for review (Plants, Insects and Arachnoids, and Tools and Technology), I would evaluate them as most useful for grades 4-6. Unless they are used along with another science “spine,” the books are a little too elementary for seventh and eighth graders (although they would be excellent for remedial or supplemental work). In addition, there is just not a lot of reading in these lessons; the intense hands-on focus means that older students spend very little time reading about science. Middle-grade students need practice in reading and outlining scientific texts. Finally, I think that some children in grades 1-3 will be frustrated by the cutting, folding, and assembling involved in the projects.
Although I wouldn’t choose this as my primary program if I only had a second grader or eighth grader, I would certainly use it for multilevel teaching if I were home schooling a middle-grade child along with an older or younger student. Younger children can skip the projects and still get a basic understanding of the lesson concepts, while older students can supplement the program with outside reading.
If you’re following the science schedule in The Well-Trained Mind, you’ll need to use another science book as your spine, since the Great Science Adventures currently available only cover portions of biology, astronomy, and physics. Once the full line of titles is published, you can put together a full-year program in biology, astronomy and earth science, and physics; you’ll still need to find another resource for the study of chemistry.
PROS
-- Excellent for multilevel teaching.
-- Scientific information is clearly presented and explained.
-- The lab experiments are well-designed, with clear instructions, and require only common household items.
-- The hands-on nature of the program helps with retention.
-- All graphics, diagrams, etc. needed for the projects are included in the book.CONS
-- If you don’t like making little things out of paper, you'll hate this program.
-- The books are entirely black and white; younger children will need a colorful supplement such as an Usborne or Kingfisher science encyclopedia.
-- There is not enough reading in this program for students in grades 5-8; you should use library books to supplement the program.
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