DYI Science Courses? Have you done this?

My idea is that from our start until high school they will have gone through these rotations ~3x each.  It’s a little quirky but it works.  Sometimes it’s a week longer or shorter – life happens.  I have a Science rotation I use that goes like this:

Year A

• Term 1 – Earth Sciences – Astronomy & Meteorology (8 weeks)
• Term 2 – Biology – Human Anatomy (8 weeks)
• Term 3 – Chemistry (16 weeks)
• Term 4 – Biology – Botany (8 weeks)

Year B

• Term 1 – Earth Sciences – Geology & Ecology (8 weeks)
• Term 2 – Chemistry (8 weeks)
• Term 3 – Biology – Zoology (16 weeks)
• Term 4 – Physics (8 weeks)

My rotation will change for high school by removing the Earth Sciences terms and focusing on the 3 major areas – Biology, Chemistry, Physics – in 3 terms of 12-15 weeks each and using labs to meet college requirements.  Or something along those lines … i’m not thinking too far ahead. I have that general plan but who knows.

So I take my lesson planning sheet (8 weeks with Science 2x a week) and plan it out before each term.  I usually find some type of scope and sequence for the type of science we will study free online, then tweak it from there – deciding on the areas of focus and how long each one needs.  I add lots of subject books from the library.  Sometimes they’re very simplistic but the science is accurate and the photographs are usually very good.  I use these more to illustrate the topic we are covering and for fun.  I also use chapters or parts of adult books/texts and we read them outloud together.  Then I scrounge and find web sites, videos, powerpoints, crafts etc. to add in to the topics I’m covering that week.   If I can find a living book to flesh it out I do – this is super tough for some areas of science.  And I always have a biography of a relevent scientist or two to go with this term too and they read those on opposite days 2x a week.

I really have not done the best job keeping a good record of what I’ve done each term.  I think to have a “clean and perfect” copy of what I’ve done each term I’d have to go back and read my daily records, look at my lesson plan page, and look through the kid’s file for that term too.  That does not make this type of planning smart at all!  I’m trying to be much better about keeping records in one spot this term forward.  We shall see …

I would love to learn if others do similar things and if anyone would be interested in compiling a “clean and perfect” copy to share with one another.