Help Teaching - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

Today I get to tell you about a great product from a vendor that was new to me, HelpTeaching.com.

HelpTeaching.com gave select members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew one year access to their online Pro Plan in exchange for honest, unbiased reviews.

So my first challenge in beginning this review is figuring out how to convey to you the breadth, depth and width of this program! If you are familiar with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl, think about when Willy Wonka first receives all the visiting children and adults into the chocolate factory. Do you remember the visitors were cautioned not to touch anything unless they are invited to do so? This will be a stretch, as I switch analogies, but be kind and try to stick with me. Help Teaching is like taking a curriculum junkie home school mom and setting her down in the middle of a Home School Convention's Vendors' Hall, and her instructions are to try everything that interests you! Well, it is an overwhelming assignment. Now consider the same vendor hall, but with 60 curriculum junkie home school moms released to try out materials and then tell others about their experiences. Imagine how varied these reviews are going to be! I can't wait!

My second challenge is to figure out how to tell you about Pro Plan in an organized fashion, in a way that you will be able to follow. I will try, but inside me there are voices and ideas screaming simultaneously, "...and let me tell you about this! And let me tell you about this!" and on and on. I'm going to try to reign myself in, calm down, and present this clearly and in some sort of order.

I will begin by reminding my readers that I have one student, and he is in 10th grade. While Pro Plan is a full-range program, with materials for all grade levels, I focused on materials at the high school level. My student, this year, is studying Algebra 2, Chemistry, 10th Grade English Literature and Composition, Spanish I and Early American History and Government. I mention his subjects because these are the subjects I primarily looked at, even though the high school Science category, for instance, had materials for Biology, Life Science, etc. as well. This was always the case - each broad subject area has a sub-category, and the parent and student can either flit around like a butterfly, sampling here and there, or hone down and focus on one topic. The latter method suits our present educational style. It makes end-of-year portfolio development easier, as well as high school transcript creation.

When the new user first logs into Pro Plan, they come to a main launch page with tabs across the top of the page. This page is available before you join - I was not logged in when I took this screen shot.

From the photo you can see, in the upper right corner, the option to join for free. When you join using a free account you do not get access to as much as you get with Pro Plan.

Next I want to draw your attention to the bottom left of the photo: "How To Guides".  The links to the guides are actually lower on the page, so here's another perspective:

The guides are all available to visitors, so click on Pro Plan and go look if you are interested, because my screen shot images are not "clickable".

Looking at the above task bar again, the choices across the bar (on the colored buttons) are:

[in green] Tests and Worksheets; Lessons; Games;
[in blue] Test Maker; Online Testing; My Content;
[in orange] Plans and Pricing; and
[in green] Blog.

When I first received the program, I was mostly interested in worksheets. Because of this, my method of choice was to sit down, research, locate worksheets, and save to my computer to print out later for my student. This is such a limited way to use Pro Plan. Why was this my focus? I live in a state with very specific instructions in the state COMAR (homeschool law). I am required annually to compile a portfolio of our educational year with samplings of written work in each subject. Before Pro Plan I was struggling to get written work for our paper trail in certain subjects, so that was initially my primary focus.

Clicking on the "Tests and Worksheets" tab, I was taken to a page where I found a sub-catebory for "Social Studies", which gave the choices: "Ancient and World History", "US History", and "Geography". I selected "US History" and was taken to a new page with US History broken down into subcategories, each followed by a selection of pages that can be used as a worksheet or a test or a quiz. 

Another way the Tests and Worksheets can be accessed is by a list down he left side of the window, that shows you at a glance the subjects there are worksheets available for and has the worksheets broken down by grade level. This also has, at the bottom, the tabs for generating your own Math Worksheets and Game sheets (things like word searches and Bingo).

 
I selected US History worksheets to use and saved them to my computer, which gave me a full and happy sense of satisfaction that my portfolio would now comply with the law. I found, though, that I now had to "teach to the test", or my student was inevitably asked questions about material he had not covered, that our reading material hadn't focused on. My next option was to assign a worksheet as the assignment and have my student research the questions, find the answers and fill in the blanks. This is also a fine method, but it doesn't work well with my student's learning style, and he gets distracted doing this research on the computer, with social media websites calling to him like sirens in the wind.

While I was working through Pro Plan in my own way, trying to find my best fit for my family, I began reading glowing comments from other Crew reviewers which caused me to reconsider the way I was using the site. I set aside some time and went back to the website to start investigating other materials available to me. 

An aspect of Pro Plan that I had been curious about and hoping to use was the online lessons, so I clicked the "Lessons" tab next to investigate. Now that I had my portfolio issues covered, I spent some time as if I myself were the student, wending my way through H following whatever link interested me (interest-driven learning). [I miss this aspect of educational pursuit, as our curriculum plan has now largely molded itself to resemble what the state wants the student to learn to graduate and what colleges want his transcript to look like for the college major he thinks he wants to pursue.]

The "Lessons" area only covers the topics of "ELA" (English/Language Arts), 

Math Lessons, and Science Lessons - which reminded me why I didn't start here, since I was focused initially on Social Studies/US History. My student recently took a college placement test in English skills and placed college ready. He is now taking English 101 at the community college, so I did not focus on the English Lessons.

I decided to look at "Science". When you have selected a focus for Lessons (like "Science"), the next window gives you not only subcategories by topic but also shows a grade-level guideline, which does not have to be hard and fast and is very helpful. So I focused on the high school science section.

Scrolling down by grade level, I came to 10th and 11th grade level lessons for Biology (we did Biology in 9th grade), 10th and 11th grade level lessons for Chemistry, 10th grade level lessons for Microbiology, and 10th and 11th grade level lessons for Physics. I checked where we were in our Chemistry studies, then looked for a lesson on the topic we are studying at that time, but there was no corresponding lesson available for that specific topic. The lesson topics are listed alphabetically, making this search easy, but I wish there was also the option to have them list in the order the student should cover the course material.

 So I looked at other available lesson topics and chose one that looked interesting. I selected a lesson called "All About Birds" under "Biology" (11th grade level) and tried it out.

After a short reading selection, the student takes a brief quiz (he can check answer by answer or take the whole quiz and then check), which is followed by a video lesson in the format of a lecturer with a white board. The instructor goes over material which was previously presented, further cementing the information into the brain. If you analyze by learning style, this method hits visual learners and auditory learners, those who learn well by video, and those who learn best by taking a quiz with quick feedback. It was a very good experience. I just wished there had been Chemistry lessons that corresponded with where we are in our Chemistry book, or that my student had the freedom (and time) to go back to delight directed learning. I think he would be in these Biology lessons in a heartbeat!

Next I investigated the Math Lessons section. There is only one lesson marked "10th Grade", but topically I can see there is material here my son could benefit from, even if it is marked as a lower grade level. There is also material marked 11th Grade.

So my next step was to go back to the "Chemistry" Lesson topics and evaluate the available lessons with more scrutiny. Bingo! In evaluating how the student has been struggling with the textbook we've been using, I decided the Chemistry Lesson section is going to be a perfect fit for our purposes right now. We are hunkering down here for a while.

While writing this review I've realized I might want to use the TestMaker software to create my own History tests instead of using the ones provided by HelpTeaching.com. This is huge. Maybe it should have been obvious to me, but I just didn't see it as an option before. Now my brain is telling me, "Why teach to the test when you can create your own test easily and just test to the material you are covering this week in History." Beautiful!

 

I like the way HelpTeaching.com links also to lesson videos on Kahn Academy, Educator.com and YouTube. I have had access to ProPlan for almost two months, and I still feel like there are things I have not discovered or tried yet! I'm so glad I have another ten months to use this great resource. I started with ProPlan thinking my focus would be pre-created US History worksheets. It turned out that my favorite parts of ProPlan are actually the TestMaker and the high school science lessons.

A typical item to place in my review at this point is how did my student like the product. Well, my student is not happy being a student right now, so asking him how he liked some schoolwork is like asking a young child how they liked the fried liver served for dinner. Expect the child to make a face. My student might tell you I am giving him choices of how to pickle his brain by education (I'm putting it mildly). So, yeah, my student isn't going to give a good opinion of this (or almost any) educational product. I will say, though, that watching a video and taking a quick quiz is a learning method that is a good fit for him.

There will be 59 additional reviews of ProPlan available for you, and I think you will get a lot of variety in response to ProPlan, but I bet all the reviews will be positive. Click on the link below to see other reviews, and then head on over to HelpTeaching.com to try the free aspect of the site. You might very well decide to try the ProPlan as well. It is a good program! 

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed this product. To see other product reviews, please click the button below. 
 
 

Insect Classification - Apologia Biology Experiment 12.2

My son is working his way through Apologia Biology. He has now reached Experiment 12.2, and I located this video in the hopes that it will help him write up the "experiment" on insect classification:

Crayfish Dissection Videos

In an effort to be prepared for Apologia Biology Experiment 12.1, which I am not prepared for my son to actually DO, I am posting these videos so I can have him watch them nstead of doing the experiment. (He completed the Landry Academy Biology Intensives weekend in February, which counts as an entire year's experiments, but it did not include this experiment.)

Apologia Biology Experiment 11.4

My so is working his way through Apologia Biology this year. In an effort to avoid actually having to provide him with all the materials to do the experiments, I had him participate in Landry Academy's Biology Intensives in February, which constitutes an entire year's biology labs.

The Intensives class did not include all of the labs in our Apologia Biology book, and my son hasn't written up all of the experiments from the Intensives yet anyway, so I am making an effort to post videos of the experiments as we get to them in our Biology book.

The experiment for today is "Observation of a Planarian". Here is a video I found that someone had already made:

Fascinating Biology - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

In mid-September I learned that Fascinating Education was having the Schoolhouse Review Crew review their three science courses.

My son had already started studying Biology for his science this year, so I volunteered us to review their Fascinating Biology course. In our local schools, high school sciences generally go through the science courses in the following order: Biology, Chemistry, Physics (and then possibly another, such as Anatomy or Marine Biology or Computer Science). The courses go in this order because advanced mathematics are required for Chemistry, and students don't usually take advanced mathematics in 9th grade (when Biology is taken). They are often not taking Algebra II (the course I was told I needed if I wanted to take Chemistry) until 11th Grade, so the order might even go: Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics.

So I was surprised to learn that Dr. Margulies, the creator of Fascinating Education, wants students to take Chemistry before they take Biology. However I had already started my son's year in Biology and he and I wanted him to continue in Biology for this year. My son doesn't yet grasp those advanced mathematical concepts. And I already purchased the Biology materials that we had already started on, that we would fall back on if Fascinating Biology didn't work out for us, or that I could use to supplement the Fascinating Biology materials. I do not own anything on Chemistry yet, so I went ahead and requested Biology.

Well, Dr. Margulies and the folks feel so strongly about the students studying Chemistry before they take Biology that they have a "crash course" in Chemistry for students to go through if they are taking Biology first. They feel so strongly about the importance of this grounding in Chemistry that they also provided the "Chemistry pre-Course for Biology" to Biology reviewers in addition to the Fascinating Biology for purposes of our reviews. That was fabulous of them!

Let me tell you a bit about Dr. Margulies.

To start with, he is a neurologist who attended not only medical school, but also law school. He has taught neurology to over 2500 medical students and residents, and has learned a lot about how the brain works: how we learn, how we focus our attention, how we retrieve information, and how emotion and motivation affect learning. And now he has turned his focus from teaching medicine to creating audio-visual materials for middle and high school students, in an effort to prepare them for careers in Science and in hopes to excite them about Science.

So we began our Fascinating Biology by working our way through the Chemistry pre-Course for Biology. The material is very cerebral. When you begin your lesson from the day, whether the pre-course or the main course, you begin on a page with a place to select which lesson you want to work on. This "thumbprint" (about 2"x2" - is that still called a "thumbprint"?) has a selection for "Lesson", "Script" and "Test". To start you want to either print on the Lesson button, or if you do better with a combination of audio/visual and print, first click on "Script" and print that out. You can follow the printed script as Dr. Margulies works his way through the audio for the day. After watching the video, it is time to take the test.

I like the way Dr. Margulies has the course set up, particularly the testing. His perspective (and it is also my perspective) is that it is not about the grade, it is about mastery of the content. Therefore, when the student takes the test, he/she is then permitted to review the incorrect answers, be informed of the correct answers, and retake the test. This makes perfect sense. Learning is the goal.

So, as we finished the first lesson I had my son take the test. I suggested that he think a bit more about some of the answers he had selected, but nevertheless he just whizzed through and submitted his answers. His score reflected that he did poorly. He became angry and frustrated, pushing violently away from the computer, calling the program "stupid" and threatening to never do this science again. I calmed him down. I showed him that, with his score, he had been given the option to review the test, and after that to take the test again. He grumbled, but he did the review and the retest and scored well. Then he revealed that he had not scored well by studying the material, but rather by memorizing what the answers were for the ten questions given (like 1=B, 2=D, 3=A, etc.). I sighed and told him that was not the goal, but rather the goal was to learn the material. He sighed and went back and reviewed the test again, studied the material, and passed the test. I don't think he did that answer-memorization technique again, but I can't be entirely certain.

The portion of Fascinating Biology that I watched with my son covered its material in a way that I thoroughly understood. The information covered came so much so fast that I wished I were taking notes. My son was also not taking notes. I need to help him work on that; I think he will get much more out of some of his studies if he takes notes on the material covered in a lecture.

I didn't watch all that much (and have already forgotten part of it), and am an adult who never studied Biology in high school or college. Nevertheless, here I was understanding osmosis, cell membranes, etc. not to mention having a glimmer of an understanding why certain elements cling to other elements based on the number of electrons on the outer ring needing and wanting to be at the magic number "eight". I also learned that the atomic number is based on the number of protons in the nucleus, and as the weight of the nucleus goes up, the atomic weight goes down. (Now I'm feeling like I surely got part of this wrong, and therefore shouldn't have said any of this, but seriously, I find all this new science information fascinating! I'm interested! And so is my son!)

I like about the tests that they require 80% correct for the student to move on. I like that the student can review and retake the test until he/she passes. The student then has the opportunity to print the test results for their records and/or for the parent/teacher records.

Do I have anything I would recommend be changed? I'm so glad you asked!

1. First, I'd like it if the lessons had some way that they indicated when the lesson has been completed. I'd like it if the lesson thumbnail went slightly blurry or slightly gray, was still accessible, but was indicating that the student had watched the lesson and passed the test.
2. I would like if if the window the computer moves to, when the student is watching the lesson, had buttons on it for opening the script or taking the test. The way the program is currently set up, when you are done watching the video, it stops. The student then has to close that window and return to the initial lesson launching window to take the test.
3. I would like for the program to save and compile the test results in one place for the teacher to access later, if needed. This way each test's results do not have to be saved and/or printed by the student or parent.
4. I would love it if the program could send a weekly email to the teacher telling what Lesson(s) the student completed during the week, what test(s), how many times, and the score each time.

If you read my blog much, you know my son doesn't like History and Literature much. My son is good at Math, but doesn't like it. My son is a Science Guy.

Being a Science Guy, he is, nevertheless, selective in what he likes. And he is SO selective that I am always pleasantly surprised when he likes a product that we review.

My son likes Fascinating Biology, and to me that is just fascinating!

So where will we go from here with our Biology? Fascinating Biology is said to have improved Science scores for Baltimore, Maryland students, which really appeals to me.  The website's FAQs says, "Fascinating Chemistry, Fascinating Biology, and Fascinating Physics are all designed to cover what you would normally expect to find in a high school course. That said, we have many students in middle school who take Fascinating Chemistry and Biology and do very well."

What I DO know is that my son likes Fascinating Biology. And that is a good great thing! I chatted with him this morning. The verdict is in. He wants to ditch the other Biology program and stick with Fascinating Biology for the rest of 9th grade. He really, really likes it and feels that he is learning a lot.

For purposes of this review we received a full 12-months access to the Fascinating Biology website. 12-month access to Fascinating Biology costs a very affordable $79! Fascinating Biology is designed to cover what you would normally expect to find in a high school course, but many students in middle school who take Fascinating Chemistry and Biology and do very well.

Other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew also reviewed Fascinating Biology or Fascinating Chemistry or Fascinating Physics. 

 

To read more reviews, please click on the button below.

Teaching Origins Objectively - A TOS Schoolhouse Crew Review

In September I learned that New Liberty Videos would be sending various Crew members one of a selection of videos they produce. 

The videos we had to consider were Anthem for a Nation, The Forbidden Book, Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls, A Nation Adrift, Teaching Origins Objectively, and Warriors of Honor. After looking over the descriptions and discussing the choices with my son, we decided to request to receive Teaching Origins Objectively. We were selected for the review and this is the movie we received.

I had read, from the above-linked site for the movie, that this is a documentary covering the highlights of 20 hours of testimony that took place in May of 2005, before the Kansas State Board of Education, where 23 witnesses gave testimony over a four-day period. The hearings were on science standards designed to promote the teaching of evolution and origins objectively.

I had been told that these videos are for a general audience. Some of the material will be over the heads of younger ones and some of the videos might have subjects you are not ready to discuss with your younger ones. I opted to try watching this with my son. So, at the time I had set aside, we sat down to watch the documentary.

I won't go through the content in any sort of outline format -- I wasn't taking notes while I was watching it. What I want to do is discuss some of the salient points I took away from watching the video.

The experts giving testimony, some representing the evolutionary perspective and some representing the intelligent design perspective, took turns giving a talk to present their perspective, to present information for consideration, and to counter comments they received from Board members in argument of their perspective.

I found it really offensive the way at least one certain member of the Kansas Board of Education spoke of any religious perspective dismissively, as if any testimony given by anyone believing in intelligent design might be discounted automatically as without merit for lack of proof. What this man repeatedly failed to recognize is that there is no proof for evolution, either, particularly evidence based on the scientific method (which requires OBSERVATION as a key requirement). A person cannot observe anything related to something that did or did not happen long before they were born. And when there is not even any written documentation of a person alive who might have observed something, any conclusions about what happened are mere conjecture or theory, not fact.

The "Scientific Community" that wants to teach evolution theory (as fact), in absence of teaching intelligent design as a theory, is being closed minded and non-scientific. To take a hypothesis as a fact without proof (scientific proof, which includes being able to repeat steps in an experiment and being able to replicate the same result) is unscientific enough as it is. I get so frustrated with the way these scientists then, blind to their hypocrisy,  then dismiss the other scientists for believing a different theory for its lack of scientific evidence.

Teaching Origins Objectively goes through scientist after scientist after scientist who calmly present information rationally and reasonably that show the intricacies of natural design and argue for the reasonableness of the conclusion that such a design couldn't just happen out of nothing. There were so many presentations given, so much material to think about, that I definitely want to give the documentary another viewing, and to take notes. To sit through the documentary in one sitting was too long for me, and not surprisingly for my son also. I lost him after about an hour and a quarter. So next time I'll watch for an hour one day and watch the remainder a second day. I might be able to interest my husband and/or my daughter in watching it with me, but it is hard to say. Not many of us have much time to spare for such cerebral viewing.

This is clearly a valuable documentary for viewing in a family and at a time where the evolution/design issue burbles to the top and becomes a hot topic needing attention. It is good for such materials to be available, because it is good for our students to be equipped to know how to participate in civil, but firm discussion with those in the scientific community who will be convinced that there is no other viable option than evolution. And how can our students become prepared for such discussions if we do not prepare them. And how can we prepare them if we do not prepare ourselves.

Now I don't mean to in any way suggest that I will ever be as able to conduct such a discussion in the way the experts in this documentary conversed, but it is such a valuable thing to have this DVD as a tool to equip myself and my son. I don't know if he will go to college, but if he does he will most probably attend a state school, a liberal hot-bed of argument by intelligentsia convinced of their own correctness, unaccustomed to being crossed by anyone with an opposing view who is prepared to defend their position. I want my son to be prepared if he goes to a public college.

I highly recommend Teaching Origins Objectively  for your teaching preparation and presentation to your children to prepare them to make their own decision as to whether evolution is its own conclusion and the end of the conversation, or whether they will believe God's word and his fingerprint in the world around them.

Teaching Origins Objectively sells for $19.95. If you are interested in reading other reviews of Teaching Origins Objectively or any of the other movies by New Liberty Videos  that were reviewed by the Schoolhouse Review Crew, please click on the button below.

Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics (A TOS Review)

We started this year using Apologia Physical Science, and although it was supposed to be the right book for my son's grade level we were both struggling with it a little bit. Apologia Educational Ministries is a wonderful company, with a goal of educating students (and adults) with a Biblical world view. I love their creation-based homeschool Science curriculum materials, even though we were struggling with the Physical Science, So I was delighted when I learned that I would have the opportunity to review Apologia Educational Ministries' Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics. It has been a breath of fresh air. My son just wasn't ready for the other book yet.

We were blessed to receive both the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics book and the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Notebooking Journal. Having that Journal makes using the book so much easier! 

We started our work with vigor and enthusiasm, and it hasn't let up. My biggest challenge has been working ahead to make sure I have on hand the materials for the hands-on projects in each chapter. It's not hard; it just takes planning. 

I'm not real good about having my camera ready when we do our school work, but I did manage to photograph a couple of the experiments. In this first one, four different cups are lined up, and the water in each cup has a different amount of salt in it. The water is colored so you can see what is happening. You pick up 1" of water from each cup, and the levels of water stay where they do in the straw because of the different levels of density in the different water samples.

Activity Bags - A Schoolhouse Crew Review

Have you heard of Activity Bags? I first learned of Activity Bags when my (almost) 13 year old was five years old. I had the blessing of participating in a Preschool Activity Bag group project. At that time the way our group did the project was that one mom put together the bags for all of the 25-30 activities, calculated her cost, and we divided that cost (plus postage) by all the moms participating. It must have been a real chore for her (Amy B., I think, who is in the credits by the author), but it was such a blessing for me! I had the money to do it that way, and I didn't have the time to do any organizing myself. I was homeschooling two high schoolers!

Reading the story behind Activity Bags makes me wonder where I fell in the creation of the company. Activity Bags had its beginnings in 2002 when two moms began brainstorming about how they would keep their preschoolers occupied productively during the upcoming school year. They came up with an idea, shared it with some friends, and it mushroomed! All us moms of preschoolers wanted a piece of the action! They tried it, tested it, expanded it, and then published it, and it has been a big success.

GO SCIENCE! A TOS Review

The TOS Homeschool Crew was pleased this month to have the opportunity to review Go Science DVDs, created by Mr. Ben Roy.  

Go Science is a creation-based DVD series offered by Library and Educational Services (LES), a wholesale supplier of books, CDs and DVDs and more, which are available for purchase by schools, libraries, churches, educators (home schoolers), and resellers. LES has been committed to excellence in customer service and product selection for over 30 years! When you call them, a real person answers the phone! 

I have been purchasing Adventures in Odyssey from LES for decades! I have also purchased many books and school supplies from them over the years.

To see my links below on the LES website you might need to create or log in to your LES account.


LES offered the TOS Crew the opportunity to select two DVDs (per reviewer) to use with their families to review.  The available Go Science DVDs are: Volume I: Motion: Discovering the Laws of Gravity and Motion; Volume 2: Simple Machines: Sound & Weather; Volume 3: Magnetism, Electricity, Engineering and Design; Volume 4: Chemistry, States of Matter, and Life Sciences; Volume 5: Air Flight, and Volume 6: Water, Space, and Solar System.  


For my son's interests, I chose Volumes 3 and 4. Volume 3 has 14 experiment segments in it, and Volume 4 has 11 experiment segments in it. All the information on the various DVDs is at the LES website through the links above to each volume.

Go Science DVDs are promoted as being appropriate for ages 6-14. The purpose of Go Science DVDs is to present science to children in a manner that will help them know and understand that science is cool, and it was created by our wonderful Creator! 

The subject matter contains experiments and subject matter that can hold the interest of these ages, even down to the interest level of a 2 or 3 year old!

However, I would say the presentation and demeanor of Mr. Roy lends these videos as being more appropriate for pre-school through early elementary than upper elementary through middle school. It would take a very tolerant 14 year old to sit through these demonstrations, where there are conversations like this: "Glendy, can you tell the boys and girls what this object is?" Glendy: "A light bulb." Mr. Roy: "That's correct! It's a light bulb! How many of you have light bulbs around? Oh, yeah! Lot's of people have light bulbs around..." Or, "Hey, have you ever heard sound?"

Mr. Roy is enthusiastic, but he seems to talk down to a pre-school level in these DVDs. For this reason, I think these DVDs will more easily hold the attention of kids 3-9 years old. There is material in these DVDs that can't be duplicated at home that is great for 10-14 year olds to be able to see, but I just wish he wasn't presenting it the way he does. I can't get my 12 year old to tolerate it.

About these DVDs:

•  This series was created for a television show called "Learning Time", and because of this each video clip stands alone. They strike me as clips that are also best viewed alone. Because each clip has a similar introduction and conclusion (like a television show does), these introductions and conclusions become redundant if you sit and watch the entire 25 minute DVD in one sitting.
• For some reason the volume level at times varies from one DVD clip to the next, which is another reason watching just one clip at a time makes sense.
• The experiments in these DVDs can't be duplicated at home. Because of that I consider the DVDs to have value for the students. My recommendation would be that a fun day's science could be created around each DVD clip (by the parent) so that the days science would consist of watching the Go Science movie clip for the day, and then the mom could present the students other hands-on experiments of a similar nature for the kids to do that day to complete the science class.
• Each movie clip ends with Ben Roy's wrap-up statement that, "Every time we learn something new about science, we learn something new about our Creator, God!" I appreciate Mr. Roy's heart for bringing children to God, but I don't feel this line is tied in very well. When the six year old learns that red and blue mixed together make violet, she doesn't necessarily know anything new about her Creator, just something about His creation... Maybe I'm just contrary... But if a program is going to end with that statement, it is my opinion that it should also include the statement of what today's experiment(s) demonstrated about the Creator. 
• Mr. Roy says, "I find that interesting!" to such excess that I find him disingenuous...

I find Go Science to contain great materials and great experiment demonstrations, but I find Mr. Roy difficult to listen to for very long. (I had a similar reaction years ago to a certain purple dinosaur... ) However, I know that there are other folks who like purple dinosaurs, and there are folks who like Mr. Roy and Go Science! So I want to make it clear that my personal preferences should not be your sole factor that you use to base your decision on as to whether or not to invest in some of these DVDs. Here's an idea... Watch this video clip and get a sample on your own to see what these DVDs are like:

Go Science DVDs are available through LES for $8.97 per DVD, or for $$47.95 for a six volume set.

Disclaimer:

I received two Go Science DVDs in exchange for my honest review of the product. I did not receive any money for my review. To see more TOS Crew reviews of Go Science, go to the TOS Crew Page HERE.

This has been a TOS Homeschool Crew Production. Please let me know your thoughts!

NOVA scienceNOW | Amazing Atoms | PBS