New science curriculum

Answers in Genesis has published their own science curriculum for use in the grammar stage (grades 1-6)! Now classical educators have a solid spine text to teach from in science, to ground their living books and nature study, just as they use the Guerber histories as a spine to teach from in history, to ground their living books study!

Here is the CCH breakdown (we will be working on the CCH curriculum catalog all summer, and these changes will be incorporated into the recommendations and lesson plans there):

Grade 1: Living books study outlined at CCH I do believe The World of Plants, the first book in the new series, is a tad too much for most first graders who are just learning to read and write. The living books study outlined at CCH for first graders is designed to encourage and support their reading and writing practice, as well as introduce them to the concepts basic to science and nature study which are often ignored or taken for granted in most science curriculum.

Grade 2: God’s Design for Life, The World of Plants 35 lessons; study one lesson per week in conjunction with living books and nature study

Grade 3: God’s Design for Life, The Animal Kingdom 35 lessons; study one lesson per week in conjunction with living books and nature study

Grade 4: God’s Design for Life, The Human Body 35 lessons; study one lesson per week in conjunction with living books and nature study

Grade 5: God’s Design for Heaven and Earth (3 book set) To be completed in the order of Our Planet Earth, Our Weather and Water, and Our Universe 104 lessons; study three lessons per week (approximately) in conjunction with living books and nature study

Grade 6: God’s Design for Chemistry (2 book set) and God’s Design for the Physical World (3 book set) To be completed in the order of Properties of Matter, Properties of Atoms and Molecules (Broken links, active March 17. 2006) (Chemistry set), then Heat and Energy, Machines and
Motion, Inventions and Technology (Physical World set) (Broken links, active March 17, 2006) 174 lessons; study one lesson per day in conjunction with living books and nature study

Moreover, these texts work particularly well to do an all ages together science study, as long as the children are all in the grammar stage. Just begin with the first book and work your way through at your own pace until you have completed the last book. They are too basic to use for dialectic and rhetoric stage students.

The dialectic stage (grades 7-9) recommended science: Rainbow Science, creation science, and the origins science debate. An alternate course of study for the 6th grade year would be a living books history of science study, forgoing the chemistry and physics study from the God’s Design series, since Rainbow Science more than adequately covers chemistry and physics (as well as an overview of biology) in its one year course.

The rhetoric stage (grades 10-12) recommended science: Apologia Science, or the history and philosophy of science living books study (my personal recommendation for the rhetoric stage).