We have done science projects throughout our past few home school years but these are new and planned in advance. I even ordered owl pellets and got them sent from the U.S. (made it through customs, surprisingly). This year I also expect them to be more involved in all of the processes.
That means we added Science Notebooking this year. Usually during our CC science memory work I have a good 20 minutes to talk about it, explore encyclopedias, and have them draw something. For example, they drew and labeled a plant cell, they drew invertebrates and vertebrates, they love it, it is science disguised as art. This is actually NOT their science lab, just their science notebooking from their CC time. This sometimes enhances the SCI Lab. They do bring their notebooks to SCI Lab as well and we sometimes use them.
For our egg experiment I had them draw the egg before soaking in vinegar and then draw it again 3 days later as we discussed why it had changed.
Today was our grossest experiment by far (Sophia was grossed out last year as we tried out a chicken's tendons in their ankle). Earlier in the day as we reviewed the groups of vertebrates FARMB, Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Mammals and Birds, they drew one of each. Then we dissected owl pellets (aka puke!), and had lots of discussions about mammals as we tried to figure out which mammal remains we were finding in the pellet.
The only poisonous mammal is a short tailed shrew. Who knew?
SCI LAB is every Weds starting when we finish core, either 4 or 4:30 p.m.
Pics from todays Lab:
First I showed them a clip from discovery channels 'dirty jobs' all about the guy who collects Owl Pellets (vomit).
Then I read to them some fun facts about owls. Next we gloved up and dug in!
I had an owl pellet dissection sheet and two really good sheets that showed the type of bones we would probably find and which animal they belonged to. We are fairly certain that Sophia had a vole and Bella a shrew of some sort, though it was a bit hard to tell. We could even see the teeth on the jaw bone of these tiny animals. It was cool and disgusting all at the same time.
we had our magnifying glasses handy.
Look at all of those teeny bones:
This experiment should definitely be done again when they are older. I am so keen on science even at an early age because it ignites the explorer in us all and the realization that the world God created is amazingly complex while still displaying simple beauty.
We don't have a pure science curriculum yet. We stick with it for 24 weeks, following the CC subjects/memory work and guidelines in the Foundations Guide.
It has been a wonderful 'elective' for us and they look forward to it every Wednesday.
