What is it? Online science curriculum by Science4Us.com
Who is it for? Grades K-2
How much is it? $7.95/month per student
Where can I find it? http://www.science4us.com
Tell me more:
From the creators of the popular website, VocabularySpellingCity.com, Science4Us.com aims to make science learning fun and interactive for the primary school age group through the use of online games, videos, activities, and offline lessons.
The site is broken down into 4 main units:
- Inquiry
- Life Science
- Physical Science
- Earth/Space Science
– and then divided even further into a total of 28 modules, such as light energy, electrical energy, sources of energy, sound energy, etc.
Student’s Section
Students log into their own dashboard where they can access their work. Right on their front page, students get a chance to watch a video that helps walk them through how to use the program. A set of books on their dashboard allow for easy navigation of each unit and modules.
Once they are into the module they are supposed to be working on, they are given the lesson in 4 parts:
- Engage
- Explore
- Explain
- Examination
Each student is given a digital notebook where they can keep notes, answer questions, save photos and work they do, and write ideas. After the first 3 main sections, (and before the evaluation), students are given a series of fun games and activities to play that helps them develop and expand the concepts they are in the process of learning.
For example, there is a game where living and non-living objects are bouncing around the screen, with a divider in the middle. You need to sort the objects to the right side of the screen where they belong by getting them to go through a small gap in the middle wall. When they complete a task, the icon for that activity gets a large golden star to show it’s finished.
Teacher’s Section
Teachers/Parents can log into a private dashboard. This area not only allows you to organize your students but also designate specific assignments per child, due dates for those assignments, see what they have been working on and get reports on how they have been doing in their work.
Here is where you will also be able to find teacher support and training, lesson plans, and offline resources. For example, the section under simple machines module has 8 daily lessons which should last about 30-35 minutes a day, using a combination of the website games/videos and offline activities. The resources here are a gold mine of information for the primary grade levels of science.
What we thought:
As soon as I logged my Grade 1 and 2 level boys into the site, they played and played. I didn’t set up any assignments – just letting them free play to test it out and learn at their own interest. They literally spent hours on the site, having a great time. It was a great addition to what we are learning.
My oldest (currently Grade 4 level) wanted to try it out. While it was somewhat appealing, the challenge level was just too low to hold his interest.
The only real complaint was that sometimes, despite finishing a task (even repeatedly), the gold star wouldn’t appear to show it was done. My Middle found this extremely hard to take, as he likes the visual markers that his task is complete and that he can move on. There were several bouts of tears as I attempted to explain it was just a glitch. That being said – the star issue didn’t even phase my other son. He just kept happily playing.
As we move through our science this year, I’m looking forward to having this program in my bag of tricks to reinforce what we learn, and to use the teacher tools for expanding my lesson plans.
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