What are the best used science kits?

 First, buy used kits!  Scour Good Will; although eBay is more likely to have used kits.  My favorite kits are from Quality Science Labs; these sets are jammed with materials.  My husband, Rob, still used the QSL Physics kit I found on Good Will years ago.  I still will look over used eScience Lab kits, Science Interactive lab kits, or any HST kit.

The Bio kit is NOT quite as good; the Bio kit’s lab manual outline indicates the experiments are mainly microbes, plants, and dissections.  The kit aligns quite well with Apologia’s lab equipment for labs and dissections.  

Some Bio kits come with specimens, such as a fetal pig, brain, eyeball, and heart, suitable for an anatomy class.

Other Bio kits are replete with basic lab equipment.

See if you can find used HST kits.  Sometimes families buy kits and never use them.  You can find d a bargain!

Do you need the kit?

 Apologia’s science textbooks have the labs written in the textbook.  (They have study guide questions, too.  The notebook or study guide is an organizational tool—not an essential item.). Before you buy a kit or any equipment look at the supplies list, located in the appendices of the textbook.  I tracked down the lists.  The supply kits are a convenience.  Shop your house first!  Evaluate what you really need, such as safety glasses, a thermometer, a graduated cylinder, a balance, scale, and a funnel.  Three or four borosilicate test tubes and a 250-mL borosilicate beaker are nice, too.  Here is the basic equipment set from Apologia.  Please note that you can use the stove or a hot plate for many experiments.  Either one is safer than an alcohol burner.  I do not use borosilicate, graduated cylinders; all of mine are plastic.  I use borosilicate glass beakers as seldom as possible.  Why?  Glass has a short half-life in a Chem lab.  

Exploring Creation with General Science: Third Edition and Second Edition

Exploring Creation with Physical Science Lab Supplies List: Third Edition  and  Second Edition.

Exploring Creation with Biology Lab Supplies List: Third Edition (Scroll to nearly the end.) and Second Edition

Exploring Creation with Chemistry Lab Supplies List: Third Edition (Scroll to nearly the end.) and Second Edition.  

British Science Museums

 Rob and I are visiting family in England and Wales.  While we spent most of our time with family we did visit St. Fagans and the British Museum. There are several science museums in London; The Science Museum Group has resources!  Look at the Amputation Saw. The Natural History Museum has Learning Resources, too.  Sift through doom and gloom and the political commentary in favor of resources such as Life Cycles, Habitats, and Classification. I had never heard of a Footprint Tunnel.  Who knew you could make a Butterfly Feeder?  Visit the National History Museum’s YouTube Channel.  BTW, in the UK you’re a home educator, not a home-schooler.  Fun, right?  Below are a few pix.

Biology Resources

 Sure, you’re faithfully using the Apologia textbook.  Sometimes, you just want a little boost.  Let’s explore some of my favorite resources.

1. The Biology Corner has graphic organizers, coloring pages, case studies, and labs.  Here are dissection guides.  The Biology Project is a good source for information.

2. Bozeman Science has loads and loads of videos with worksheets.

3. I use The Amoeba Sisters and Crash Course: Biology videos all the time.  Try one when you are stuck or just can’t see the big picture.  They are uniformly excellent.

4.  Look over Home Science Tools’ Dissection Guides.  Here is the frog dissection.  The guides are superior.

5.  HHMI Biointeractives are both top-notch and uniformly hard. Just look at all of the materials in Cellular Respiration.

6.  POGIL activities are so useful; For example, Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells is a good example.  POGIL worksheets have all of the information in models, which students use to work through and parse the concepts.  One issue is that answer keys are hard to find.  I have hard good luck using Quizlet for answers.  Some good exercises are Membranes, Mitosis, Photosynthesis, and Human Blood Cell Typing.

7.  There are some labs I’m sure you’ll want to try: Cell Membrane Bubble Lab, Spinach Photosynthesis, Catalase Activity in Yeast, and Gummy Bear Osmosis.

What equipment does our Co-op use for Chemistry class?

 I found some great deals on eBay and Good Will.  I bought MEL starter kits, lab kits, MicroChem kits, and Radmaste sets. (Radmaste are UNESCO kits.  Here is the brochure.) We’re going to do a ton of microscale chemistry.  All of the Radmaste, MEL Chemistry Starter Kits, projects (lab kits), and MicroChem kits were purchased used at Good Will or eBay. I’m going to use more of the labs included in the MicroChem lab kit because they supplement the Apologia Chemistry course.  Below are some of the sets. I usually keep the price per kit down by buying in lots.  I am so excited to get started!  Don’t worry!  I’ll be doing many labs apart from the kits.  I also want to post labs which coincide with the Apologia Chem textbook and are similar to the kits’ labs.  Please stay tuned!

Storylines

 I like to stay on top of trends in science.  Believe me, I’ve seen a few!  It doesn’t mean I’ll adopt a new trend necessarily.  Right now, Next Generation Science Standards, NGSS , dominate science instruction.  Project Based Learning, PBL and Storylines dominate instruction.  Storylines takes an overarching idea or topic to construct lessons.  The goal is to make science relatable. These lessons, based on questions, replace textbooks and form the curriculum, which is altogether another issue.  Often the topics are political.  I decided to take a good look at different storylines to see what might be useful.  Some of the material would make solid electives.  Let’s take a look!

1. ACS: There are two Middle School Storylines: Lava Lamp and Ocean Acidification.  The contents are excellent.  In Lava Lamp, students explore measures, density, kinetics, and heat transfer.  I might try Lava Lamp.  Ocean Acidification has lessons on atoms, bonding, compounds, solutions, reaction rate, and pH.  The last three lessons center on the effects of CO2 gases, ocean acidification, and the effects on shellfish.  The final project is a presentation to the public about the problem which is a result of burning fossil fuels.  That’s the problem.  Kiddos in 6th-8th grade are not in a position to consider all of the issues surrounding renewable and nonrenewable resources, which are complex.  Do we really want to discuss Rare Earths and Conflict Metals when a child asks why we just stop burning gas in our cars and drive EVs?  I think not.

2.  This website, Teaching with Storylines, from Alaska Science Teachers, has websites for a ton of storyline sources.  NGSS has selected storylines, developed by a number of sources.  How do Eggs Become Chickens? has wide appeal, especially if you can incubate fertilized eggs.  Its focus is embryonic development, which has the hand of God writ large.

3.  The BSCS Middle School Storylines look apolitical.  Registration and all content are free.  (OpenSci operates under Creative Commons.) The content is tremendous!  Below is the TOC for Weather. 

4.  The Water Chemistry sample unit  on AMTA’s unit is free and applicable for kiddos 10-12.  

5.  The Wonder of Science is more of a DIY storyline site.  Teachers piece together their curriculum.  However, if you want to shop for an interesting elective, start here with mini lessons or Phenomena, such as The Drinking Bird which has a half-life of ten minutes once kiddos start to play with it, much like the hand boiler.

6. Two popular programs are inquiryHub Biology and inquiryHub Chemistry, which has Fuels and Nuclear Energy—both good electives for upper-level students.

7. Many, many public school districts are adopting OpenSciEd.  I like to look at the kits first before I look at the curriculum. Next, I look at the Chemistry curriculum.  Energy from Chemical and Nuclear  Processes has political overtones.  (Actually all of these do.)  However, the storyline and lesson overview have good content, such as the lessons on combustion and bond energy.  Make the discussion surrounding transportation personal.  One of the families in our Co-op have eleven children; the Mercedes diesel van needs to run a million miles.  What about the costs to manufacture a new car?  Hey!  The curriculum is free. Many of the materials needed for labs are accessible.  Look it over. 

Which materials do you really need to teach Chemistry?

I have made up Chemistry Kits for kiddos to do labs at home when I taught Chemistry remotely—only one year.  (We all prefer to learn in person.) However, the kit shows you the basic materials needed to do the labs illustrated.   In the slide deck are links to labs. I was super aware of safety when I assembled  the kits.  All the kiddos got safety glasses!  The vast majority of the chemicals are household products.  I sent home craft sticks and plastic paint palettes to use as reaction plates.  I encouraged the teens to use tea candles rather than the gas stove to heat materials.  See what you think. I believe you can replicate the kit and stick to a budget.

How do you heat solutions in Chemistry lab without a gas burner?

 When I taught professionally, I had Bunsen burners.  Like my colleagues, we used them as seldom as possible.  (The gas has a switch behind a panel, which remains locked.)  Have you seen 40 kids doing lab in a classroom?  It’s terrifying!  We all used sets of electric burners whenever possible.  It makes an excellent source of heat—especially if you aren’t wild about using your kitchen stove.  I’m not a fan of alcohol burners.  Too often a kiddos knocks them over and produces a waterfall of fire.  Yikes!

I use an electric kettle to heat water for hot water baths, too.

Whenever possible, we use tea candles.  They are safer and cheaper—my favorite type of equipment!  You can use tea candles with a small, camp stove.  The pellets sold for camp stoves burns very hot!  I prefer tea candles.  I like to use a cutting board, cork coaster, or bread stone with any heat source.

  

Lastly, we use Sterno for some labs such as the flame test lab.

Yes, there are portable burners.  Good grief!  Look at the prices!

Lastly, I want to try microburners in lab.  They do use alcohol, but fit into a combination, reaction plate.  The microburner and combination plate are in RADMASTE kits.  The tiny burners use only a small amount of alcohol and are secured in the reaction plate.  I’m willing to try—under close supervision.  I found a lot of RADMASTE kits online.  They are scarce in the U.S.  Flinn sells microscale equipment.  However, you need to call customer service and have materials sent to a business. They have mailed to the church office before.