Science in the Beginning

Science in the Beginning
Written by Dr. Jay Wile
Published at Berean Builders

Many homeschool mom sometimes panic when it comes time to teach science. I think that these moments of panic often comes because we sometimes don't know where to start and how to make it interesting. Fear not anymore because now there is a new elementary science curriculum that has been written by none other than Dr. Jay Wile (best known for his science courses for high school). The series currently offers four titles at this point in time but a fifth one will be published in the future.

The series is essentially a hands-on, multilevel elementary science series that introduce scientific concepts using history as its guide. The first book of the series is Science in the Beginning.  And today I am presenting you this beautiful book that I have received.  When the author started to write this elementary level science series he decided to stat at the beginning of history which is given in the Bible's creation account.   It made sense to start with the days of creation. The book will introduce concepts like the nature of light, energy conservation, properties of air and water, introduce botany, explore the solar system, discover basic zoology as well as aspects of the human anatomy and physiology.  And let me tell you that this book is very different from another popular days of creation science series that many homeschoolers use.   Why you might ask?  Well, each lesson offers a hands-on activity that will help to cement the concept learned and concludes with three different levels of review depending of the age of the students – youngest students (grades 1-2), older students (grades 3-4), and oldest students (grades 5-6).

In all the book contains 90 lessons that you will be able to read and do with your children. Essentially there are fifteen lessons for each of the creation days mentioned in the book of Genesis. The first twelve lessons are considered "normal" lessons and the last three lessons are considered "challenge" lessons. So you have the choice of doing all the lessons or just simply doing the normal ones.   There are two ways to schedule the lessons – you can choose to do a lesson every other day or you can opt to do two lessons each week.    Each lesson has a hands-on activity – usually an experiment – in order to help cement the information covered during the reading of the lesson.   The lessons are short (about three pages maximum of learning the concepts), contains photos and/or illustrations in order to illustrate the subject of the lesson, and will be completed with review questions that are divided based on the three levels of students you could have.  Everything in the book is clearly identified for the person doing the reading.   Most experiments will be done at the beginning of the lesson so I would suggest that you quickly check the lesson before starting in order to collect the items needed for the experiment.    Then sit comfortable, gather your children around you and learn together about the science behind the days of creation.

The book also has a Helps & Hints booklet which is a great help for the mom doing the teaching.   This booklet contains the lesson reviews answers for each lesson included in the book.   You will see clearly which answers apply for the youngest students, the older students and the oldest students.   Inside this booklet there are also tests provided as well as the answers for these tests.  However, Dr. Wile do mention that he do not think that the tests are important for the elementary years.   He has included these for parents who desire to test their kids.   Personally, I think it was nice of him to include the tests and answers because I strongly believe that the oldest children could practice taking tests before getting in upper grades like middle school and high school.  Also, a free notebook is available for your students to fill in at the Berean Builders website. 

Needless to say I am very impressed with the Science in the Beginning.   Not only does it introduce you to science based on the days of creation with fun experiments to explore but your children will have the opportunity to slowly learn how to review material learned and possibly practice doing tests if you choose to do so.   The fact that each lessons are short and offers experiments which are useful to understand the concept learned.   My kids and I were able to better visualize and understand the concept we have learned during lessons we have done.  The fact that this particular science book is designed for all elementary levels maybe be interesting for families with multiple children.  Bottom line, this book is complete to cover science lessons for a complete year for children grades 1-6.  It is a fabulous book that homeschool families should seriously consider when it comes to teaching science to your kids because it contains numerous experiments which allow them to better understand the scientific concept taught each time.

To conclude let me tell you a bit more about things that are linked to this specific book.   Nature’s Workshop offers a  kit of supplies to help you do the experiments.  However, you do not have to purchase this kit necessarily.  It is easy to collect the items to do the experiment at home or at a store near you.  I suspect that this kit was made available to make it easier on moms who might be overwhelmed with teaching science or dislike shopping. A lapbook is also available for families who prefer to take this route through A Journey of Learning. Finally, the author also has made available a series of downloads for the book including three very useful documents which align his science series with some of the history curriculum available:  Mystery of History, Story of the World, and Tapestry of Grace.

Science in the Beginning is available at your favourite homeschool store, even on amazon.com.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Berean Builders for sending me the above mentioned curriculum for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Dr. Jay Wile’s Elementary Science Curriculum

As a homeschool parent, I always want the best for my kids no matter what is the subject.   Though we have explore science in the elementary years with products from another well known publisher, I was somewhat dissatisfied with the way things were going using that curriculum.  There was much reading but not enough hands-on I found.    I knew I wasn’t the only one with this sentiment and I was delighted when I learned that Dr. Jay Wile had decided to write a science curriculum for elementary ages – a five book series that will encourage younger students to explore and experience science following the historical timeline we are so familiar when we cover history.

The first book of the series is titled Science in the Beginning.  This book uses the days of creation as a way of introducing a wide range of scientific concepts including the nature of light, energy conservation, the properties of air and water, introductory botany, our solar system, basic zoology, and some aspects of human anatomy and physiology.

The second book of the series is titled Science in the Ancient World. The course covers the scientific work of natural philosophers who lived from about 600 BC to the early AD 1500s. It concentrates mostly on what these ancient scientists got right, but it does spend some time discussing what they got wrong, because even the mistakes that scientists make can sometimes advance our understanding of the natural world.

The third book of the series is titled Science in the Scientific Revolution. The book covers the scientific works of natural philosophers from 1543 to the end of the 1600s and discusses a wide range of topics including astronomy, human anatomy, medicine, botany, zoology, heliocentrism, geocentrism, gases, pressure, electricity, fossils, microbiology, binary numbers, gravity, conservation laws, and the laws of motion.

The fourth book of the series is titled Science in the Age of Reason. The book covers the scientific works of natural philosophers from the early 1600s to the early 1800s and discusses a wide range of topics including astronomy, medicine, botany, zoology, chemistry, geology, human physiology, electricity, conservation laws, and weather.

Finally, the fifth book of the series is not yet published as the book is probably being written at this point in time.   However, the book is expected to be titled Science in the Industrial Age and will cover from the end of the book of the Age of Reason to present day.

I really like the fact that these books are written with the perspective of history.   You can easily intertwine them with either Story of the World, Mystery of History, or Tapestry of Grace.  As a matter of fact, Dr. While has provided a comprehensive guide on how to use his books with each of these history curriculum which is very handy to have.  Once all the elementary books are done by a student, it is expected for him/her to be well prepared for junior high school science.

Over the next few months, I will present each of these books in more details.  In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about the series written by Dr. Jay Wile for the elementary levels, please visit his blog to read more about them.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Berean Builders for sending me the above mentioned products for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.

Discovering Design with Chemistry

Discovering Design with Chemistry
Written by Dr. Jay Wile
Published at Berean Builders

About the curriculum

Discovering Design with Chemistry is a high school chemistry course designed for students who have completed Algebra 1. This independent-study, college-preparatory course covers fundamental aspects of chemistry such as the classification of matter, atomic structure, spectroscopy, chemical bonding, molecular geometry, physical change, chemical change, stoichiometry, solutions, ideal gases, acid/base chemistry, reduction/oxidation reactions, thermochemistry, thermodynamics, kinetics, and chemical equilibrium. Weaving together concepts and their mathematical applications, the course teaches students how to think as a chemist so they can analyze the major changes that occur in matter.

The course contains 46 separate experiments that illustrate various concepts being explored. Many are quantitative in nature, including measuring the wavelength of microwaves, determining the number of water molecules in a hydrated compound, calculating percent yield, measuring the concentration of a hydrogen peroxide solution, determining the concentration of acetic acid in vinegar, measuring the specific heat of a metal, and determining the change in enthalpy for a chemical reaction. Others are qualitative, such as performing flame tests, examining the interference of light waves, comparing metals to nonmetals, exploring Boyle's Law, doing litmus tests, and electroplating.

Throughout the course, the student is shown how chemistry reveals the amazing design that exists all around us. From the details of atomic structure to the makeup of the very air that we breathe, chemistry shows us the marvelous handiwork of God.

My Thoughts

I will be completely honest with you.   I dreaded chemistry when I was in high school.  You see I was placed in the higher group of my level when I was in my last year of high school.  This meant Physics and Chemistry classes as well as Advanced Math.   Sigh.   I was hoping to go in science…. but I realized that it wasn’t a good fit for me – even though I like learning about it.   Honestly, I think having a good teacher helps a lot when you are learning anything in science.  My teacher wasn’t the best…   So now that my son is studying biology (I really enjoyed this class in high school and had good grades too!) I was dreading looking into chemistry for his grade 10 science curriculum simply because I didn’t enjoy myself that much.

I started looking into it early as I have a tendency to plan in advance and not wait at the last minute.   I was thinking of pursuing with Apologia which made sense since my son desire to go in science and the books from Apologia generally prepares the students better for upper level school.   But then I stumbled onto a facebook post from Dr. Jay Wile presenting his upcoming chemistry curriculum for high school published at Berean Builders.  Wait what?   Many readers were asking question and that is where I discovered that the new edition of the chemistry book at Apologia was not entirely up at the quality level of the 2nd edition.  Dr. Jay Wile also reviewed the 3rd edition in more details on his blog.   I took the time to read as much as I could on this.   When I was done I had two options in front of me – either I should try to find a used 2nd edition of Exploring Creation with Chemistry from Apologia which contains experiments that could be more difficult to do due to having trouble to find some items in the supply list or switched gears for a year and get the new book published at Berean Builders.   As I was debating this, I approached the publisher and hoped I would be able to review the new title when it comes out.

I was delighted to get an email confirming shipment back in August 2015.    And today I am pleased to write about Discovering Design with Chemistry.  First and foremost, I need to tell you that I wish I had a teacher like Jay Wile to explain chemistry when I was in high school.   He explanations are clear and help you digest the concepts  in your brain.   From the first page of the first chapter I knew that this book would be a keeper and that my son would be well prepared when it comes to chemistry. 

The set includes the textbook which contains the main text with highlighted terms to memorize as well as a comprehension check questions and examples.   Each chapter also includes at least one experiment for a total of forty-six found throughout the book.   In average your student would do about three experiments every two weeks which isn’t too bad.   In the inside of the book, you will get a periodic table of the elements as well as a list of the elements ordered by their chemical symbols.  At the end of the book, you will find the bond energies, the standard enthalpies of formation, the absolute entropies, the standard Gibbs free energies of formation and the vapor pressure of water.   I suspect that these quick tables and information are place judiciously on the inside of the hardcover book so that the student can quickly flip to them for a quick reference.

Once you crack open the book, you will have to read the introduction since you will find information on how to use this book.  You will also obtain a list of supplies needed to do the experiments included in the book.   Many of the experiment in this course requires a kit that contains some specialized equipment and chemicals (more on this later).  Finally, you are also reminded that a website is also available to help you during this course on chemistry. 

Discovering Design with Chemistry is divided into sixteen chapters:

1. Measuring Up: Measuring distance, using different units, significant figures, using significant figures in mathematical problems, relationship between units, converting between units, prefixes in the metric system, scientific notation, measuring area and volume, converting between volume units, measuring mass, measuring time, density.
2. What’s the Matter?: mixtures and pure substances, homogenous and heterogeneous mixtures, mass conservation, elements and compounds, law of definite proportions, Dalton’s atomic theory, law of multiple proportions, what’s wrong with Dalton’s theory?
3. Making Sense of Atoms and Elements: abbreviating and arranging elements, periodic table of the elements, defining the atoms that make up an element, isotopes, radiation, nuclear weapons, electromagnetic spectrum, energy of light, illuminating the structure of atoms – the Bohr model, spectroscopy.
4. The Modern View of Atoms and Their Chemistry: waves/particles, out with orbits/in with orbitals, do electrons really behave like waves?, so where do you put these electrons?, what good are electron configurations?, Lewis structures for elements, metals/nonmetals/in-betweens, ionic compounds, ionic compounds that don’t follow the rules, an important characteristics of ionic compounds.
5. Covalent Compounds and Their Molecular Geometry: share and share alike, Lewis structures of covalent compounds, naming covalent compounds, periodic properties and how they affect covalent compounds, a consequence of polar covalent bonds, molecules in three dimensions, is it polar?, why is polarity important?
6. Physical and Chemical Change: chemical and physical changes, temperature changes, phase changes, kinetic theory of matter, an important exception: water, chemical reactions, balancing chemical equations, mathematical nature of chemical equations, formation and decomposition reactions, single and double displacement reactions, combustion reactions.
7. Stoichiometry: counting atoms, mole problems, using the Mole concept, moles infesting chemical equations, limiting reactant, using more complicated chemical equations, stoichiometry gets massive, a practical application of stoichiometry.
8. Still More on Stoichiometry: the err is human, percent field, empirical and molecular formulas, determining empirical formulas of metal oxides, determining empirical formulas with combustion analysis, more complicated combustion analysis, determining empirical formulas from percent composition, polyatomic ions.
9. Chemists Have Solutions: dissolving solutes into solvents, solubility, some ionic and polar covalent chemicals aren’t very soluble, concentration, molarity, molality, depression, elevation.
10. It’s a Gas!: how pressure is defined, Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law, Absolute temperature, combined gas law, gases in Stoichiometry, Dalton’s Law of partial Pressures, Vapor Pressure and boiling point.
11. Some Pretty Basic (and Acidic) Chemicals: characteristics of acids and bases, chemical definition of acids and bases, acids and ionic bases, determining the chemical equation for an acid/base reaction, pH scale, acid/base neutralization, acid/base titrations, diluting acids and bases.
12. Reduction and Oxidation: oxidation states, reduction and oxidation, basics of batteries, analyzing galvanic cells, counting electrons and balancing simple redox equations, batteries that you actually use, electroplating, downside or redox reactions.
13. The Heat is On: What is heat?, specific heat capacity, measuring heat, calorimetry, latent heat, heat associated with chemical reactions.
14. Thermodynamics: enthalpy, bond energies, Hess’s Law, activation energy, changes in entropy, Gibbs free energy.
15. Kinetics: what things affect the rate of a chemical reaction?, collision theory, rate equation, determining reaction orders, activation energy, temperature, rate constant, how catalysts works.
16. Chemical Equilibrium: establishing chemical equilibrium, equilibrium constant, chemical meaning of the equilibrium constant, why salt melts ice, Le Chatelier’s principle, equilibrium concepts applied to acids and bases.

Each chapter contains clear information, quick comprehension check, stunning photos as well as explanatory graphics and specific instructions for the experiments.   You might wonder why dedicating a whole chapter to measurements but when you think about it a bit you will realize that if your student understands basic concepts in measurements, the rest of lessons in the book will be easier to grasp.  While I read the first chapter I was very pleased with how Dr. Wile explained the difference between English units and the metric units.   I will always be in awe to the fact the most of the world uses metric units while the U.S. still use the English units.   But that is another debate for another time I suppose.

As you can see in the pages below, you will find easy to understand graphics, photos and information that is written to help you better understand the concepts in this book.   The more I discover this book, the more I wished I had it in my hand when I was doing grade 12 chemistry.  Sigh.   I would probably have obtained better grades…

What makes this course even more interesting for me is the fact that Dr. Wile do not hesitate to demonstrate that chemistry shows the marvelous work of God.     It was important for me to get a book that would present the information accurately and that it would be faith based.   I am definitively not disappointed with this course.   I am confident that this course will prepare my son above and beyond the expectation of a chemistry course in regular school.   

You will also get the Answer Key & Tests book when you purchase the set.   This specific book contains all the material related to all sixteen chapters of the book – that is the solutions for the review, the test as well as the solution for the test - as well as two final exams (and their solutions) for each semester you are using the textbook.    Bottom line the book can be divided into two semesters: Chapters 1-8 and Chapters 9-16. 

My only disappointment at this point in time is the fact that a journal type product is not available in order for my son to study more accurately this course.  However, at the grade level he will be doing in September, I think he could be more than able to organize himself and use a notebook in order to take notes, answer questions and prepare for his exams.   It will be a great way for him to develop organizational skills when it comes to his studies.

A lab kit for this course is also available separately by Nature’s Workshop Plus.  However, a lab supply list is also included in the book for you if you decide to purchase the items separately.  Twenty-seven experiments can be completed without the kit.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a chemistry course that will prepare your student to upper level studies I believe that this book will be perfect for your child.  It will challenge him/her to the point of being completely prepare for the future if he/she wish to go into science.    I have no doubt that the quality of the text and the experiments included in this book will be preparing your child more than any other books out there.   Without hesitation I recommend Discovering Design with Chemistry for any high school student.  This  course will indeed prepare them for college/university!

Note that this course should be done by students who have completed Algebra 1.

Discovering Design with Chemistry is available for purchase on amazon.com.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Berean Builders for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.