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Noeo Science Curriculum: Biology, Physics, and Chemistry courses for grades 1-9

Publisher: Noeo Science Curriculum
Review last updated: march 2012 		Instant KeyPublishers InfoPricing

Noeo Science Curriculum

For years I've advocated avoiding traditional science textbooks and, instead, choosing fewer topics to cover using real books and experiments. Obviously, more and more homeschoolers agree with me since publishers are increasingly putting together courses that fit this description. However, I think Noeo Science has done the best job yet! You'll see why as you read on.

Courses are available for three levels. Level I courses target grades 1 through 3, level II courses are for grade 4 through 6, and level III courses might be used in grades 7 through 9. It should take one school year to complete each course. The titles of the eight volumes in the series and their prices (as of the printing of this book) are:

Biology I: Seeds, Scales, Feather and Tails! $143.59
Chemistry I: Bubbly, Sticky, Bouncy, and Icky! $165.22
Physics I: Zip, Zap, Zing, and Zoom! $157.27
Biology II: Worms, Beans, Germs, and Genes! $134.94
Chemistry II: Atoms to Alloys and Beyond! $150.06
Physics II: Gizmos, Gadgets, Gears, and Gravity! $155.70
Chemistry III: It's Elementary! $211.42
Physics III: It’s Forceful! $160.18

You might have noticed that all courses are titled Biology, Chemistry, or Physics. Some science topics such as geology, weather, and astronomy overlap these three areas of science, so they are included at points within chemistry, biology, and physics where they fit most appropriately.

It doesn't really matter which order you use the volumes for each level. Choosing the most appropriate level is more important. However, you might easily shift a student at one end or the other of a level into a lower or higher level if it helps consolidate your teaching of more than one child together. While the titles of the books sound the same, the content at each level changes to cover different topics within biology, chemistry and physics (as well as other areas of science) so that students will have a broad and thorough science education after completing a few levels of these courses.

Noeo Science has taken its name from a Greek word meaning "to understand." The first page of the introduction to each book reminds us that, "The essence of science is simply observing and describing God's creation. When scientists make a new discovery, they are seeing another part of creation revealed…. [Our children] should … be immersed in the sciences so that ‘His invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature' will be clearly seen." So the curriculum is designed with lots of experiments and hands-on activity rather than in a traditional format.

The author describes the curriculum's approach as "mostly classical" with elements of Charlotte Mason and unit studies, although it seems to me that the latter two approaches dominate.

Each volume of Noeo Science targets a narrow range of topics under the general heading of biology, chemistry, or physics. For example, Biology I—subtitled Seeds, Scales, Feathers and Tails!—covers weather, bacteria and fungi, sea life, amphibians, plants, insects, birds, and the human body. Despite the number of topics, extensive time is spent on narrower subsets of each of the above topics, using real books, observations, and experiments—all hallmarks of unit studies.

Charlotte Mason’s influence is seen in the use of real books, the use of narration (oral and written), drawing, and creation of a notebook. While children learn some vocabulary, the curriculum does not rely on the memorization typical of many science courses, and neither does it use typical worksheets and tests. That doesn't mean students do no writing. Some reproducible forms in each volume are used by students for notebooking, drawing, recording data from experiments, writing definitions, and taking notes. Samples of completed student pages are included in the Instructor's Guide to assist parents. (Note: The reproducible pages are also available for free download at the website.)

For each course, the key component is the Instructor's Guide that comes in a spiral-bound book. Each Instructor’s Guide consists primarily of lesson plans that are laid out for each week in chart form for easy reference. They list the pages in books to be read, experiments to be completed, optional experiments or optional internet links to explore. Notes at the bottom tell you when students need to makes notes or drawings for their notebooks or provide a narration.

The Instructor's Guide also has a fairly brief explanation of how the curriculum works, the aforementioned reproducible pages, lists of required books and experiment kits, and a master supply list of items needed for other experiments and activities.

Noeo Science sells the Instructor's Guides with sets of the required books and experiment kits that save you money over buying items individually. However, you can purchase all items separately if you prefer. Experiment kits from the Young Scientist Club are included in Levels I and II, while more extensive kits from Thames and Kosmos are used with Level III courses. The Young Scientist Club experiment kits (between 5 and 7 kits per course) for younger levels come bundled in boxes for each course rather than individually. It is important to note that the Young Scientist Club Kits have a number of experiments within each individual kit so there's even more here than you might think. Each kit includes its own instruction book plus equipment and supplies for all the experiments. These kits are relatively small and inexpensive, but they do contain some unusual items like a spring scale, glycerol, and a Petri dish. You will need to collect some common household items (see the master supply list in each volume) to use with the kits, but all the difficult-to-get items are provided.

Chemistry III and Physics III come with larger experiment kits, each of which has its own substantial manual. Students are not required to complete every experiment in each kit, but they might enjoy them enough to tackle the optional experiments on their own.

Physics III has two kits. A Physics Workshop kit with all sorts of gears, pulleys, rods, building components, and a battery-operated motor has 38 workshop projects for students to construct things from the kit. Most workshop projects are accompanied by experiments in which students use the workshop creation. For example, students build a force scale and type two lever in a workshop then use it in an experiment to measure forces on a lever. The Electronic Snap Circuits Kit used in Physics III can be used for building 78 projects for learning all about electricity. Chemistry III has one large kit that includes chemicals and lab equipment as well as a complete manual with instructions for 251 experiments.

The books selected for each course are outstanding. For example, Chemistry II books are the Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia; Usborne Internet-Linked Mysteries and Marvels of Science; Fizz, Bubble & Flash; Adventures with Atoms and Molecules; The Mystery of the Periodic Table; and Geology Rocks! These are mostly colorful, illustrated books that children love to explore on their own. Even better, both Chemistry II and Physics II use the same two Usborne books so you can save on the second course by purchasing a less expensive package that does not include those two books. You will develop a great science library with the books from these courses.

Some parents using Level III courses will be concerned about high school requirements. While there is plenty of lab work in both the Physics and Chemistry III courses, the labs do not require the mathematical measurements and calculations typical of high school level labs. The course material introduces ideas taught at high school level but does not go as far as usual for high school courses. For example, at least a few of the books in the Chemistry III course–Eyewitness Books Chemistry and Material Matters: Mixtures, Compounds & Solutions (Raintree)–discuss covalent and ionic bonds yet none of them really fully develop the technical aspect of how atoms bond with each other. Consequently, these courses are perfect for junior high and might serve as introductory courses for ninth graders that would be followed up later with more challenging, math-based chemistry or physics courses.

Each course is laid out for 36 weeks—a full school year. Lessons are provided for four days a week. However, lessons for Level I should take only 15 to 20 minutes a day, lessons for Level II should take only 20 to 30 minutes per day, and lessons for Level III should take 30 to 40 minutes per day. This means that you can easily double up your lessons and do science two days a week for longer sessions since even level three lessons twice a week would require no more than 60 to 80 minutes each. Of course, if students also complete optional reading or experiments that could take more time. In addition, many of the observations, activities and experiments in all the volumes could be expanded beyond the minimal time required.

As I was reviewing Noeo Science I couldn't help but compare it with a number of other such courses that have come out in recent years. Many are trying to do the same thing, combining real books with hands-on activity in a unit study type fashion. However, I think Noeo has actually done the most comprehensive job yet by making it simple to use with very clear and brief lesson plans and by including the "response" component.

Some other courses are weaker on requiring students to write, narrate, draw, or record information, providing some sort of response. Perhaps this is an overreaction against traditional curriculum. Yet these activities, as designed in this program, help the student reflect upon and truly absorb information. The only downside I see is that instructions regarding these responses might be too brief. Some parents will have trouble knowing how to teach their child to summarize what they have learned or how to really use the experiment recording form. Still, this shouldn't be a problem for most parents.

While the author of the curriculum has a Christian worldview, most of the resource books do not. In the introduction, the author suggests using encounters with secular or materialist viewpoints in the books as opportunities for discussion rather than skipping over them. I might also suggest that since the resource books are your primary source of information, you might want to add discussion about God's design or presence when it seems appropriate.

Check the website for information on various options for purchasing individual components.

Pricing

see review

Instant Key

  • Learning Styles: all
    Suitable for:      one-on-one or group plus some independent work
    Audience:     grades 1-9
    Need for parent/teacher instruction:      high for lab work
    Prep time needed:     moderate to high for lab work
    Need for Teacher's Manual:  essential
    Religious perspective:     underlying Christian view, but most resources are secular

Publisher's Info

  • Noeo Science Curriculum

    7020 Barbuda Drive
    Fort Collins, CO 80525

    Email: inbox@noeoscience.com
    www.noeoscience.com