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MathArt Natureglo’s eScience Review

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My kids are enjoying courses from NatureGlo’s eScience.  We were recently given a subscription to review their MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle courses, and we tried out some of their other products too.

NatureGlo’s eScience offers several online live classes and pre-recorded classes that you can do at your own pace.  If you purchase the live class format, you also get access to the pre-recorded course for one year.  The whole family can use the pre-recorded classes for one price.  Most classes are taught for kids ages 10 and older and some classes are geared for specific ages such as highschool age.

The classes are taught by Gloria Brooks, the founder of Nature Glo and NatureGlo’s eScience.  Gloria has extensive knowledge, and she is the creator of several curriculum products.  She teaches from a “Neutral Worldview” meaning she doesn’t focus on “Creationism” or “Evolution” in explaining the universe.  She has been teaching and working in education with all grades in the public, private, and homeschool education settings since 1997 and has been offering online courses since 2011.

Some of the online courses NatureGlo’s eScience has to offer include:

  • Marine Biology,
  • Herpatology,
  • Botany,
  • Rocks and Minerals,
  • MathArt.

You can subscribe to courses in several different ways.  Some of the options available include:

  • 5 – 6 week Class Bundles
  • 4 – 6 week Class Bundles
  • 3 -1-3 week 12 Class Bundle
  • Single classes too.

Be sure to check out the Course Catalog for a list with descriptions of all her classes.

Math Art Online 4-Class Bundle

The MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle is made up of 4 courses that last 6 weeks each.

  • Math Connections With The Real World
  • MathArt Patterns In Nature
  • MathArt in Ancient Cultures
  • MathArt in the Arts & Sciences

 

MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World:

For the purpose of this review, we will focus on one of the classes in the MathArt 4-Class Bundle called MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World.

Math Connections With The Real World

There are 6 Lessons in this course that are meant to be completed about 1 lesson per week.  However you can go as fast or as slow as your student needs to go.   This course is designed for students age 12 and older.

Each lesson in this course contains videos, power points, study guides, downloads, suggested activities, suggested research projects to further the learning, theme connections with various subjects (Math, Art, Geography, Archaeology, Music, History, etc) and quizzes.

Lesson 1: Introduction & History of the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Numbers

  • Main Lesson Downloads & Lesson Videos with NatureGlo
  • Lesson Activity – Math is Fun: The Golden Ratio
  • Quizlet – Introduction to the Golden Ratio & the Fibonacci Numbers

Lesson #2 – The Golden Number & Fibonacci in Art, Architecture & Nature

  • Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo
  • Activity – Math is Fun: Nature, The Golden Ratio,and Fibonacci too!
  • Project: Golden Ratio Do It Yourself
  • Going Beyond – Web Resources, Projects & Activities & Videos
  • Quizlet

Lesson #3 – The Fibonacci Numbers in Nature

  • Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo
  • Fibonacci Cookies Activity
  • Video (6:24) – The Magic of Fibonacci
  • Going Beyond – Web Resources, Projects, Activities & Videos
  • Quizlet

Lesson #4 – The History & the Golden Ratio of the Great Pyramid

  • Pre-lesson Activity – The Great Pyramid of Egypt
  • Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo
  • History Connection – TEDed Video (4:27) – History vs. Cleopatra
  • Exploration – Discover & Explore and Ancient Egyptian Tomb (Interactive)
  • Literature Connection – The Prince and the Sphinx
  • Art Connection – Video (8:00) – Egyptian Art History
  • Music Connection – Video (3:21) – Tomb Raiders
  • Going Beyond – Web resources, Videos & Projects
  • Quizlet

Lesson #5 – Phi & Quasicrystals

  • Pre-lesson Activity – Explaining What Quasicrystals Are
  • Main Lesson Downloads & Videos with NatureGlo – Phi & Quasicrystals
  • Video (10:18) – Professor Dan Schectman, Discoverer of Quasicrystals
  • Art Connection – Creating Middle Eastern Quasicrystal Designs
  • Literature Connection – Forty Fortunes
  • Quasicrystals Quizlet

Lesson #6 – The Mathematics of Music

  • Pre-lesson Activity – Musical Instruments (& their Relationship with Mathematics)
  • Main Lesson Dowloads & Videos with NatureGlo
  • Video – Fibonacci Melody (8:34)
  • Going Beyond – Web Resources, Projects & Videos
  • Quizlet – The Mathematics of Music

Student Certificate of Completion

When your students complete the course, you can print out a nice certificate of completion to keep in their portfolio.

Check out this Video from Lesson 1 in MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World.

Check out this Video about “Why” Gloria created the MathArt courses.

Our Experience:

We received a subscription to NatureGlo’s eScience MathArt 4-Class Bundle.  We chose to focus on MathArt: Math Connections With The Real World for the purpose of this review.   My 17 year old son and 14 year old son were the primary participants in this course, though all of my kids participated in some of the other courses.

After enrolling in the courses at NatureGlo’s eScience, students can access their dashboard. The dashboard has tabs for each of their enrolled courses, achievements, notifications from the teacher, etc.

Here is an example of the “My Courses” tab with an overview of everything on our personal dashboard.  My kids have enrolled in both the MathArt courses, and also several of the free courses offered including course samples in Marine Biology, Herptology, etc.  My kids can easily click on the course they want to work on and then click on the specific lesson.  

We have access to each course pictured in the “My Courses” tab for 1 year from the time we enrolled in them.  For a quick overview of progress, you can see how far along the student is by observing a small pink bar under each of the courses in the picture above.  Then once you click on the specific course, another pink bar appears above the list of lessons on the right side of the dashboard.

This pink bar indicates the level of completion of the courses we are working on.   At the time I took this photo, you can see at a glance on the dashboard that we were over half way through with the Math Connections With The Real World course.  We had also completely finished with The Introduction to Sea Turtles of the World course.

Under the “My Acheivements” tab on the dashboard, all of achievements are listed for all of the classes your students are working on.  This is a nice way to see them at a glance.

Here is an example of the “Notifications” tab:

Screenshot examples of my sons doing lessons on the computer:

Here is a screen shot of the downloadable study guide.  Each lesson in the course has additional study guide pages and worksheets you can save to your computer and print when needed.

Here are a few more examples of lessons in this course.

Pictures of some of the hands on projects:

 

Introduction to the Sea Turtles of the World

In addition to the MathArt courses, we also signed up for several of the free course offers and free downloadable unit studies.  So far we have completed Introduction to the Sea Turtles of the World course.

Introduction to the Sea Turtles of the World

  • The 7 Sea Turtle Species Poster & How to ID
  • Learn to ID or Identify the 7 Sea Turtles
  • Literature Connection – Video (8:06) – Believe in Yourself, Story of a Sea Turtle
  • Art Connections: Various Sea Turtle Art Projects
  • Historical/Literary Connection: Traditional Japanese Folk Story: Urashima Taro
  • Geography Connection: The World’s 12 Healthiest Sea Turtle Populations
  • Creative Writing – Writing Prompts about Sea Turtles

This course was suitable for all ages of my kids from the youngest to the oldest so we hooked our computer up to the TV in the living room so that all of the children could take the class at the same time.  This class covered the biology of sea turtles, geography, fiction story about a young turtle, as well as how different cultures view turtles such as the Japanese view, and also focused on different art projects relating to sea turtles.

The kids studied 7 different kinds of sea turtles and learned how to identify the different body and head types of each kind.

They also learned about life cycles of turtles from laying eggs on the shore to the eggs hatching and the baby turtles emerging from the nest to make it back to the water.

The course has several lessons and suggested videos.  There is an audio video animated story about the eggs hatching and the new life of the baby turtle.  After watching the suggested video, the kids dug deeper by researching their own videos of sea turtles hatching.

One of the videos they found was taken at Oak Island, NC where we have visited a couple of times and my kids have swam on that same beach that the turtles hatched from.  The kids were very excited to make this connection.

One of the lessons in the course is learning to identify and draw a sea turtle.

Another art lesson in this course involves creating a unique 3D painting of a turtle and fish in the ocean.

Once you have completed this course, the student is sent an achievement award.

Here is a short video on the Introduction to Sea Turtles of the World course.

Final Thoughts about courses from NatureGlo’s eScience:

17 year old son’s opinion of the MathArt: Math Connections In The Real World:

“It has been fun to take this course.  It has been amazing to see the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci numbers in everything in every day life from pine cones, to flowers, to architecture, and music.  It is almost hard to grasp how much this in everyday life.  It is amazing to see Father God’s hands in everything. I have learned a lot and I have been inspired to do a lot more research.”

My kids are enjoying all of these courses from NatureGlo’s eScience and having Gloria as the teacher.  The younger kids are getting ready to start the Introduction To Whales & Dolphins.  The older kids are about finished with the Math Connections In The Real World and will soon be starting the MathArt In Ancient Cultures.  They are looking forward doing all of the classes in the MathArt Online 4-Class Bundle.

These classes are informative and there is a variety of things to do from reading, watching videos, videos of recorded classes, completing worksheets in the study guides, and additional suggested videos to expand the learning as well as a lot of suggested hands on learning activities, including fun art projects too.  She covers such a wide variety of subjects from Science, Math, Art, History, Archaeology, Cultural History, etc and there is something that interests each of my kids even thought they are all different.

We really like the pre-recorded classes, because you feel as if you are in class with Gloria and the other kids, but you have the benefit of going at your own pace, and you can rewind and hear it again if you need too.  With either option, pre-recorded classes or live classes, Gloria has made herself accessible if you have questions.  She also asks if kids do the suggested projects, to send in pictures or links that she can share with others.

On a personal note, I wish these courses were taught from a Christian worldview.  I intentionally seek out educational programs with this worldview.  Thankfully my kids are strong in their faith, and they are able to add what Gloria is teaching them in NatureGlo’s eScience courses into what they already know to be true about the “Creator of the creation”, the one who created everything we are studying around us.

FREE OFFERS

You can “try before you buy” by checking out the free courses and unit studies offered through NatureGlo’s eScience.

  • Fibranoci Unit Study (MathArt Course)
  • Introduction to Sea Turtles of the World (Marine Biology Course)
  • Transparent Living Jewels: The Glass Frogs (Herpatology Course)
  • Introduction to Whales & Dolphins Unit Study (Marine Biology Course)

Social Media

Be sure to check out NatureGlo’s eScience on their social media links for all the latest news and product updates.

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Homeschool Review Crew

Be sure to check out what other families on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using courses from NatureGlo’s eScience in their homes.

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