We have been blessed with a six month subscription to e-Science Learning Program by Supercharged Science to finish out this school year. This is so great!
Supercharged Science is online science curriculum, and their e-Science Learning Program is like bringing the science teacher, Aurora Lipper, and her science lab right into your home. Aurora has taught science to students from elementary school all the way up through college level. She has also worked as a pilot and a NASA scientist. She learned through her teaching and working experience that there was a better way to teach science than what is usually done in schools and universities, and she developed Supercharged Science. She is funny too, and brings a fun perspective and she makes learning science fun.
You can use Supercharged Science as a stand alone curriculum, or you can use it as a supplement to the other curriculum you are using. There are over 800 lessons with more being developed all the time. The lessons are divided into units (about 20 different units). Each lesson has text book style lessons, then video tutorials, quizzes, activities and experiments. There is a PDF print out of lessons and materials you can print if you want too. There are also tele-classes online every few weeks where your child can join in a live class.
When you subscribe to this program, you are given access to several units to master and then each month you are given access to several more. This helps break down the huge amount of information into managable parts. But you can also access lessons through grade levels too if you prefer. The program focusses on teaching science from the “inside out” with a strong focus on hands on experiements to keep kids “hooked” and passionate about science. Unit Topics include: Mechanics, Motion, Matter, Energy, Sound, Astrophysics, Chemestry, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Alternative Energy, Thermodynamics, Electronics, Life Science, Biology, Earth Science, Science Fair Projects,Teacher Resources, Summer Science, e-Camp, and more.
The monthly subscription retails for $57 a month. There are other pricing options available, and several free gifts that come with subscription options so be sure to check out which option is right for you. There is also a free trial too. The program is for K-12 grades. Kids K-3 grade will likely need parental help, but kids older than that can probably do most of the program independently.
Here is a link to a video where Aurora explains how to teach science to kids.
How We Used Supercharged Science:
I was so thrilled to be selected to share this review with you. I am going to tell you right from the start that my kids and I absolutely love this curriculum. It is so easy to use.
We set aside time each day for science learning. Everyday I set up the kids on the computer first for our science lesson. We did these lessons together, and we have a big family and everyone wanted in on the learning.
You can either choose theme units as your approach which works very well when working together as a whole family, or choose a grade level, K-12, approach to hone in on specific age appropriate lessons. You can jump around between grades and lessons too. We chose to work in grade specific lessons for the purpose of this review.
Usually either the oldest son or myself read the lesson to the other children. Then they watched a video with a related science experiment. Then we gathered up our own materials and repeated the experiment. You can replay and pause the video as much as you need to and progress at your own pace.
I let the kids browse through the program. We chose to work together in the 3rd grade lessons for the purpose of this review. They really wanted to study the weather unit in Earth Science. 3rd grade is divided into four areas of learning: Earth Science, Physics, Astronomy, and Life Science. My son who is 9 and about 3rd grade level, doesn’t like to read. So having the kids work on this project together and reading it to him helped him and the younger kids enjoy the program even more.
We completed the Earth Science portion on weather, and completed all but two of the experiments where we lacked thermal paper. We have also done several lessons in other areas too. In WEATHER, they had a lot of fun building and experiementing with:
Anemometer – measures wind
Barometer – measures atmospheric pressure
Hygrometer – measures air moisture (kids used a real human hair to make this)
Thermometer – measures temperature
Rain Gage – measures rain fall
Cloud Tracker – follows cloud changes in the sky (we haven’t finished
this experiement as we didn’t have thermal paper yet)
Sensing Temperature Changes
Heat & Radiation “Soaking Up Rays” – observing infra-red radiation
transfer of heat
Liquid Crystal Thermal Sheets (we haven’t finished this one yet
as we didn’t have the thermal paper on hand)
Seasons – seasons affected by axis tilt of the plannet
Check out this free video by Supercharged Science on how to make a cloud tracker.
]These are the goals listed in the program for 3rd grade Earth Science Weather Unit.
About the same time we made the anemometer experiment, one of our favorite engineering shows on TV, called Hillbilly Blood, also made an anometer too and we got to see how they callabrated wind speed with theirs. They hooked their anemometer to a voltage reader, drove down the road while holding the anometer on the outside of their truck, and measured the amount of voltage they created. They checked the voltage at different speeds: 10 miles and hour, 15 miles an hour, and 20 miles an hour. They then used this knowledge to create a homemade roof top windmill and convert the wind into energy to re-charge car batteries. They knew how much energy they were creating by how fast the wind blew. The kids were so excited to see something they had just learned about in science be used on the show on TV in a way that actually made something usefull like energy to power equipment. All of their materials came from recycling junk from a junk yard and from scraps discarded in the woods. This real life application inspired the kids even more to work on their science projects with excitement.
Even though the kids are working together on their science learning, the oldest two are working on their own grade levels at their own pace as well and have skipped around different subject matter based on their interests too. Aurora has also showed them how to make a good science journal to keep track of their experiemtns and progress. One of the older boys wanted a journal, and the other didn’t, so I let them do what . I love using delight directed curriculum methods and Supercharged Science can definately be used this way.
I encourage everyone to give this curriculum a try. Try out the Free option first and see how this wonderful program can meet the needs of your own family. It is a great product and our whole family gives it two thumbs up! Right now, Supercharged Science is offering our readers a special opportunity. They are offering their e-Science Learning Program for a 30 days for only $1. It is a steal of a deal!
Be sure to follow Supercharged Science Media Links to keep up with news:
https://www.facebook.com/superchargedsci
http://www.twitter.com/aurora_lipper
https://www.youtube.com/user/auroram42
http://pinterest.com/superchargedsci/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/112193545312804826871/posts
http://www.superchargedscience.com/blog/
https://www.facebook.com/superchargedsci
http://www.twitter.com/aurora_lipper
https://www.youtube.com/user/auroram42
http://pinterest.com/superchargedsci/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/112193545312804826871/posts
http://www.superchargedscience.com/blog/
Check out what other families on the Schoolhouse Review Crew had to say about Supercharged Science. Scroll down to the bottom of the Schoolhouse page for the link that takes you to 100 great reviews of this product.
