Connecting History and Other Subjects

My public school education (in a good school, and as an honor student) was seriously lacking in nearly every way.  Sure, I learned how to take and pass a test with flying colors, but I retained so very little!  My 6-year-old son can tell you more about the history of the world than I can, and he's only had one year of instruction.....and he's retaining the information! 

Connecting math, science, and literature, to history is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling.  I came across a wonderful way to do so with chemistry today.  The American Chemical Society has four interactive features, including a timeline, of "National Historic Chemical Landmarks", or important events in chemical history.  They also have a This Week in Chemical History page.  We won't be starting chemistry officially for a couple of years, but I hope at least one of my readers can utilize this resource now.

One resource we will be using next year is Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself.  What a wonderful way to tie science to history, don't you think!?  This book is written for the nine-twelve age bracket and I will be using it with a just-turned seven-year-old.  However, he is a serious history buff and already thinks daVinci is one of the coolest guys ever.  LOL  If things seem to advanced for him to do we'll just set the book aside and use it on our next cycle through history.

I also just purchased Science And Technology In The Middle Ages by Joanne Findon.  I have high hopes for this book, I just hope it lives up to them!

And I imagine most of you have heard of Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians, which is the perfect book for tieing math and history together!  There is also a second volume in what I hope will become an entire series!

Please comment and share what you use to tie history to other subjects!

Resources for Elementary Chemistry

Inquiry in Action—Investigating Matter Through Inquiry, Third Edition is a free printable resource from the American Chemical Society.  The activities in the book are also available separately on the Inquiry in Action website.  Designed for grades 3-8 it is something we will likely use when we get around to chemistry as an official subject.  (Right now chemistry is something we do for fun!)  It addresses the following topics:

● Scientific questions and their investigation
● Physical properties
● Physical change
● Dissolving solids, liquids, and gases
● Chemical change
● States of matter
● Density

Although not free, the American Chemical Society also published a couple of science books that look good for the preschool through second grade set.  I just ordered both of them (used, through Amazon, and for cheaper than the links that follow), titled

Apples, Bubbles, and Crystals: Your Science ABCs

and Sunlight, Skycrapers, and Soda Pop: The Wherever-You-Look Science Book. 

Since we're just starting to work on writing letters with my 4-year-old I thought the first title would correspond nicely.  It seems perfect for a letter-of-the-week type curriculum!  I'll let you know how we like them once we've had a chance to use them.

Chemistry Is Fun!

I had the best time introducing Nik to the wonders of chemistry this afternoon!  We started off having a ton of fun with some actvities from The Molecularium™ Project.  We built molecular oxygen, molecular hydrogen, water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen peroxide, methane, propane, butane, methanol, ethanol, glucose, fructose, vitamin C, vitamin A, sucrose, and bucky balls in the Nanolab.  What a fun and easy way to introduce atoms, elements, and molecules!

We'll be doing some of the activities from the teacher's guides available on the Educator's Resource page (scroll to the bottom to find the pdf download links) over the next few weeks. 

Nik was so excited to do this activity, and his understanding of molecules from this brief activity amazes me!  I love finding gems like this on the internet, and I hope you all use and enjoy them, too!

Chemistry Science Links

I'm trying to organize my internet bookmarks and I decided to take the opportunity to post some of the links that I have collected.  I haven't checked out all of these sites, so forgive me if anything sneaks through that shouldn't have.  This list will be updated periodically (hehehehe) as I find new sites to share.

Chemistry Science Links
PopSci Interactive Periodic Table of the Elements
The Periodic Table of Videos from The University of Nottingham
Home Science Tools: Chemistry Science Projects
Chemical & Engineering News: The Chemistry Behind Everyday Products
Journal of Chemical Education: Chemistry Comes Alive!
Chemical Jigsaw Puzzle
Food & Science: The Chemistry of Cooking
The Periodic Table of Comic Books
Royal Society of Chemistry: Visual Elements Periodic Table
Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab
ChemiCool Periodic Table