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Saturday, May 12, 2007

What to buy?  Supplementing RS4K

Many of you have asked how to supplement RS4K since the full curriculum is not yet finished.

This is a very good question and the answer is - it depends.

I would recommend that parents allow their student to guide what additional materials to use depending on the topic the student finds interesting. For example, if a student wants to learn more about a certain subject, such as butterflies, it would be useful to supply them with more information about butterflies. The internet and library are excellent resources for finding additional information about most science subjects.

However, I would encourage parents not to overwhelm students with more "science information" if the student does not show interest in learning more than what is presented in the RS4K textbook. The science content in RS4K does not overwhelm most students and although there is much more "science information" that could be included, I kept the chapters short on purpose. I would prefer that students learn a few science topics well, than try to learn too many topics not very well, and it is very easy to overwhelm students with too much information which may turn your student away from learning more science.

Personally, I would recommend supplementary materials for RS4K that help kids think critically or teach them logic. I have struggled to find books that I like but here are two books that will give students a better idea on how to think critically and detect errors in their thinking.

The Thinking Toolbox

The Fallacy Detective

These two books are suitable for most kids 4th grade and older.

Teaching your kids to think critically is the single most important tool you can give them and I believe the single most important supplement to RS4K.

Is RS4K going to have a Critical Thinking supplement?

Yes. In fact, I am working on it right now! There will be a complete set of supplements for all of the RS4K science books and there will be more information available about this later in the summer.

In the meantime - I would recommend books on logic and critical thinking as the primary supplementary materials for RS4K!

All my best,

Rebecca

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Conference Season

Now that the school season is winding down, the homeschool conference season is in full swing. Gravitas Publications Inc. is attending several conferences this year and we would like to invite you to stop by, say "Hello," and look over our books. All of our books will be on display so you can flip through them, see what they are like and ask questions.

We also have a new booth display that we hope you'll like!

Here is a list of the conferences Gravitas Publications Inc. with Real Science-4-Kids will be attending:

SHEM Springfield, MO 4/26 - 428

CHEA Santa Clara, CA 4/27 - 4/28

OCHEC Oklahoma City 5/4 - 5/5/07

HAH Arlington, TX 5/11 - 5/12

CHAP Harrisburg, PA 5/11- 5/12/07

HOW Douglas, WY 5/18 - 5/19/07

NCHE Winston-Salem, NC 5/24 - 5/26/07

HEAV Richmond, VA 6/7 - 6/9/07

WHO Puyallop, WA 6/15 - 6/16

CHEA2 LongBeach, CA 7/12 - 7/14

AFHE Phoenix, AZ 7/20 -7/21

Join Us!

Monday, April 23, 2007

Evolution, Creation, and Intelligent Design

Recently, there have been a few questions concerning the issue of evolution, creationism and intelligent design. I wanted to take some time to address this issue in further detail.

The major questions that seem to have been generated by several discussions are:

Is RS4K secular or creation based?

and

Does RS4K promote intelligent design?

However, these questions really follow from two broader questions:

What is intelligent design?

and

Are evolutionary theory, intelligent design and creationism equally science?

These broader questions, I believe, are at the heart of the issues concerning the content and worldview of RS4K. Before I jump into answering specific questions about RS4K, I think it is necessary to provide a foundation for science; what contributes to science and scientific thinking, and what freedom, if any, we should allow students (and each other) when drawing conclusions from scientific data.
What is science?

This deceptively simple question is difficult to answer. If you ask 100 people how they define science, you are likely to get 99 different answers. Some people see science broadly, as a way for understanding all things in the world around them including atoms and emotions. Some people view science more narrowly as limited to "the scientific method." Even scientists disagree on how to define science.

The definition of science given by the Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology says that:
Science is the systematic observation of natural events and conditions in order to discover facts about them and to formulate laws and principles based on these facts.

Science is the organized body of knowledge that is derived from observations and that can be verified or tested by further investigation.

Science is any specific branch of this general body of knowledge, such as biology, physics, geology, or astronomy.

But is science more than simply gathering facts? The definition of science can also include gaining a deeper knowledge and understanding of the world around us.

Science involves more than the gaining of knowledge. It is the systematic and organized inquiry into the natural world and its phenomena. Science is about gaining a deeper and often useful understanding of the world.
Multicultural History of Science Vanderbilt University.

Being a scientist, I like to think of science as having two distinct parts. One part I will call the practice of science, and the other part I will call the interpretation of science.

The practice of science utilizes the scientific method and involves collecting scientific information about the real world we live in. The interpretation of science, is the lens, or interpretative framework we employ to understand what the scientific information gathered means to science and to our understanding of the world around us. Both of these aspects make up what I would define as science.

Truth is absolute, but our experience of truth is relative.

This brings me to the next point I want to make. There is an absolute truth. The world is really made of atoms or it is not. Plants really convert the sun's energy into food or they do not. Table salt is really composed of sodium and chlorine, or it is not. There is a reality to the world that we cannot deny and that we do not choose. It exists or it does not. However, how we experience the reality around us is relative to each individual. Gravity is real or it is not, but a man trying to fly without a plane is going to experience gravity in a different way than a bird flying without a plane. And this is where there can be both the rigorous and objective gathering of scientific information alongside the often subjective interpretation of that information. In other words, there is the gathering of scientific information and the meaning that information brings to our lives.

One example I use to illustrate this point is that in any given room with any given number of people there is going to be a given temperature. The temperature may vary from place to place in the room, but if it is a well insulated room, there will be close to a uniform temperature throughout the room. Now, everyone in the room can use a variety of instruments to take the temperature in the room. Mercury thermometers and digital thermometers can be used to measure the temperature in the room and if the instruction is done well, and the instruments are used properly, the majority of the people in the room will come to a unified conclusion about the temperature inside the room. There is not likely to be much disagreement about the actual numerical temperature in the room. The temperature in the room is just a "fact." However, if the temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit and one person is from Alaska, they may think the temperature is too warm. But another person from Arizona may think the temperature is too cold. In other words, they can agree on the actual temperature (65 degrees) but disagree on what it means; the room is hot or the room is cold.

The same is true in science. Most scientists can eventually agree on most facts they collect, but they often vehemently disagree on what the facts mean and how to interpret those facts. Much of the practice of science is coming to agreement on facts, and this is why scientists repeat their experiments and other scientists try to duplicate their results. Over time scientists do generally come to agree on most facts. The molecular weight of a carbon atom is roughly 12. However, many scientists disagree about what the facts mean both narrowly, to that specific scientific discipline, and broadly, to the overall understanding of the world around them. For example, DNA has been found to do much more inside a cell than code for proteins and this scientific fact creates disagreement within the molecular biology community as to what that might mean to molecular biology. But it also creates disagreement around what it might mean to our overall understanding of living things.

I believe that the best science is rigorous and objective about the facts, but open and tolerant of what those facts may mean both to science and outside of science. In other words, we should be diligent to practice science rigorously and carefully utilizing the scientific method and critical thinking. But we should allow everyone to interpret those facts through their own lens.

What is intelligent design and are evolutionary theory, intelligent design and creationism equally science?

Intelligent design is an interpretative framework for evaluating scientific data as are evolutionary theory and creationism. Each are different lenses used to understand and interpret scientific information. For example, the fact that an organism can mutate under a variety of environmental stresses may, to an evolutionary biologist, mean that from random causes alone an organism can further evolve into a different species. But to an intelligent design scientist it may only mean that the organism has been designed to adapt to its environment and a creationist may conclude that this design was created by God. All of these interpretations are somewhat different, but based on the single and agreed upon fact that an organism can mutate under environmental stress. Although I may prefer to use one lens over another, and it may be that the data fit one lens better than the others, I believe that each are valid scientific lenses to use.

Is RS4K secular or creation based and does RS4K promote intelligent design?

RS4K focuses on the first aspect of science - the practice of science. My goal with RS4K is to (with the best of my ability) present students with the most accurate and up-to-date scientific information available. I also hope to give students the critical thinking tools they need to evaluate the scientific information they are learning, but I leave the interpretation of that information to the students and parents. RS4K is not an evolution only, a creationism only, or an intelligent design only curriculum. Although I do have a personal bias and I do prefer one interpretative framework over another, RS4K is, and will continue to be (to the best of my ability), a practice of science only curriculum.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

TESTS

Answer I am sorry we have been slow to add tests. Our website [when we finally get it fixed] will have a separate section for tests. In the meantime I am going to try to have folks download tests from the blogsite.

Here are the first set of tests:

Revised Pre-Chem Ch 1-5, 6-10

Answer key for Pre-Level Chem Chap. 1-5
Answer key for Pre-Level Chem Chap. 6-10

Biology Level 1 Midterm Chapters 1-5
Biology Level 1 Midterm Ch. 1-5 Answer Key

Biology Level 1 Midterm Chapters 6-10

Physics Level 1 Midterm Chapters 1-5

If you have any trouble downloading the tests, email us at and we can send them to you directly.

As I get more tests ready, I will post them. Eventually, they will be available directly from the website. Thank you for your patience.

Warm regards,

Rebecca Keller

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Would you like to work for Gravitas Publications, Inc.

Gravitas Publications, Inc. is currently expanding our curriculum series and we are looking for writers, editors, test question developers, and more. There are several projects currently posted at work4gravitas. All of these positions can be performed electronically, so you can work from your kitchen table in your pajamas!

They are pay per project and there are many projects, so it could be a good way to not only help develop a new and exciting curriculum, but earn some extra money.

Go to work4gravitas.wordpress.com to find out more.