Science – 6th Grade

Since 6th grade is a transition year, science study should fill gaps from the elementary years and introduce the student to more structured, systematic ways of thinking about nature. As outlining helps the student understand history through categories and hierarchical thinking about major events and their details, so should science study become more rigorous in exposing the student to more technical terms and basic tenets of the scientific method. Our approach to science prior to the middle school years is very informal. Our kids are usually interested in one or more "scientific" ideas on any given week and their book selections at the weekly library visit reflect that. Interests have been birds, seashells, weather, butterflies, garden plants, rivers, stars, inventions, and so on. Their daily reading will have also introduced a wealth of information on scientists, inventors, and technology. So the child has "studied" science without a specific science curriculum or distinct focus. In 6th grade, we begin a focus on science to make sure the child has been exposed to the broad range of topics – some of which may have been overlooked in the informal study earlier. A distinct curriculum will also introduce scientific terminology the child will need for more rigorous study in high school.

For 6th grade, we use two resources from Abeka. These are textbook style resources that cover the spectrum of science ideas. The two books cover 14 broad topics, with each topic divided into appproximately 10 daily lessons. The books are part of a general classroom curriculum consisting of further worksheets, quizzes, and tests. We omit all but the textbook. Each lesson can be read in an hour or less. The lesson ends with a Comprehension Check section consisting of review questions that reinforces the reading.

We do not expect the student to complete all 14 topics in 6th grade. You should choose several topics the child may not have been well introduced to, as well as other topics the child enjoys. We've found science twice a week is sufficient. So planning for a 36 week school year results in 72 science lessons. Since each topic consists of about 10 lessons, you should finish about 7 topics in the 6th grade, or about 1/2 of the 14 total topics.

The ABEKA books we use are Investigating God's World and Observing God's World. Here are the chapter topics of each book followed by the number of daily lessons for the topic.

Investigating God's World

Observing God's World

You'll see these listed in the lesson plans for month 1 and 6. For example, Month 6/Week 21/Tuesday has Science lesson Obs 1.6. This indicates Chapter 1, lesson 6 in Observing God's World should be read and the Comprehension Check (CC) completed. Weeks 22 and 23 show the reading for the lesson on Tuesday and the CC on Thursday. Another option is to assign some of the CC questions if the lesson material is longer or lesson time needs to be shortened. Remember this is still introductory science so it's not necessary to read every page and answer every question. Each chapter ends with "Chapter Checkup" – a set of thorough review exercises for the chapter. You may choose all or some of these for review. There are also experiment ideas throughout these 2 books. Your child may rather do these than answer a lot of questions. As long as they are exposed to the material and are interacting with it, they are learning. You know your child best, so tailor the material to fit their interest and you'll have a happy scientist in your midst!