Science Elementary

Like many Catholic Home schooling families, providing a Catholic education was number one on the list of reasons my husband and I wanted to home school. In addition, we wanted a rigorous education, and one that emphasized the beauties of truth and love. Translating these goals into a curriculum is an on-going challenge. Sometimes the books that do a good job presenting a particular subject do it without the light of the Faith. Other times, books that are "solidly Catholic" are also unattractive and uninspiring. We have had to compromise in a lot of areas.

Two that we have not had to compromise in are science and history, and this is largely due to the Catholic school supplements produced by James Leek. These two are among the most excellent resources I have come across in home schooling. They include interesting material for study and careful explanation of an approach to education that is beautifully in keeping with our holy faith. In themselves, these explanations are worth reading and incorporating into your teaching.

In science, for example, Mr. Leek explains the integrating principles for a Catholic science education. Ultimately, our aim is to better know the Creator of everything. Science study also has remote ends: that we develop a respect for God's creation, and learn to contemplate and reflect on it, and that we exercise our minds to improve life and serve our fellow men. At the same time, science has its proximate and immediate ends: to learn how the world works and to take in sensory data of the physical reality around us.

These principles are very well realized in Leek's science supplement. For the Beauty of the Earth includes a textbook with literary selections organized around the common subject matter of science. The lyrics of the beautiful hymn from which this program draws its title provide the organizing system. In addition to "the beauty of the earth" (weather, metals, energy), we have chapters on "the glory of the skies" (stars, the sun), "hill and vale and tree and flower" "the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight" (insects, spiders, mammals), and "the joy of human love" (the senses, emotions, the will.)

The corresponding teacher's guide builds on the readings with questions and activities that take the student from considering the text, to observing the natural world, to admiring God's handiwork, and finally, to the religious analogy. An example to illustrate this progression would be the reading of "Phaeton and Apollo." After the selection is read, the student is asked a series of questions on the text: Who was Phaeton? Describe the court of the sun, etc. Next, students are asked to make some observations about the sun: Where does it rise and set? Does it actually move? What makes it appear to move? Then they are asked to consider the sun's role in life on our planet, and finally, to how the sun is like God, how its marvelous working points to the existence of God.

Questions and activities are broken into grade levels so that this program can be used throughout the elementary years. My first reaction when I looked at For the Beauty of the Earth was to think that this was a liberal arts soft-pedaling of the hard subject of science. But after I carefully read the author's introduction, I decided it could be so much more than that, and it more than met those expectations. We used it alternately with our regular science text, allowing the literary selections and projects to set the tone for our textbook's coverage. Along with enjoying some good stories, memorizing poems and scriptures, doing some fun projects (like building a humane mousetrap), I found that the sense of wonder created through the program carried into the rest of our textbook consideration of each topic. The course is cross-referenced with many of the most popular school science text series from the time it was published (early 1980s).

Jeanne Bendick's second title in Bethlehem Books' "Living History" series (after Archimedes and the Door of Science) brings to life the 2nd century (A.D.) Roman doctor whose work in learning to understand the human body became the standard authority on human physiology for over a thousand years. Although many of his theories were corrected through advancements in science since the middle ages, his story is interesting both for its own sake and for the light is sheds on Roman history and culture and the Hippocratic tradition of medicine.

Galen was born in 129 A.D. in present day Turkey (at that time part of the Roman Empire). When he studied medicine, medical training was very haphazard, but in his lifetime he revolutionized the idea of what a doctor should be, both by his example as a renowned doctor and his extensive writings on anatomy and pharmacology (some of which are still in existence today). His experience in treating patients from wounded gladiators to the wealthy of Rome to Roman emperors, extensive study of medicinal plants, dissection of animals, etc. led to his remarkable success as a doctor and the respect with which his writings were treated.

The medical aspects of the book largely focus on the quest to understand the purpose of each of the organs and the workings of the circulatory system. The author also provides us with a final chapter which summarizes the medical advancements after Galen that led to our current understanding of how the body works. Like Archimedes and the Door of Science, this story will be best understood by ages ten and up and takes a certain amount of concentration to follow the story and absorb its content well. However, the rewards are great in acquiring a deeper understanding of Roman culture, medicine, and the respect for life that has been passed down from the Hippocratic tradition.

Printed on heavy paper in an approximately 9x12 format, this booklet is an explanation of the Creation account of Genesis 1. With thirteen inviting full-page line drawings to color, this slim volume packs a surprising punch.

Basing herself on the work of Fr. Stanley Jaki, Mrs. Daly explains the first creation account of Genesis in terms of its message about the Sabbath observance as an outward sign of the covenant between God and His people. Or, in her own words:

In Genesis 1, the message is about the importance of observing the Sabbath. In order to teach us the importance of this observance, Genesis 1 presents God Himself keeping a Sabbath rest after His creation of the universe, a vast work, suitable to his divine wisdom and his almighty power. and a work whose purpose actually to make a home for mankind, His partner in a solemn covenant.

Genesis 1: House of the Covenant is so different from many other works I have read on this topic. Each creative act described in Genesis 1 offers some specific and often profound insight into God of His creation, and insight which, ironically, is usually overlooked in insistence on the literal meaning of this portion of Scripture. In simple language, Mrs. Daly brings out these insights. One example, about Genesis 1:3 ("Let there be light.")

Nobody can work well in the darkness. The first thing we do (unless we are doing something bad) is to turn on the light.
... This light simply tells us that God did not work blindly, or for an evil reason, but purposefully, in light and goodness, and we are meant to see what he did. If we imagined God working in darkness, we might think the world was evil or accidental. What a mistake! We live in the orderly creation of a wonderful and loving intelligence.

Middle-schools students could use this book independently, but it is also a wonderful resource for parents introducing their younger children to Genesis. My oldest enjoyed it in 5th grade, and came away from it with a deeper sense of his heavenly Father's work in creation.

This is a very informative handbook on a large portion of nature, originally written for elementary school teachers. It covers wildlife, insects, farm animals, birds, fish, trees, flowers, weeds, vegetables, rocks, minerals, soil, climate, weather, magnets, the sun, moon, planets of our solar system and much more. According to the 1986 foreword, most of the living things described are common in the northeastern states of the U.S. but it covers a lot of material that would be helpful in other parts of the country as well. I've hardly begun to use this resource, but it looks like an excellent reference for all of those questions children want to know about the world around them. It can also be used as a teaching tool and studied more systematically as there are simple lessons designed to be used with children included with each subject. As the lessons are designed to work with real observation of the plants, they are particularly appropriate for a home school. The book is profusely illustrated with black and white photos. I would guess that there's an average of two photos per page. The language is a little archaic and some of the words would be a little difficult for younger children.