Science club/ challenge ideas?

[Fillyjonk]

Hi all

Am toying with the idea of starting a homeschooling science club. I'm after ideas.

What I want is challenges, ie stuff that kids can solve in one of a lot of way. Stuff like making a boat that will travel 3 metres without sinking, in a particular direction, or throwing a raw egg without it breaking, that kind of thing. The challenges need to be very open ended so they can be solved in any way. They need to be accessible from around age 6 or so, with or without parental help. They need not to require buying specialist or expensive equipment (we might even stipulate £0, but certainly no more than a few pounds/dollars)

Your thoughts please!

x

[moominmamma]

There's a book by homeschooling mom Kris Bordessa called "Team Challenges" that is full of these sorts of ideas. Some of them are very sciencey, some more 'team-building." The challenges are intended to be solved co-operatively, though teams can compete against each other. Some would also be suitable for individual challenges. 

We had a science club for a while here. Some of the things we did were really fabulous. Our main difficulty was in the vast range of ages, levels and personalities (pre-K to high school, etc.) so eventually it petered out, but I think with a somewhat more homogeneous group of kids it would have been brilliant.

Good luck!

Miranda

[Mere]

I am joining in here, as I would like to do the same thing with our homeschool group.  We already divide the kids up based on age and ability, so I think we're good there.  I LOVE that 'Team Challenges" book...it looks great.  As my library doesn't seem to have it, I might just have to order it! 

Mooninmamma, can I ask you more specifics about the activities you did with your group's science club?  Specifically, I'm interested in where you got the activities, and if it was part of a science curriculum or just stuff that people pulled together on their own each week.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Mere 

Mooninmamma, can I ask you more specifics about the activities you did with your group's science club?  Specifically, I'm interested in where you got the activities, and if it was part of a science curriculum or just stuff that people pulled together on their own each week.

We just cobbled it together week by week. It was mostly another mom and myself (between us we have 9 kids), and sometimes two or three other kids. No curriculum, since nothing would have fit the range of kids properly. We took a lot of input from the kids, would decide on a theme and then Google around for suitable activities and resources. We went with the flow. Someone had a friend with a pile of goat manure going asking and a penchant for teaching about composting, so we had a workshop with him one day, and happened to find a family of baby mice in a pile of straw -- and that sent us into mammal life cycles and farm visits. After yet another huge snowfall we decided we had to do something about crystals, snowflakes, avalanche safety, Pieps transponders, boundary layers and the like.  

I posted about a few of the sessions on my blog. Not in any great detail, but perhaps that will give you some idea of the flavour of the sessions. 

Miranda

[Fillyjonk]

Thanks miranda! That book looks great!

The plan is to issue kids/families with a challenge around a month in advance, then meet to demonstrate/discuss our solutions. (I mean of course there will be eating and play involved too, that goes without saying). Right now the plan isn't to work on stuff in the session itself, though tbh that could change if there is interest. I can totally see how it could work. i have a bit of an ulterior motive which is to get local science-obsessed kids in one place to see how viable a more organised club, along the lines of yours, might be. We have local university science clubs (astronomy, geology) contacts and parents who are scientists, doctors and so , my science/inventions obsessed 8 year old has made friends with a wonderful local mad scientist, and I can see how this can grow into something great. We did however have a short lived science club that petered out so I'm after something simpler and more sustainable to grow from.

Have just ordered the book!  Thanks so much !

PS Miranda I do love your blog, its great as someone with younger kids who are into maths/science/music for inspiration. However I am very jealous of where you live ;-) .