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I'm doing Preparing Hearts this year and did Bigger last year. My kids enjoy the science days where we write out question, guess, procedure, conclusion. But, could HOD publish or post on a website the answers to science? I am often confused what the "conclusion" should be for the science boxes. And, I don't want the answers in the manual because it's an Independent box in Preparing and my kids would copy the answer in their guess. Am I the only one thinking that an answer key would be great?

If I am wondering what the answer should be, I use the key idea at the bottom of the box as a guide.

I thought the key idea was the answer.

I thought the key idea was the answer too, or that the kids would come up with their own conclusion based on the experiement or observation.

I'm so glad you are enjoying the scientific method used in HOD - we do too! I think it helps my dc see themselves as being the "scientists" discovering new and exciting things. My dc and I use the "key idea" to double-check our conclusion, and that has worked well. I am wondering if you'd seen the science lab sheet in the Appendix of PHFHG? It is reproducible and was a nice way to organize the lab work. Dc did write this out for Bigger Hearts, as by writing it, they learned to better know the method, but in PHFHG, the lab form is provided. I just thought I'd mention that, as it sounds like you may not have seen that from your post here. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

my3sons wrote:I'm so glad you are enjoying the scientific method used in HOD - we do too! I think it helps my dc see themselves as being the "scientists" discovering new and exciting things. My dc and I use the "key idea" to double-check our conclusion, and that has worked well. I am wondering if you'd seen the science lab sheet in the Appendix of PHFHG? It is reproducible and was a nice way to organize the lab work. Dc did write this out for Bigger Hearts, as by writing it, they learned to better know the method, but in PHFHG, the lab form is provided. I just thought I'd mention that, as it sounds like you may not have seen that from your post here. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Julie, I'm using the lab sheet at the back of the guide. It's a fun way to do the scientific method. My trouble is with the answer for the conclusion. At times, you could use the key idea, but I'm finding many times that it does not answer the question. I'll give an example and perhaps you can help me in my thinking.

Preparing Hearts Unit 33, Day 4
Question: How does a stork's skinny legs support the weight of its body?
Procedure: using paper cylinders and putting books on top
some questions to ask included "How might the hollow center make the bones stronger?" -- not sure on that answer even after reading and doing the procedure
Conclusion:
"Key Idea: Albert found a stork with a broken leg. His new friend, Max, helped him set the stork's leg, so it would heal. When the leg was healed, the stork flew away."

I wasn't exactly sure about the conclusion for this one.
Thanks.

I too have found there are times when I have to look for the answer elsewhere ie.go online (We are using Bigger this year and looking forward to Preparing next year.) I'd love an answer key

Sue Ann,

This is a good question and one that we approach differently at HOD. For us, the goal with science is to get kiddos thinking scientifically, pondering possibilities, and thinking of ways to test their thoughts and ideas, leading to drawing to conclusions. We specifically shy away from including an answer key with one right answer for the experiment conclusions, as it would quickly lead to students trying to find that one "right" answer and to parents expecting that particular answer. Instead, within our science we are providing a question to ponder, a chance for the students to guess at potential answers to the question, and then a procedure to give them a way to test out the question, leading to possible conclusions.

With the stork experiment, kiddos experiment with both hollow legs and legs that are not hollow, leading to very different results. The guide does include some leading questions to ponder after this such as, "How were the hollow bones able to support more weight? How might the hollow center make the bones stronger? Why would the hollow bones be lighter-weight, making it easier for the stork to fly?" This is the crucial moment now where the question, guess, procedure, and leading questions have set the stage and the students now must think to figure out the "why" behind the "how". If the procedure gets them pondering about the "why", and they dig even deeper (or you do) to figure out "why" this holds true, then that is real science. We've found that more real science goes on at our house when it's handled in this way than we ever did when we had an answer key telling us (and the students) what to think. We actually design our science this way purposefully to get kiddos thinking like a scientist.

The key idea at times holds a clue to the answer, but not always. It is always directly linked to what the students read.

Blessings,
Carrie

I find that having the answer in the actual doing of the experiment kind of more real life. The concepts that are being explored are not real heavy duty in terms of needing to understand complex data or a previous theory to understand them. I have found that often not having the answer will get their curiosity going and they will start to dig deeper. Often I have seen them look a little deeper after HOD science. My son has really developed a love for figuring out how things work and I think that is really due to HOD science. Honestly I do. He recently checked out some books from the library on physics so he could understand how to make better race cars. My dd in 9th had hit the wall a bit with physics. I was kind of on her from not coming to me with questions. A few days passed and I reminded her that she had not come to me. She said my son explained it in terms of racing cars and it makes a lot of sense to her now. She is in 9th and he is in 6th. I really credit him looking further into anything at all in terms of learning being from HOD. It really does build that love of how does it work and I can figure this out on my own. So just want to encourage you that it will pay off doing science this way. I know for certain that my son's growth in this area is directly related to how HOD science works. And honestly I wasn't right on board with the science at first. It's not that I did not like it I just could not see how it was going to benefit them. It did not seem intellectual to me at first pass. But I am now on the other side see the beauty in it and we are reaping the benefits of having done a few guides. It's strange to me how it works that way HOD is sort of like a slow moving metamorphosis that hits all at once. I do stuff the HOD way, and CM was not my way before HOD, so I wonder will it really produce results and down the road I see the fruit and can clearly see how the path was built all along through something in HOD. So hang on I think you will see the beauty in how the science is done somewhere about CTC.