Sunday, October 21, 2018


Fourth (and First) Grade Physics, 2018-19
 

Use: Real Physics 4 Kids: Focus on Elementary Physics, Rebecca Keller, as your basis for the study this year, as well as the website:  Rader’s Physics 4 Kids, if you need further help with topics (although some of it might be a bit complex for their ages)….


If this site IS too advanced, try this one for topical questions, instead:

 

Suggested Schedule:
Week 1: 

P4K – Chapter 1 – What is Physics? 

Supplies listed in teacher book at beginning of each chapter.  I would gather them ahead of time and put in a big box so that I could just pull stuff when I needed it!

My Fun with Learning:  “Early Ways of Counting;” and “Pythagoras – Father of Math”

Discuss that older books are often written more clearly than more modern ones.  This book discusses a lot of basic science facts (which don’t change), even though we now know more about many things such that some of these topics will be outdated in some ways (for instance, the story about computers or telephone transmissions, that you will read later on in the year).  Math is essential to all science work, but especially to physics, which is why you are reading a little about math right now!

Read from:  Childcraft, Volume VIII: pages 4 – 85, re: general physical science principals…. (Can continue in week 3….)


 

Week 2:

P4K – Chapter 2 – Push and Pull Force, Work and Energy

My Fun with Learning: “The Apple and Isaac Newton”

Childcraft, Volume VIII: pages 270 – 291 re: force and gravity….

Science Arts project – page 70 (read little science blurb before starting project!)

Science Arts project – page 71




 

Weeks 3 – 6:

Science in a Nutshell Kit:  Energy and Motion

Work your way through these experiments, related to the last topic, which you have already read some about.  If you have further questions while doing these, you may find answers at the Rader website that I posted at the beginning of this list.

I would suggest doing 3 experiments per week.

There was only one activity journal left and part of another one, so I made copies of the pages to complete that second one, plus a couple of extra copies.  You want to always keep at least one copy of these journals or you will have to order new ones and I don’t know if they have changed, but they have gotten more expensive and they make you buy a set of 5….  (The kits used to be $32-36, which I thought was expensive then, but now they are about $60, so guard them!  I would have saved more for you if I had known at the time you were going to homeschool!)

Continue reading from Childcraft any pages not completed week one….

Science Arts projects – pages 78; 79 and 85

 

Week 7 – 9:

Simple Machines

Continue extending what you have learned thus far with simple machines, which doesn’t seem to be a subject covered in the P4K text….  I again suggest three weeks so that they can experiment some….


Science is Exploring:  Unit 6 “How do we use Machines?”

Childcraft, Volume VIII:  page 215 – 263, re: simple machines

Science Arts project – page 77


 
You will cover things such as levers, fulcrums, pulleys, wheel and axles, screws, clamps, wedges and inclined planes….

Your Complete Book of Science 1 / 2 has a whole section on simple machines.  They will be good for Eli to fill out – maybe too simple for Lilly, but if she wants to do them, too, then get the pages photocopied….

Follow the suggestions in the Complete Book to look for simple machines you use every day around your house without thinking about them, experiment with using them, try modifying them to see how they can be used in new ways, etc.  Keep a full supply of tools like screwdrivers and screws, hammers and nails, etc. around for them to use during this time.

My Fun with Learning:  “Archimede’s Bathtub”

 

You can create a simple Archimede’s screw by taping, with packing tape, a tube to the outside of a can.  Insert the bottom, open end of the tube into water and turn until the water rises to pour out the top (have something to catch it!)
 

Week 10

P4K – Ch. 3 – Kinds of Energy: Stored / Moving



Two Slinky’s!!!!!  Large and small.  Look at stored energy (in a spring) versus kinetic, or moving energy.  One is a little stretched out on one end, but they both still work….

Read from:  Childcraft, Volume VIII: pages 162 – 181, re: general principals of physical science….

Science Arts project – page 76

 

Week 11


P4K – Ch. 4 – When Things Move: Friction

(There was a section on friction at the end of the “How do we use Machines?” unit you just covered recently in Science is Exploring….)

Monster Machines

Read from: Childcraft, Volume VIII, pages 264 – 267, re: general principals of physical science….

My Fun with Learning:  “Mr. Watt’s Steam Engine”

Science Arts project – page 80


 
 

Week 12


P4K – Ch. 5 – Chemical Energy:  Atoms / Batteries

So a bit of a review from last year….  Make sure to emphasize that when dealing with batteries, even they can give quite a little shock, and that this is nothing compared to the shock of the electricity running through the outlets of a home, which are millions of times stronger and enough to kill even adults!  Hopefully keep those little curious boys safe!

 

Week 13 - 14


P4K – Ch. 6 – Electricity

(Soooooooo wish I still had my electrical connections Nutshell, but I sold it!  So sorry!  It was perfect.  I am still looking for a replacement thing for this….)

Science is Exploring:  Unit 2 “How do we use Electric Current?”

World Book’s Young Scientist:  “Electricity all Around,” page 49 – 75

Childcraft, Volume VIII:  pages 183 – 213, re: electricity….

Science Arts project – page 84



Do some experiments from somewhere!!!!

 

Week 15

P4K – Ch. 7 – Moving Electrons

(Again, perhaps some review from last year….)


 
Set of balls to compare density – one is cut open so you can see inside….

Science Arts project – page 73; 86-87; 18-19; 30-31; 34-35


 

Week 16 – 18


P4K – Ch. 8 – Magnets

Usborne Science with Magnets

Very First Magnet Kit – includes a tube of iron filings.  Be careful with them!  Don’t let them out or they will be everywhere and eaten or inhaled (NOT good)!  Can use them in a ziploc bag and watch magnet drag them around, make pictures, etc. Can mix with salt and watch magnet separate them from the salt, etc.

World Book’s Young Scientist:  Magnetic Power, page 78 to end of book….

Science Arts projects – pages 88 – 92

 
(As always with magnets, caution against putting some of these, which are strong, into mouths, etc.  If swallowed they can be deadly! Or at least troublesome in the extreme!)

Experiment with what things are magnetic or not (even some metals are not magnetic – why?)  Look for magnetic things around the house.  Experiment with repulsion, etc.  Use repulsion to power a vehicle, etc.  I am sure I have elements of the two kits mixed up with each other, plus extra magnets added in!

That takes you to the half, and hopefully Christmas break!
 

Week 19 – 24 (six weeks! 3 for light and 3 for sound)

P4K – Ch. 9 – Light and Sound

World Book’s Young Scientist:  Light, page 8 – 47

Optical Illusions

My Fun with Learning: “Michael Farraday’s Candle” and “George Eastman’s Little Brownie”

Childcraft, Volume VIII: pages 142 – 161, re: light (sight, mirrors, prisms, etc.)

Science Arts projects – pages 45 – 51; 72; 74; 75; 65; 117; 130; 131





Use light and sound related objects I have included to explore and experiment:

Tuning forks

Prism

LED Sparkler

Color paddles to mix colors (hold up to light to see the secondary colors made from primary mixes)

Science is Exploring:  Unit 3, “How do we make and hear Sounds?”

My Fun with Learning: “The Age of Radio Begins” and “Voices on a Beam of Light”

Childcraft, Volume VIII:  pages 87 – 141, re: sound


(Again, this is a field quickly advancing, so take about how lasers are changing things, how satellites are changing movement of sound around the world, etc., etc….)



Week 25 - 26


P4K – Ch. 10 – Saving Energy


My Fun with Learning:  “You, Scientist”

Science Arts projects – 39 - 42


 

 
Week 27 - 28


Modern Machines

My Fun with Learning:  “Bits, Bytes, and Binary Numbers”

This is the area that has changed the most.  Talk about the huge changes in modern computers.  I am sure that even the gadgets book I am including is out of date by now (published in 2000).  Talk about that.  Every 2-3 years there are exponential changes in this field right now!  Look for books about robots and how they will change our world!  Look up info on nano-machines.  That is all the rage now….

How Things Work:  Groovy Gadgets

Talk about apps.  Talk about the dangers of computers and how they are changing the way we think and feel.  How we must try to control them.  Let them design their own gadget!



Also, I picked up a used Rube Goldberg kit:  Castle Escape.  It looks like all pieces are there, so I hope they are!

 

Week 29 – 32

Flight!  Gliders to Jets Nutshell Kit

(11 experiments, so do 3 each of first 3 weeks and 2 each last week….)

Read all about flight and space flight during this time period!





I am making a couple of copies of the journals (have two left) so that you will have more for later….  I do not have the solar balloon any more (it did not work well, any way….) I am looking for a replacement, or just talk about but skip that part….  It takes a very airtight and light plastic, plus a LOT of heating, so a very hot day, in order to get it to lift off….

How Things Work:  Astonishing Aircraft

Childcraft, Volume VIII: pages:  268 – 269, re: how wings hold planes up

Parachute Man! (He’s really too heavy, but good to contrast with the lighter parachutists included in the kit….)

We NEED to go to Dayton sometime soon, to the USAF Museum!  Everyone will LOVE it!  They do homeschool days twice a year, too!  For the entire U.S.!

Gyroscopes – some the boys had when they were little – all are slightly different!  Have fun!



 

Week 33 – 36

Engineer your own structures!

Use:  K’nex Education:  Introduction to Structures:  Bridges

Read from: Childcraft, Volume VIII, pages 292 – 329, re: general principals of physical
science….

Science Arts project – 106 - 107

Read about famous, innovative bridges!







That should give you a GREAT start to physical science knowledge!

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