As part of the Homeschool Review Crew, we were able to explore the projects Sound and also Fluid Dynamics from CrossWired Science.
CrossWired Science is developing a digital subscription Science curriculum, and we reviewers got the exciting job of being beta testers. The folks behind CrossWired Science are actively creating additional topics that will be rolled out in the near future. The target audience is students aged 4 to 18. In our home we used it with students age 3 to 10.
Their general philosophy is that Science, which is just another way of saying “God’s creation,” is a journey made of many little steps. CrossWired has “little steps” in spades.
Primarily a series of videos with complementary suggested activities, a key component of the curriculum is connection and integration. Rather than learning about one narrowly focused topic for a month, students explore lots of smaller subtopics that connect to the main idea.
For example, Fluid Dynamics covers The Bernoulli Principle, carburetors, alulas, hummingbirds, dolphins, penguins, and more.
Each video has a coordinating worksheet and online quiz.
It is convenient that videos that have been viewed (and their quizzes taken) are listed with a green check mark. That way it’s easy to see where to pick up for the next lesson.
There are 17 suggested activities to go with the project Fluid Dynamics. From dissecting a shark (source links included) to making a homemade helicopter, the suggested activities look interesting and educational. The experiment sheet about helicopters says, “This engineering task is sizably complex. It is great fun but it takes enormous good effort.”
For families that can’t get enough Science, the experiments would be really enjoyable. Since we have a limited budget and limited time, due to one-year-old who doesn’t nap regularly, we chose to skip the experiments.
All my kids enjoyed watching the short but content-packed videos, and in observing my kids take the quizzes, I was able to verify that they were actually retaining something.
This is noteworthy, because the Science terminology is NOT watered-down or overly simplified in the CrossWired video lessons.
Fieldtrips are encouraged by CrossWired Science as well. The list of recommended field trips is a little vague (aquariums! museums! state parks!) and a touch impractical. (I’m looking at you, suggestion to take a family cruise to the Bahamas or Alaska.) Skiing and scuba diving sound like fun, but probably won’t be in our Science curriculum this year.
It’s worth mentioning that as part of the setup process, every student needs his or her own email address. None of my kids have their own email addresses, though, so I just used a random old one of mine.
Ultimately, there’s a lot going on. For our family’s specific situation, we’re looking forward to exploring the videos of the second project, Sound, through the end of the year.
We didn’t find value in the general lists of how to extend the learning, but other families might. As CrossWired Science continues to grow and find their focus, they are definitely a curriculum to watch.
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