I have never seen a Christian Science curriculum that truly merges
science and a Christian worldview like Truth in Science. Based
on the work of Dr. Henry Morris and his sixteen tenets of Biblical
and Scientific Creation, the creators of this curriculum have done
a beautiful job of teaching how your view of the world will color
your interpretations of science
I received the grade four complete package to review which includes:
one Teacher's Edition, eleven Students Steps, Test and Quizzes
packet, Answer Key, and a Multimedia/Support DVD, which cost $98.80.
Let's start with the Teacher's Edition which is enormous and the
wealth of information is amazing! The first few pages explain the
philosophy of the curriculum, and present the sixteen tenets.
There is a scope and sequence, and a Quick Teaching Schedule that
can help you plan your lessons depending on how many lessons per
week you want to accomplish. Each chapter in the TE correlates
to one of the Student Steps. For example chapter one in the TE
would be Step 1 in the Student Steps. The first couple of
pages in each chapter include planning guides that lists vocabulary
for each lesson, teacher illustrations that will be needed, required
materials and any addition student resources. There are
ten lessons per chapter. The first page has a lesson organizer
which lists all of the lessons and their topics (highlighting the
topic being cover in that lesson). Objectives, activities
and materials needed are also included on the first page. In the
margins of the Teacher's Edition is Teacher's Commentary that usually
gives some background information. On the bottom of each
page includes some additional information that fall under one of
the following categories: Evolution Says, Interesting Facts, Notable
Quotes and Faith or Fact. The pages from the student steps
are included in the teacher's guide along with Teach and Apply
that includes guided inquiries, and questions to ask.
Each of the Student Steps covers a different topic. The
first is Worldview which lays a great foundation for how this curriculum
incorporates the sixteen tenets, and worldview with science. The
next ten steps cover science topics which are as follows: Classification,
Plants, Animals & Humans, Ecology, Meteorology, Geology, Earth's
Resources, Astronomy, Matter, and Forces & Energy. The
Student Steps can be used independently of the Teacher's Edition.
If your student is an independent learner they will be able to
do them without much teacher direction. There are eight
lessons in each step. The first lesson lists the objectives
for the topic, vocabulary, a memory verse, and a K-W-L chart. A
Report-to-You-Project is also assigned that is due in the last
lesson of each step. There
are two labs for each Step most of which require household items.
Occasionally you will need something that will require purchase
such as silkworm eggs. A worldview quiz is given for each
step as well as a chapter test. The answers for these and
answers for the Student Steps are proved in the Answer Key.
The Multimedia/Support DVD gives a great introduction and overview
of the curriculum. It also includes vocabulary lessons for
each Step and PDF files that includes the teacher's illustrations.
Due to the realization of standardized test the curriculum does
include sections that align with the standards. Sometime
the standards are in direct conflict with what is being taught
and this is discussed. One major conflict being evolution,
Truth in Science does a marvelous job at teaching the flaws in
the evolution theory, and that it is just that, a theory.
Truth in Science is an amazing curriculum that not only does a
fantastic job at teaching science but also teaching the Truth and
how the two work together to the glorify God.
Product Review by Stacy Rocha, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September,
2011
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