By Dr. Ronald E. Johnson, C.Ph.D.
Home school families sometimes shy away from science labs/experiments, but realize that most colleges require some lab projects (especially for biology and chemistry). Some home school cooperatives supply science kits for rotation among families. That is not always practical. Moreover, most science kits are expensive and some parents do not feel comfortable “messing around with chemicals.”
Home school families can fulfill the science lab experience by conducting a few practical experiments based on items around the kitchen, garage, and yard. The following experiments fulfill many science lab requirements.
These experiments are conducted at your own risks. Be cautious! Exercise safety with appropriate glasses, gloves, ear protectors, sharp objects, etc.
1. Assign your student to grow a simple garden with flowers or vegetables, and document the process with photographs, line drawings, and written descriptions.
2. Assign your student to raise a pet (cat, dog, goat, sheep, calf, colt, chickens, ducks, etc), and document the requirements for providing food, shelter, and care (grooming, vitamins, shelter, etc). Then, describe in a journal the results (ribbon at county fair, quantity of eggs gathered, weight gained, etc.).
3. Assign your student to measure a square foot area in a field, yard, or pasture and document five things gathered, seen, heard, touched, smelled, photographed. Dissect creatures. Prepare a paste and display board of vegetation, insects, and types of soil, etc.
4. Take a nature hike to photograph or video-record plants, creatures, terrain.
5. Gather various types of vegetation and/or “dead creatures” to observe the decay process. (Caution: keep out doors where fresh air can “carry away odors.”
6. Conduct experiments with balloons affected by steam, gas and air pressure (hand pumps). Caution: be careful with steam and containers that could explode or shatter.
7. Use basic tools (incline plane, lever, pulley) to accomplish a project…move a heavy object, load a bale of hay, remove a stump, etc. Document the process with photos.
8. Mix peanut oil with other liquids to observe the emulsion or separation process.
9. Purchase a basic bar or horseshoe magnet to conduct experiments with metals (copper, silver, aluminum, iron, brass, etc). Cast a variety of types of metal on a wooden surface and use the magnet to discover how iron can be extracted with a magnet. Take a field trip to a scrap metal recycling plant to observe the process of classifying iron, copper, etc.
10. Visit the following businesses to learn the processes: meat processing plant, taxidermist, chicken farm, cattle ranch, dairy farm, wheat farm, hay farm, etc.
These suggestions are provided by Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum www.pacworks.com
