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God’s Design Science

Publisher: Answers in Genesis Author: Debbie and Richard Lawrence Review last updated: 2009

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The God's Design science series is a science curriculum for grades 1 through 8. I originally reviewed the first editions and was not very excited about them. However, the third editions (2008-2009) have been totally redesigned with significant content improvements, resulting in an outstanding program.

There are four groups of books within the series with a single "Teacher Supplement" book for each group. There are three textbooks in each group.

Titles for each group are:
Life: The Human Body, The World of Plants, The World of Animals
Heaven and Earth: Our Planet Earth, Our Weather and Water, Our Universe
Chemistry and Ecology: Properties of Matter, Properties of Atoms and Molecules, Properties of Ecosystems
Physical World: Heat and Energy, Machines and Motion, Inventions and Technology

There are a number of features that set these books apart. First, the books are ungraded—both "Life" and "Heaven and Earth" groups are designated for the entire range of grades 1 through 8 while "Chemistry and Ecology" and "Physical World" narrow to grades 3 through 8. If your children are in the early elementary grades, you should start with either of the first two series, saving the latter two for the upper elementary grades/junior high.

According to the authors, you might complete any of the groups of three texts in a single school year. With three books per group, you would complete three lessons per week, spending about 20 minutes per lesson for younger students and 45 minutes per lesson for older students. Of course, you can choose to complete only one or two books per year rather than an entire series. The books are approximately 150 pages each, so I would recommend to families with younger children that they take their time and use one or two books per year, allowing time for further exploration when they hit topics of particular interest. Those with older students might tackle three books per year.

Each group of three textbooks shares a single "Teacher Supplement" book that includes a CD-ROM. The Teacher Supplement is your teacher guide and answer key. The philosophical/theological information at the front of the Supplement—a must read—is critical for understanding the unique perspective and design of these textbooks. The CD-ROM contains PDF files with worksheets for some of the lessons—many required as part of the expanded activities for older students. Many of these are data recording sheets or other means of recording observations. Once in a great while there will be a word search such as you might find in some more conventional workbooks. The CD also has quizzes for each unit.

Brief teaching instructions are also included at the beginning of each text. They point out the color coding system used to indicate lessons and activities targeted for younger and older students. Older students generally are given more information and expanded, more-challenging activities to complete in addition to (or sometimes in place of) the lessons and activities completed by younger students.

The books in this series all reflect a Christian worldview, including a young-earth view of creation. Contrasts are made between evolution and creationist views when pertinent to the topic, especially in the texts related to life science and earth science.

Hands-on experiments and activities are built into every lesson. These are worthwhile and really relate to topics. The activities and experiments include step-by-step instructions and are designed to teach scientific method as children observe, record information, discuss, and form conclusions. Lists of supplies needed for each lesson are in the Teacher Supplement that corresponds to each text. Supplies are generally not too difficult to obtain, although it does vary from book to book. The World of Plants requires things like yellow gelatin, dried corn and bean seeds, flower bulbs, corn meal, dried moss, and bread slices—fairly easy items to find. Heat and Energy is a little more challenging, requiring items like copper wire, iron filings, steel BBs, a compass, and a magnifying glass. Even the chemistry books mostly use easily available items like Epsom salt, ammonia, and rubbing alcohol. Rarely, the supply list also mentions a reference book that you will need such as "A tree field guide" to be used with The World of Plants.

Activities are followed by a "What did we learn?" section. These are just a few key questions for the teacher to ask to ensure that students understand the main points of the lesson. Suggested answers are provided in the Teacher Supplement.

Next is a "Taking it further" section with questions that will help children extend their thinking to draw some conclusions or make additional connections or applications.

Interesting biographical sketches of scientists and inventors plus articles on special topics such as chemotherapy, artificial islands, and rattlesnakes appear sporadically.

Textbooks are printed in full-color with numerous, high-quality illustrations and excellent graphics. The publisher has also made good use of color to highlight different portions of the lesson, making it easy to spot sections to be used with different students.

These features make this series a practical choice for Christian homeschooling families as well as for classroom teachers in Christian schools. However, there are a few issues that you might want to consider as you use this series.

Textbooks are written to address a very wide age span. Even with the delineations of sections appropriate for older and younger students, which help a great deal, I have some concerns. Many sections of text are dense with new vocabulary. Even following the guidelines of which material to use with each age group, you might find that some children will have a hard time just listening to and absorbing so much detail. For example, in the second lesson (on the structure of the atmosphere) in Our Weather and Water the text reads, "The earth's atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases including hydrogen, helium, argon, and carbon dioxide. This combination of nitrogen and oxygen is the ideal atmosphere for life. Nitrogen is a relatively nonreactive gas. Its purpose in the atmosphere appears to be to dilute the oxygen. If the oxygen concentration was more than 21 % fires would easily burn out of control." Note that within just these few sentences, you are introducing a number of vocabulary words and concepts unfamiliar to most children: the various chemical elements, the idea of percentages, nonreactive gases, dilution, and the relationship between oxygen and fires. This quote is from a section for students in grades 3 through 8. I fear that the above sentences would sound like gibberish to younger students. For this reason, I would urge you to use your own discretion about when to read "Beginner" or more advanced sections of text to students in third and fourth grades. Sometimes you might need to expand on lesson material so that students can grasp concepts.

As I read through some of the lessons, I thought that I would very likely use the experiments/activities as the basis within which I would present the lesson information rather than presenting information first. If younger children can see and touch things as they are learning, they will be able to understand better than if they are listening to what, to them, sounds like abstract information. For example, in Our Planet Earth, a lesson on identifying different minerals includes experiments for children to identify four or five minerals themselves. I'd have the minerals on hand and would talk about their different characteristics for identification while the children compared and tested the different samples. This might help solve the problem I mentioned regarding information overload.

At the end of each book is a Unit Final Project. These often encompass many topics covered within other lessons, so I would check out the unit project before beginning, possibly having my child begin work on the unit project at the start of the school year, adding to it whenever it seems appropriate.

Overall, I like this combination of information with experiments and activities, plus questions to ensure understanding. The variety of activities effectively reaches children with different learning styles.

Lessons will take some prep time. I suggest gathering all materials on the resources list that you can over the summer and keeping them handy in a box so there's less work to do each week. Have your worksheets and quizzes/tests printed and ready to go. If you do this prep work before school starts, lessons will be easier to teach.

You can purchase the books in sets for each group - the three texts plus the Teacher Supplement, as individual books, or as a complete set of all the books.

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