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Noeo Science Curriculum: Biology, Physics, and Chemistry courses for grades 1-9

Noeo Science Curriculum

For years I've advocated avoiding traditional science textbooks and, instead, choosing fewer topics to cover, real books, and experiments. Obviously, more and more homeschoolers agree with me since publishers are increasingly putting together courses that fit this description. However, I think Noeo Science has done the best job yet! You'll see why as you read on.

This is a six-year program for the elementary grades with Biology I and II, Chemistry I and II and Physics I and II. Level I volumes are appropriate for grades 1 through 3 and level II for grades 4 through 6. Noeo Science is adding a third level for grades 7 through 9. Chemistry III is the first of that series. (It's so new I have not yet reviewed it.)

It doesn't really matter which order you use the volumes. Choosing the most appropriate level is more important. However, you might easily shift a third or fourth grader into the lower or higher level if it helps consolidate your teaching. Level II volumes cover different topics within biology, chemistry and physics so that students will have a broad and thorough science education after six years.

Noeo Science has taken its name from a Greek word meaning “to understand.” The first page of the introduction tells us, “The essence of science is simply observing and describing God's creation. When scientists make a new discovery, they are seeing another part of creation revealed…. [Our children] should … be immersed in the sciences so that ‘His invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature' will be clearly seen.” So the curriculum is designed with lots of experiments and hands-on activity rather than in a traditional format.

The author describes the curriculum's approach as “mostly classical” with elements of Charlotte Mason and unit studies also evident, although it seems to me that most people would attribute it to the latter two approaches.

Noeo Science uses sort of a unit study approach since each volume targets a narrow range of topics under the general heading of biology, chemistry, or physics. For example, Biology I--subtitled Seeds, Scales, Feathers and Tails!—covers weather, bacteria and fungi, sea life, amphibians, plants, insects, birds, and the human body. (Note that weather, a key topic outside the three main science areas, is included at an appropriate point in the biology curriculum.) Despite the number of topics, extensive time is spent on narrower subsets of each of the above topics, using real books, observations, and experiments—all hallmarks of unit studies.

Charlotte Mason influence is seen in the use of real books, the use of narration (oral and written), children's illustrations of what they have learned, and creation of a notebook. While children learn some vocabulary, the curriculum does not rely on the memorization typical of many science courses, and neither does it use typical worksheets and tests. That doesn't mean students do no writing. Some reproducible forms in each volume are used by students to create notebook pages, create drawings, record data from experiments, write definitions, and take notes. Samples of completed student pages are included in the Instructor's Guide to assist parents. (Note: The reproducible pages are also available for free download at the website.)

For each course, the key component is the Instructor's Guide that comes in a binder. The binder is primarily lesson plans that are laid out for each week in chart form for easy reference. They list the pages in books to be read, experiments to be completed, optional experiments or optional internet links to explore. Notes at the bottom tell you when students need to makes notes or drawings for their notebooks or provide a narration.

The Instructor's Guide also has a fairly brief explanation of how the curriculum works, the aforementioned reproducible pages, lists of required books and experiment kits from the Young Scientist Club, and a master supply list of items needed for other experiments and activities.

Noeo Science sells the Instructor's Guides with sets of the required books and Young Scientist Club Kits as packaged sets that save you money over buying items individually. However, you can purchase all items separately if you prefer. The experiment kits (between 5 and 7 per course) come bundled in boxes for each course rather than individually.

It is important to note that the Young Scientist Club Kits have a number of experiments within each individual kit so there's even more here than you might think. Each kit includes its own instruction book plus equipment and supplies for all the experiments. These kits are relatively small and inexpensive, but they do contain some unusual items like a spring scale, glycerol, and a Petri dish. You will need to collect some common household items (see the master supply list in each volume) to use with the kits, but all the difficult-to-get items are provided.

The books selected for each course are outstanding. For example, Chemistry II books are the Usborne Internet-Linked Science Encyclopedia; Usborne Internet-Linked Mysteries and Marvels of Science; Fizz, Bubble & Flash; Adventures with Atoms and Molecules; The Mystery of the Periodic Table; and Geology Rocks! These are mostly colorful, illustrated books that children love to explore on their own. Even better, both Chemistry II and Physics II use the same two Usborne books so you can save on the second course by purchasing a less expensive package that does not include those two books. You will develop a great science library with the books from these courses.

As I was reviewing Noeo Science I couldn't help but compare it with a number of other such courses that have come out in recent years. Many are trying to do the same thing, combining real books with hands-on activity in a unit study type fashion. However, I think Noeo has actually done the most comprehensive job yet by making it simple to use with very clear and brief lesson plans and by including the “response” component.

Most other courses are weaker on requiring students to write, narrate, draw, or record information, providing some sort of response. Perhaps this is an overreaction against traditional curriculum. Yet these activities, as designed in this program, help the student reflect upon and truly absorb information. The only downside I see is that instructions regarding these responses might be too brief. Some parents will have trouble knowing how to teach their child to summarize what they have learned or how to really use the experiment recording form. Still, this shouldn't be a problem for most parents.

While the author of the curriculum has a Christian worldview, most of the resource books do not. In the introduction, the author suggests using encounters with secular or materialist viewpoints in the books as opportunities for discussion rather than skipping over them. I might also suggest that since the resource books are your primary source of information, you might want to add discussion about God's design or presence when it seems appropriate.

Each course is laid out for 36 weeks—a full school year. Lessons are provided for four days a week. However, lessons for level one should take only 15 to 20 minutes a day, and lessons for level two should take only 20 to 30 minutes per day. Than means you could easily double up your lessons and do science two days a week for longer sessions. However, I did notice that the Chemistry II volume suggests many optional experiments. While they would like you to do at least one per week, you could spend a lot more time if you chose to do many of the optional experiments. In addition, many of the observations, activities and experiments in all the volumes could be expanded beyond the minimal time required.

The seven volumes in the series are titled:

Biology I: Seeds, Scales, Feather and Tails!
Chemistry I: Bubbly, Sticky, Bouncy, and Icky!
Physics I: Zip, Zap, Zing, and Zoom!
Boilogy II: Worms, Beans, Germs, and Genes!
Chemistry II: Atoms to Alloys and Beyond!
Physics II: Gizmos, Gadgets, Gears, and Gravity!
Chemistry III: It's Elementary!