We have actually reviewed some of their other videos in the past.
The new videos are from the new Series 2 videos.
Library and Educational Service is a wholesaler for books, CD, and DVDs. They sell to libraries, churches, schools, missionaries, day care centers....and homeschoolers.
The host/instructor in these videos is Ben Roy. He has served as an elementary and middle school principal and teacher, earning the “Teacher of the Year” award for the Gordon County School System in Georgia. He has teacher certifications for both Tennessee and Georgia, and designs all his shows to implement state science objectives. He has produced science videoes for numerous venues, including the Weather Channel and About.com.
There are 7 DVDs in this series.
Volume 1: Sound, Gravity, Space
We got to choose two for our family to watch.
We picked:
Volume Two - Go Science Life Science and Weather for Kids
One of the kids favorite segments was on this DVD when Mr. Roy took out various skulls of animals and discussed their eye placement and teeth and showed which they were predator or prey....and when he made the huge cloud with liquid nitrogen and hot water. ( I thought that one was really cool too!)
and
Volume Seven - Go Science Engineering, Design and flight for Kids
(Fun side note: You might not be able to tell, but this is a picture of a girl standing on a carton of raw eggs - without breaking them. A-man was thrilled to get to do this same experiment at VBS this year!)
Some of their favorites from this DVD was when he showed how to balance 10 nails on top of one nail and the one where they launched balls with a trebuchet (I loved that the kids recognized that we had built a small trebuchet a few years ago in our homeschool....and that his huge one worked the same as our little one did).
The kids also liked any of the experiments and demonstrations where he shot anything into the air!
Here is an excerpt of what the videos are like.
Each DVD lasts about an hour and is full on, energetic science the whole time. Ben Roy is nothing if not an energetic teacher. Seriously. This man is like the Christian version of Robin Williams......in terms of pent up energy.....or the coolest grandpa ever! (Honestly, I could see A-man becoming Mr. Roy's replacement when he grows up. Science is his favorite subject and he gets really excited to tell people all about the new stuff he has learned.)
This science series is unique in that it really comes from the perspective that "Every time we learn more about science we learn more about our creator, God."
The videos are comprised of little snippets of lessons where Mr Roy is presenting in front of a group of kids in matching yellow t-shirts. He always has some kids come up and help him and get hands on with the experiments.
These are fun videos to watch. I will admit that since it summer, anything that remotely sounds like school takes some convincing to get my little darlings to cooperate. I brought up watching the video a few times asking for voluntary viewing. I failed. So, I introduced the involuntary viewing option.
Ha. I knew they would love them once they actually sat down and watched them. There were choruses of "How did he do that?" and "Awesome! I want to try that!"
And, they actually did. They tried a few of them. A-man said that was the best part of the DVDs.....actually getting to try some of the science stuff!
Here is where they were working on their centrifuge or....a water pump.
We are also going to do the film canister rocket experiment.....once I can find my stash of film canisters. (I know I have them somewhere.....yes, I suppose it shows my age.....but I didn't want to throw them away because I thought they would be good for something one day. Now, that day is here, I can't remember where I put them!)
They also desperately want to try the magnet to try to find iron in our breakfast cereal one too! Not sure we can come up with a strong enough magnet for that one though. (But, the kids did this one at VBS too!) Honestly, it is kind of creepy that there are actually little shards of metal in the cereal we eat.
The DVDs are recommended for ages 4-12, but my opinion on that is that is should really be something like ages 3+, because I like them, and even though my 3 big kids didn't watch every minute of the videos, they thought they were cool too.
Each little lesson has a great little lesson woven into the science. In the lesson about volume, Ben talked about things not always being what they seem and basically not to judge someone on how they look. So, it isn't shoving "God stuff" down your throat, but just teaching good values - that just happen to be Biblical.
These videos are not hard core science. Nor are they filled with hard core theological teaching.
But, they are the perfect thing to get them more interested in science. They peak your curiosity with the fun experiments (most of which you can actually try at home). They can create the desire to dig deeper and understand the actual hard core science behind why things work the way they do.
Hopefully, the emphasis on "Every time we learn more about science, we learn more about our creator, God." will also peak interest in learning more about God.
What did other TOS Reviewers think of Go Science? Take a look for yourself!
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