Library and Educational Services gave us the opportunity to review two of their new (series 2) Go Science DVDs. Of the seven DVDs in their second series, we received Volume 4: Motion, Friction, Electricity, Light and Volume 7: Engineering, Design, Flight. The fun science DVDs are recommended for ages 4-12 but my 15 year old stopped what he was doing to come watch, so I’d say that even kids a bit older would enjoy these too. Each DVD is available for $8.97 on their website.
Titles in this Series
Volume One: Sound, Gravity, Space
Volume Two: Life Science, Weather
Volume Three: Air 1, Air 2
Volume Four: Motion, Friction, Electricity, Light
Volume Five: States of Matter, Water
Volume Six: Chemistry 1, Chemistry 2
Volume Seven: Engineering, Design, Flight
I love, love, love that at the very end of each short video Ben Roy looks at the camera and says, “Every time we learn more about science, we learn more about our Creator, God.”
The kids and I first watched Volume Four. Some of the experiments included on this video are:
Tablecloth Trick- the kids whipped a tablecloth out from underneath a fancy table setting.
Biblical Principle… God made natural laws that we all have to obey.High Bounce Balls- this video covers both kinetic and potential energy. Everything has potential energy when it isn’t moving. The balls gained kinetic energy when dropped. Biblical principal… God made the earth with an amazing amount of energy.
Marble Graviton- the kids had to pick up a marble and get it into a glass without touching it. This was Julia’s favorite and she couldn’t wait to try it out! Terms covered: inertia and centrifugal force.
Biblical principle… In life, we each have our focuses/goals on which we focus. If we have our focus on Jesus and God, then other forces won’t be able to take us off our track (Christian walk).
Yo-Yo Big Spool- the basic principles of yo-yos is explored and demonstrated on a huge spool.
Biblical principle… Life has its ups and downs and along with those ups and downs go our feelings. Ben makes it clear that we can’t trust our feelings and be like yo-yos. We need to trust in the Lord because unlike our feelings, He never changes.
Next we watched Volume Seven and saw the following cool experiments:
Biblical principal... We shouldn't judge people or things without getting to know them first.
Leaning tower of Lyra- Ben helps the kids find balance or the center of gravity using wooden boards. (*side note- Ben often offers different materials the kids could use at home if he is using something they may not have on hand.)
Biblical principal... Like the boards, we need to keep our lives in balance.
Nail Balance- The kids try to balance 10 nails on top of each other! After a little bit of failure and confusion, Ben shows the kids how to position each of the nails to they fulfill their job of holding it and the others in place.
Biblical principal... Everyone has a purpose in God. When we work together for God, great things can and will happen. He goes further to explain the nails are representative of Jesus and the cross.
Trebuchet- After explaining the difference between a catapult and trebuchet, Ben and the kids measure how far the trebuchet will shoot a ball. Terms covered: fulcrum, resistance, counter weight
Biblical principal... Ben talks about Jebez, the Holy Spirit and the basic principal of making sure we ask God for what we need.
Walking on eggs- two of the kids literally walk on some raw eggs (in the shell of course) and Ben explains how easily eggs can crack if they are pecked at but when the weight is evenly distributed, they are unharmed.
Biblical principal... Sometime in life, things can "peck" at us but when we have Jesus in our hearts, we too will come through the trials unharmed. When we pray to God, He gives the ability to not break under the pressures of life.
Examples of Some of the Other Fun Experiments
This one is from Volume One: Gravity
My bottom line
I am super glad I had the opportunity to be a part of this review. Science videos are something lacking in our homeschool and these are wonderful for both big and little kids. The fact that these are Christian based and kid friendly take these videos from good to great. The price ($8.97) is right as well; I can totally see us ordering some more of these DVDs in the future.
These videos would be great for a coop class too. The majority of the experiments are safe enough to conduct inside and most of the necessary equipment and ingredients can be found in the house on any given day. There are some, like liquid nitrogen (which he compares to the Holy Spirit- you have to watch to understand:) ) that may take a bit of forethought. Actually, can you even get liquid nitrogen without some kind of permit or license or something? I'm chuckling just thinking about it... waltzing into Lowes or Menards with five kids in tow, "Can I help you?" "Yes, could you point me to the liquid nitrogen?"
Anyway, the videos are great fun and even kept my 3-year-old's attention. That is a great feat in and of itself. Ben Roy obviously has a love for kids and teaching them / getting them excited about science. It shows in every single video.
Thanks Library and Educational Services!!
Follow Library and Educational Services on Facebook!
Click the banner below to read more Crew Reviews about the different Go Science Videos!
No comments:
Post a Comment