When we started the Robinson Curriculum (RC) I wanted to use Science resources already available to me through RC for my fifth grader. The Famous Scientist Articles in the Bonus Materials were perfect. They introduce students to scientific discoveries, accomplishments and theories without being overly complex for the young mind. They are interesting and also give the reader a glimpse into cultures of the past. Inspired by this line of thinking I picked up a few Who Was (insert scientists name here) books from Amazon for quite cheap. How to use these, exactly? I'll give you the method we used that I found highly successful and inspiring for my 10 year old son. Here's what you need:
First print out the Famous Scientist Articles from the RC website. You may also want to buy the Who Was... books, my son really enjoys them and it changes things up a little bit. Then download my free Famous Scientist Outline and Famous Scientist List. You can print one each week or print out a bunch and put in a binder or folder. Each week you assign one article. If one of the scientists in the articles is also one of the Who Was... books assign them both. Make sure the student has access to an encyclopedia and computer for researching videos (screens optional of course). Your prep for Science is done! Like forever!
Here's the schedule we used:
Monday: Read Scientist Article or book (may take two for the books-quick reads). Fill in outline information as you go.
Tuesday: Use encyclopedia to look up scientist and any other relevant inventions, theories, laws or discoveries you learned about from the article or book. Check for any discrepancies you find in information and make a note of it.
Wednesday: Look up a YouTube video to see a presentation on the scientist or a demonstration of one of their famous experiments (we found quite a few demonstrations by university professors of physics). I know RC doesn't do screens but we found the visualization extremely valuable.
Thursday: Revise and edit outline for spelling, grammar, complete sentences, accuracy. Have a parent double check for you (literally the only point I was involved in actual work). Print out or draw any pictures to be used for presentation.
Friday: The student gives an oral presentation on their scientist. Grade and done!
Of course this theme can be elaborated on. You could go to the library and check out books, if your student is a more advanced writer they may want to write an actual report on their scientist. If you are really hands on you could try to do some sort of experiment yourself that's related when possible. I personally did the simple routine I did because we were already putting so much mental energy into the 3 R's I didn't want to add any stress and this was basically all independent work. If things got busy one day this schedule was simple enough that my student could do two components in one day and catch up easily. We found ourselves talking about these articles over lunch and dinner, after the presentation time, on the phone with Grandma and noticing related phenomena in everyday life.
How to grade? If you do want to have a grade I'll share how I graded them.
1 point for the name (full name with titles please)
2 points for when and where they were born
2 points for when and where they died
5 points each for the sections on Family & Early Life, Education, Career, Achievements & How their work helped future scientists.=25 points
Written component=30 points
Oral presentation=10 points
Total Available point=40 points
Extra credit points possible for visuals and extra information.
That's it! There are a ton of articles so it can definitely last a whole year. The reading level was perfect for my fifth grader. This can also easily be paused if you want to do a unit study or some specific science course and then picked back up in the summer or while you are waiting on a curriculum order that's coming late. It's very easy without being boring and the student gets to practice research techniques and independent work. They also get to make some decisions on their own like what discovery or invention they want to focus their research on when a scientist had several notable ones to choose from building some confidence and self-direction, both reasons we wanted to do RC in the first place.
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