What is the e-Science Program
Supercharged Science is a complete science program form Pre-K through High School founded by real life rocket science Aurora Lipper. Supercharged Science has developed from a camp and some classes into a complete science program for all ages focused on hands-on, exciting science and independent learning that can work for every age as a full science curriculum, meeting and exceeding California State standards, and the standards in many other states.
Upheld by the principal that kids will want to learn more about things they can do and see and therefore be fascinated by, Supercharged Science’s e-Science Program provides numerous, easy to do at home science experiments that get your kids DOING science not just reading about it.
For the purposes of this review, our family received a 6-month subscription to the Supercharged Science e-Science Program for K-12th grade students. The Supercharged Science e-Science Program provides members with access to 20 units of study as well as parents resources, awards winning science fair projects, unique lessons in math (Mathemagic), and science e-camp. Not to mention hours of videos to support the lessons and experiments and a forum for open discussion regarding the unit materials and experiments.
Each unit in Supercharged Science’s e-Science program includes an overview of the unit, several lessons within the unit, experiments and videos in support of the topic and exercises on the topic. A shopping list is included with each unit to enable parents to purchase materials needed throughout the lesson ahead of time and in an organized fashion. Additionally, the lessons are available for download for those wishing to read through the lessons off-line.
In some cases, Aurora has already done a live telecast on the unit’s subject. In these cases, many times the link to this previous telecast or webcast is available on the intro to the unit for students and parents wanting something different or additional on the topic they are studying.
The “Getting Started” section was great. There was several easy to do experiments with great explanations so that we could get started doing experiments right away. This is the fun part and sometimes the daunting part to me, as the parent, so I loved that its easy to use and something the kids can go to and do when they want to try something out. We make pop rockets, a bouncy ball, flying contraption, and plasma grapes (we did this in the past but the kids just HAD to do it again). This is where we began.
Next, our 3rd grader focused her studies on Motion (Unit 2) since this is what we were studying in our science program already this year. She started with the introduction and then picked an experiment to get going with. She chose to do the Chicken and the Clam (I think because of the name) and we enjoyed learning about gravity. There was also an experiment entitled “Why bother with seat belts?” which we chose to do also and thought that was a great lesson for everyone. Since we were studying Newton’s Laws this year, these were a great place for us to start. She really enjoyed the lessons and our PreK son enjoyed the experiments just as much as she did. Supercharged Science suggests that you pick a topic and get started on an experiment to get the kids interested so that is what we did with each new lesson. Sometimes I had my daughter read aloud the intro to the lesson while i was gathering the supplies if necessary. This allowed our PreK son to hear a little about what we were going to learn about. Our 3rd grader loves science and she thought the lessons were interesting and loved the videos that accompanied them. I thought they were a very manageable length and not too daunting for anyone.
The e-Science Program is organized by topic such as matter, earth science, astronomy, etc but can also be searched by grade level, which is helpful for those families who are looking at where to begin or looking for a particular topic of interest. It is also great for those families who have specific state requirements. Personally, I found this feature of the website very helpful and user-friendly.
With our Pre-K/Kindergarten son, we did very light science. Mostly he helped with the experiment his sister does and tries his own but we don’t go into much more than discussing briefly why an experiment had its given results. He just love dropping cans and making flying contraptions and pop rocks. I’m certain he was soaking up everything we said though, as usual.
Though we typically stick to studying the same topics for both children, my son has a profound interest in planes and therefore wanted to do something with planes. We chose to re-do the experiment on Flying Contraptions and built a plane. He love the experiment and my daughter, of course, participated also and built hers again. She kept adding rings to see if it worked differently. I think she really was getting the concepts behind this experiment this year. It was fun to watch. It is really a blessing to see kids get excited about learning and grasping new and challenging concepts.
Summer E-Camp
One of the cool features of the Supercharged Science e-Science Program is that the membership includes summer e-camp. This is exciting because it is set up in the same way as Aurora Lipper’s actual summer science camps except easily accessed by members, kids and parents alike, to keep students busy and having fun (and learning…shhhh….don’t tell the kids) all summer long. We look forward to giving e-science camp a try this summer and just know that it will be a good time with science.
Overall
We LOVE Supercharged Science and the e-Science program. We love the video demonstrations and explanations throughout the units. We love that Aurora herself shows how to do the experiment in video format making it easier to replicate the experiments at home. And we love the set-up and topic availability within the program.
One thing I would like to see if the website tracking individual progress through the lesson. It would be helpful for the program to allow a student to resume where they left off or provide check marks or something similar upon completing of a lesson and experiment. As a parent who encourages independent work, not being able to see what was completed can be frustration at time. I have my daughter write down where she left off and we talk about the lessons and do the experiments together but sometimes she forgets where she was and other times she is excited to work on the experiments and moves forward working through them without me, which I love, but then I don’t get to see how much she really worked inside a unit or lesson.
One other things we loved about the program is that Aurora or one of her staff will answer your questions that you ask within the unit right in the comment section. I think its great. Sometimes, if you go through the comment section you’ll see someone already asked a question you had and you’ll see the answer or you can just type in your comment or question and you’ll get a response. I think its great that there is easy accessibility to assistance within the program.
Another great feature of the e-Science Program is the inclusion of a conversion table if you are using another science curriculum along with it. Since Supercharged Science’s e-Science program does not include anything about creation OR evolution, it is a fit for anyone. However, if you are suing other curriculum’s you can use the conversion chart to find our which units in the e-Science unit coincide with the topics in your other curriculum.
The Supercharged Science e-Science program is available for the e-science K-8 program for $37/month and the K-12 program for $57/month. This subscription is good for the whole family. It includes over 900 science activities and experiments and literally thousands of pages of lessons, lesson plans, quizzes, exercises, and reading materials. Some benefits of membership includes:
- Videos
- Text-book type reading
- Hands-on activities and experiments
- Homework exercises/quizzes
- A live science class (one some subjects)
- Parent resources
- A place to ask questions
- Recordings of everything
Check out a free copy of the science activity video series and guidebook. It is an excellent way for your to check out the Supercharged Science e-science curriculum to see if it’s a good fit for you and your family.
Additionally, Supercharge Science is offering readers a chance to give e-Science a try for just $1. For $1 you and your family will get one month of access to e-Science to give it a try and see what you think. Now THAT’S a good deal!
And be sure to check out Supercharged Science and their e-Science Program for yourself through their social media links below:
https://www.facebook.com/superchargedsci
http://www.twitter.com/aurora_lipper
https://www.youtube.com/user/auroram42
http://pinterest.com/superchargedsci/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/112193545312804826871/posts
http://www.superchargedscience.com/blog/
Great review, Tawnee! We liked the flying contraptions too!