You, too, Can Teach High School Science!

Many parents are afraid to teach high school Science.  I understand that feeling.  I actually felt that way with Junior High Science!  However, since I had worked with my children so thoroughly in elementary, it just became continued learning!  Wait! Let me step back and tell you that when I taught First Grade Science, I learned a TON!  I finally figured out why tomatoes are classified as a fruit, when we learned to classify edible plants!  Second, Third, and Fourth grade were no different!  The only difference was that I had an adult view on the subject and it all made sense!  And since I was so excited to be learning all of these things, I passed that excitement on to my kids and they became excited.  (Plus, we were doing “camp”, so of course it was fun and exciting!) But, yes, high school was intimidating, especially since I had only had two Science classes in high school, and here I had students that I KNEW were going to want Chemistry and Physics!  

The first thing you need to do to prepare for High School Science is to build up your supply cabinet.  I ordered the glass beakers in elementary.  I ordered glass thermometers.  I order the microscope in 4th grade, and I ordered a NICE microscope that is actually still working.  I have taken it to be recalibrated once, but it was totally worth the $250 I spent on it in 1995.  But typically, each elementary year I would spend between $50 and $100 a year to get what I would need.  My big years were the years I purchased the microscope and then the year I purchased a balance.  By the time we got to high school, it wasn’t any different.  I’d pick up the few things we needed and there we were doing Physical Science.  But now I was integrating my Algebra into the Physical Science.  Wow!  Was this liberal arts mom really doing that?  On a side note, Biology has a lot of “consumables” that makes Biology about $250, and Chemistry has a lot of “hazardous shipping” costs that makes Chemistry about $300.  I remember purchasing $75 worth of chemicals and paying $200 to have it shipped!

I totally felt inadequate when I got to Chemistry.  I had managed to go to school for 17 years and never had to learn about the periodic table, let alone chemical bonding and reactions.  And here I was with my Science minded guy.  I tackled it the way I did everything else.  I figured I could learn it.  Sometimes labs felt miserable.  We would try it.  We would fail.  We would look it up on Youtube.  We would fail.  We would tweak things.  We would fail.  Sometimes our labs lasted 2 to 3 hours trying to get one experiment to work right.  I felt like a failure.  All along, my Science son is critically thinking, learning how to tweak formulas and equipment, with a huge sense of accomplishment when the experiment did finally work!  We got through Chemistry.  I felt like we limped through Chemistry, but we finished it with a full understanding, and that includes me!  Physics went a lot easier.  We’d be reading the book and I’d say, “Oh, that’s how my toaster works!  Oh, that’s how my blow dryer works!”  And each time he’d roll his eyes and laugh, “Mom’s learning stuff from our books again!”