Hands On Homeschool Science with Berean Builders Discovering Design with Earth Science

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We have been longtime fans of Berean Builders, but up until this point, we had only done their younger elementary series, Science Through History. We loved this series and its chronological approach to science, helping kids understand how and why we know what we know about science.

However, as we are in the thick of middle school and are approaching high school, I have wondered about their upper level series, Discovering Design. So I couldn’t wait to crack open Discovering Design with Earth Science and see how it compared to the series for lower elementary.

Comprehensive Nature of Berean Builders Discovering Design with Earth Science Helps Pull Science Together

One thing that I really love about Berean Builders is how all the books are really comprehensive. You have one book that contains all the lessons. For the most part, the items you need are household items you have around the house – and if you don’t want to be tracking items down, you can also buy kits of the items already put together (we like to buy them from Home Science Tools).

Even though most of the items you need for Discovering Design with Earth Science are household items, they do recommend you buy the lab kit to go along with it and honestly, this makes a lot of sense. The lab kit for Discovering Design with Earth Science contains several varied rock, mineral, fossil, and sediment samples. In studying earth science, you should actually look at these, right? (I certainly think so and I hope you agree). And while you may have some of these around (we have Crinoid fossils from living near Lake Michigan, for example), you might not have all of them around, making the kit a valuable and necessary addition.

If you wish to source these materials yourself, they do provide a comprehensive list. I personally love this, as it allows you to look at everything you might need and gather it and put it together before the school year starts. This way, every science experiment isn’t also a scavenger hunt.

Working Together or Working Alone – Berean Builders Discovering Design with Earth Science Works for Both

Now in my house, science is one of those things we generally like to do together. Prior to my oldest’s 7th grade year, we did all our science together. I would read the lesson and we would do the experiment. This works well for our family and is what we may choose to do again in future years. (This year’s more independent science is sort of an experiment. 😅)

However, if having a curriculum that your children can do independently is important to you, Discovering Design with Earth Science is written in a way that kids could do it independently. The tone of the text is geared towards kids doing it themselves. The experiments are also written that way as well.

Berean Builders Discovering Design with Earth Science is a Solid Science Program Builds Firm Foundations

Having been through the Berean Builders series over the course of several years, my kids have built a really firm science foundation. And Discovering Design with Earth Science appropriately increases the rigor and difficulty for older students.

This rigor of the older years comes in through various features like:

• Encouraging students to keep a lab notebook and make lab reports – This is a crucial science skill that also encourages critical thinking, writing, and documenting what you learned (an important skill often overlooked).
• Regular Comprehension checks – These checks help your child to reflect on their own learning and to make sure they are understanding everything up until that point.
• Math – As you start to get into high school science, more math is necessary and helpful and the Discovering Design series incorporates more math than Science Through History.
• Review questions and tests – While tests were included in Science Through History, our family opted not to use them. However, as we move into high school, we will begin to use more tests. Discovering Design Through Earth Science not only includes tests, but it also helps teach students how to study for tests, with chapter reviews allowing students to learn where to focus their studies.

If you are not sure what course is best suited for your child, you can check out the Course Sequencing, which will help you place your child and understand the math necessary for each course. You can also check out the samples which will allow you to peek inside and get a feel for the writing and the text.

Berean Builders also offers a lot of parent support if you don’t feel confident teaching science. The Helps & Hints books offer answers to all the questions (even just the ones you ask outloud) and you can even go on the website and write in your questions to the author, which he’ll answer! Plus, the Discovering Design levels also have online links that will help you learn to write lab reports and explain the concepts through videos.

Berean Builders Weaves History into Science

The series that we started with (​Science Through History​), walks you through scientific concepts as we discovered them historically. I think this is a super unique approach to science. I especially appreciate it because it helps you understand how science happened and how science is connected. A lot of science curriculums teach science in a way that keeps it disjointed from other aspects of science, but with Berean Builders walking through historical order shows how these things are connected and how scientists built on the works of other scientists. I think it helps teach kids to approach science with humility and open mindedness because it helps you understand humanity’s limitations and potential.

If you have an older kid and you’re wondering whether you could jump into the ​Discovering Design​ series without having done the Science Through History, I would say yes! While I haven’t reviewed the whole Discovering Design series, I know at least in the Earth Science book, the introductory chapter starts out by making sure your child is entering this book with a basic understanding of common concepts important for studying earth science – like the shape of the earth, what a chemical is, phases of matter, units of measurement, the metric system, and measuring things like temperature, density and concentration. This ensures that even if you haven’t done the same science series or have had a scattering of science teaching, that your child will understand the core concepts needed to understand the rest of the course in chapter one.

Hands On Exploration a Key Component of Berean Builders Discovering Design with Earth Science

One thing that really helps make Berean Builders a winning option for my family is just how many hands on experiments there are. Even if (I confess!) we don’t always do every experiment, every experiment teaches us something in a new way. My kids really enjoy getting to be hands on with their experiments.

When you successfully pull off a science experiment, it feels a little like magic. Many of the science experiments just have that “wow” factor. I remembered once doing an experiment where we got a soda can to balance and it seriously felt like magic for all of us.

Because the experiments are written to the student, I feel like this could definitely be an empowering experience for kids to feel like they could take charge of their own experimentation.

Sometimes when we can’t be hands on, I try to replace it with a video. I know that isn’t the same, but reading the experiment directions, I can usually figure out how to find a video of the same/similar experiment. We do probably about 90% of the experiments, but sometimes the weather is wrong for an outdoor experiment, for example. I try not to let the idea of completing every experiment perfectly mean that we skip a science lesson.

One other really awesome feature is that it warns you ahead of time if the next experiment is going to take an extended period of time. I find this advance notice super helpful because then you can get set up as soon as you finish the previous lesson, instead of getting to the lesson and realizing you should have started the experiment much earlier.

Berean Builders Discovering Design with Earth Science is a Faith Based Option for Families

Berean Builders is a faith based curriculum. It’s been so neat for my people to learn about the faith of scientists in the past and how that encouraged them to explore creation. Plus, it gives us an appreciation for how the world and laws of nature reflect the character of God. My kids have even expressed this thought to me that they enjoy seeing God at work in our world through science. For families looking for a Christian science, this is a great fit.

All in all, Berean Builders have been an awesome science fit for our homeschool and they may be for yours too! The Science Through History series has been a great fit for us for the elementary years and I look forward to all of the Discovering Design series as we tackle upper middle school and high school!