Living Books For High School Science - Charlotte Mason Style

Most of us feel more comfortable using a text as the foundation of our high school science courses. This does not mean that we need to limit our assignments to the text. Why not add in a few living books to supplement your learning? We have found that leaving one day open during the week for a living book and follow-up narration is just the balancing feature we needed in our high school science.

Tips for Offering Living Books in High School Science
1. Assign a living book each week.
2. Allow for some kind of narration - oral, written (summary on a ***notebook page works well), project, additional research
3. Look for ways to connect the text to your living books selections by pulling in biographies of scientists or explorers.
4. Create interest in a topic by drawing connects between the text and your nature study.
5. When on field trips, look in the bookstore at the museum, science center, nature center, planetarium, or state/national park for living books you can include in your science courses.

Goals for Real Learning in Science

*Offer excellent materials.
*Make them ask questions.
*Point them to answers when needed.
*Provide opportunities for exploring.
*Have them respond in some way.

***You can read more about our Notebooking in High School here on Squidoo.

"It will be the teacher's aim to create in his pupils a desire for knowledge, and consequently a love of reading, and to cultivate in them, by a proper selection of lessons, the pleasure which reading may be made to yield."

"They learn what to observe, and make discoveries for themselves, original so far as they are concerned. They are put in the right attitude of mind for scientific observations and deductions, and their keen interest is awakened."