Explore Science is currently under construction. We have set up this interim website as a means of testing the course.
Explore Science is designed to be a complete junior high school Science program for Years 7 to 10. Keep reading to find out how it works.
The program has four Year courses that last for the whole school year (forty school weeks) and require about two and a half hours per week. The program fully complies with the Australian Curriculum and includes theory and practical components as well as research tasks, all designed with home schoolers in mind.
A year’s course consists of eight units, each lasting five weeks or half a school term. The units are broken down into ten lessons (two per week), and each lesson has different types of content including videos, printable sheets and tasks.
Each unit is identified by a code and a title, such as 7A Starting Science. This means; Year 7 unit A, with the title Starting Science.
The unit is broken down into ten lessons, two each week for five weeks. They have the code like “7A03 What is Science?”. Both lessons and all their associated work should be able to be completed in two and a half hours per week.
How it works in a lesson
There are two lessons each week with five parts to each lesson.
- Each lesson begins with a ten to fifteen minute video and a printable Lesson Content page that summarises the lesson.
- After the video there is a written quiz covering the work from the video that should take about ten minutes. You can look at the Lesson Content sheet or go back over the video if you need help to answer the questions.
- When you have finished the worksheet there is a Review video that will go back over the Worksheet and a quick summary of the lesson including the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. Altogether this should take about 30 minutes per lesson.
- At the end of each lesson there will also be an online quiz. You will need to pass the quiz before you can go on to the next lesson, but you can take the quiz as many times as you like and can look at the video or worksheets to help answer the questions.
- Finally, there will be additional work; either a research task or a practical task which should take 30 to 60 minutes each. The practical work will not require special chemicals or equipment and should be able to be done at home with easily obtainable materials. However, if you wish to dig deeper into science practical work there is a list of (optional) resources you could purchase in the Resources link from the Explore Science home page.
The Explore Science course can be undertaken anywhere, anytime. You can schedule the two lessons morning, afternoon or evening to suit each week, either on separate days or both lessons on one day.
Although the course is designed to fit four ten week school terms, you can skip a week or two if something important comes up, although you will need to catch up before you fall too far behind. One of the beauties of homeschooling is its flexibility. Since Explore Science is totally online, you can complete the course in your own time. You could even do it on an extended holiday (aka home school excursion) around Australia or even overseas, as long as you have an internet connection, or you could complete the course early so you can enjoy your break!