{REVIEW} The Good and the Beautiful Science: Energy

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

Colossians 1:16 – 17

This was our second time doing the energy unit from The Good and the Beautiful and it was so good! I am a long-timer with The Good and the Beautiful and we first did this unit back when it was two units. It used to be divided into an Introduction to Energy unit and Energy: Heat, Light, and Sound unit. It makes so much sense to combine it into one LARGE unit and it was so much better than I remembered it. I was pleasantly surprised with how this unit flowed and how much goodness there was in it.

Topics

What Is Energy?
The Transfer of Energy
The Sun – Energy Source
Atoms, Molecules, and Heat
Heat Sources and Production
Heat Transfer
Heat Conductors and Insulators
Temperature
Introduction to Electricity
Electrical Current
Magnets and Our Earth
Electromagnetism
Light and Shadows
Reflection, Refraction, and Absorption
Light and Color
Sound
Volume and Pitch
Energy Conservation

Vocabulary & Science Wall

Vocabulary for this unit included:

Energy
Transfer
Convert
The Law of Conservation of Energy
Kinetic Energy
Potential Energy
Solar Radiation
Atoms
Molecule
Heat
Equilibrium
Sources of Heat
Radiation
Convection
Conduction
Conductor
Insulator
Temperature
Electricity
Static Electricity
Alternating Current
Direct Current
Magnet
Magnetic Field
Electromagnet
Transparent
Translucent
Opaque
Reflection
Refraction
Absorption
Visible Light Spectrum
Vibration
Sound Waves
Medium
Volume
Pitch
Renewable Energy
Nonrenewable Energy

Supplies

This is a VERY heavy supplies unit! There are a lot of experiments. I am not a big fan of heavy supply lists. And this was probably why I didn’t love this unit the first time we did it. BUT something has changed with The Good and the Beautiful since that time. They have created a YouTube channel for their science units that has nearly all of the experiments in the unit! YAY!!!

Now, I totally understand that it is helpful for kiddos to physically do experiments. So what I would do each week was look at the lessons we would be doing (we try and do two science lessons a week), look at the supplies needed and I would pick at least one experiment from the lesson that we would do – many of the lessons have multiple experiments. I usually would pick experiments what we already had the supplies for or had minimal additional things I would need. That way, each lesson we were still doing experiments but it was DOABLE for me! This really changed things. Then the other experiments we would watch the YouTube video and the kids were totally fine with that too. It was a win!

Science Journal

All science units for The Good and the Beautiful require a science journal. This can be as simple as a notebook or binder. I give all of the details about how I put together our science journals here. I love them and they have worked wonderfully for our family. They are definitely worth the effort beforehand and make my life SUPER SIMPLE for science.

Read Alouds

The Good and the Beautiful has created a “book pack” that goes along with this unit. We used:

The Spark by Shannen Yauger
The Amazing Mind of Granville Woods by Maggie Felsch

We also had several books that we used when we previously did this unit. If you are wanting some more books, here are some additional ones that we used:

Measuring Temperature by T. H. Baer
Energy Makes Things Happen by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
What Makes a Shadow? by Clyde Robert Bulla
How Heat Moves by Sharon Coan
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
Energy by Kay Manolis
Light is All Around Us by Wendy Pfeffer
Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer

Length of Unit

This unit is ENORMOUS! It is one of the biggest science units and so take a deep breath before you dive in! There are eighteen lessons and so I would plan on a minimum of nine weeks to do it. However, with the amount of content and experiments many of the lessons took us more than one day to go through. So get ready and have fun!

Our Favorite Activities

There are so many fun experiments in this unit. Again, pick and choose what works for you (no shame in using the YouTube videos!) or do them all and I applaud you!

Final Thoughts

Don’t let this unit intimidate you! Yes, it is big – but it is awesome! You and your kiddos will learn a lot and you will be surprised by the goodness and spiritual greatness that is interwoven within it.

Science Units

Click on the links below to see our other science reviews!