540.50: Delta Nutshell: Small Wonders

[Pat]

Name of curriculum: Delta Education

Common abbreviation: none

Optimal age of students: Website says grades 2 - 6

Branch of science: Biology

Educational Philosophy: Stand Alone Experiment Set

Worldview: Secular Evolutionary - although no detectable opinions one way or the other.

Website: http://www.delta-education.com/index.html

A quote from the website:

Introduce basic microscopy skills. Use these skills to observe cells and their structures and functions, similarities of features, and behaviors of small organisms.

Have you used this curriculum? What levels? Yes, this review will only deal with the one module: Small Wonders

Review: We did not enjoy this Nutshell. Most of the experiments were rather juvenile and ones we had done before (growing beans, magnifying fabric). If this is what elementary science is about, it is no wonder no one wants to study science any more. It was pretty basic and babyish.

The kit included with this particular Nutshell did not justify the cost of the Nutshell. It includes various household items like fabric, feathers and a cork, a few cheap plastic slides, some red dye, and a cheap hand magnifier. We did not use the hand magnifier and instead used a microscope we already owned, but nothing else in the kit would have been either hard to find in a house or school.

Finally the experiments were not very well coordinated and instead of having some theme you did a bunch of unrelated activities: grow sprouts, look at fabric weave, make a worm farm. Just the use of occasional magnification did not create a meaningful theme.

Strengths: Want to do science experiments without a lot of prep and no scouring your home town for specialized materials and ingredients? Or would you like a set of experiments arranged around coherent theme? This is the idea behind Delta Nutshells. This Nutshell did not live up to this promise.

Weaknesses: I found these experiments to be rather immature for my children. I have an 8 yo and an 11 yo. The 11 yo is at the old end of the spectrum but my youngest is at the prime age.

Comments: I purchased two other nutshells and I'll review them as we do them.