I am thrilled to be able to share my review with you about
Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition and
Digital Science Online: Secondary Edition from
Visual Learning Systems for the
Schoolhouse Review Crew.
Visual Learning Systems is an online collection of wonderful science videos, clips, animations, and images. The site has activities and assessments for the students. There is even a guide for teachers.
Check out this page to see all that they have to offer. It gives you a fantastic overview of the program.
Visual Learning Systems is an annual online subscription. I was given access to both editions of Digital Science Online for a full year. I was able to set up a teacher and student account.
The price is based on the number of students using the program, so it's perfect for schools, co-ops, and homeschoolers! They do have a special homeschooling pricing. For a homeschool family, up to 8 kids, you can get a yearly subscription for $99.00. You can find out more about the pricing on their
website.
We used the secondary edition, which is geared for grades 6th-12th. I have a 4th grader and a 6th grader and this edition worked out great for both my kids. We follow a classical education program for our science and the Digital Online Science program complemented it wonderful. We watched the videos that went along with our weekly science lesson. It brought the world of science right into our home. It was great because I didn't have to search the internet for the information I needed to enhance our lessons. It was nice not to have search through different videos on other sites, which can be very time consuming!
The secondary edition focuses on physical science, earth science, life science, science measurements, health science, and biology science. We focused on the chemistry and physics section of the program.
The student activities offers a varied selection. You will find preliminary tests, worksheets on the videos, vocabulary worksheets, experiments, and tests.
The videos were short and held the kids attention. They ranged in length from 20-30 minutes. I loved how you could click on the subject that we were covering or if we felt like it we could watch the entire video for a full lesson. Another bonus for us was that they loaded quickly. We have satellite for our internet service and too often most online programs take FOREVER to load, but not this one. It was quick and we didn't lose any time from our schooling waiting for the pages to load.
My kids enjoyed the experiments that were suggested. They were fun and simple for kids to do.
I found this program to be a wonderful supplement to our science curriculum.
They do have a edition geared for Kindergarten through 5th grade. I did check it out a little bit and it was just as fun! It also had a variety of activities for the younger kids to learn. The elementary edition covers physical science, life science, and earth science. I think for younger kids, you could use this online program for you entire science curriculum. It is thorough and the kids will learn a lot.
I am looking forward to continuing our lessons with Digital Science Online. The kids have really enjoyed it and I am very eager to see what the other topics cover!
Till next time,
~Monique
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