Synergy Learning International’s Connect magazine, subtitled “Teachers’ Innovations in K-8 Science, Math, and Technology,” looks like a terrific resource for homeschoolers, too. Published five times a year, each 25-page issue focuses on a single scientific, mathematical, or technological topic. Past topics, for example, have included the scientific method, oceans, geometry, light and color, early algebra, climate change, birds, and ancient technology. In each instance, feature articles discuss and describe hands-on projects, lesson plans, teaching approaches, and innovative educational materials. My latest issue – “Things in Motion: Newton’s Laws,” May/June 2009 – has articles on roller coaster physics, teaching science with catapults, Newton’s Laws on the playground, and Newtonian mechanics with Legos, along with detailed instructions for building a spool tractor and conducting a multidisciplinary study of springs. Also included are resource reviews, literature links, and helpful website lists.
An annual subscription to the print version (5 issues) costs $28, from Synergy Learning, Inc., P.O. Box 60, Brattleboro, VT 05302-0060; (800) 769-6199; an online (pdf) version is available for an annual $20. Back issues cost $6 apiece (ten or more, $4, postpaid).
For more information, visit the Synergy Learning site.
(From Rebecca Rupp’s Good Stuff, Sept/Oct, 2009.)