Elemental Science began with me writing a classical science program for our daughter. I had fallen in love with the idea of a classical education but wasn't so enamored with the science options before me.

Over the last ten years, I have written and shared a few things about science in classical education. I figured it was about time for us to create an ultimate guide so that you could find all those tips in one place!

Here's what we'll cover in this post - you can click the links to go directly to that section if you would like to do so!

• The basics of classical education
• The basics of teaching science at home
• What does science in the classical education model look like?
• Resources to help you teach classical science

Without further ado, let's dive in!

The Ultimate Guide to Science in the Classical Education Model

The basics of classical education

Classical education, in a nutshell, is an educational model that focuses on teaching the students to think critically as well as training them to be familiar with how to learn.

Classical education does not believe that you will be able to cover everything in the 12+ years the students are in school.  Rather, it covers the highlights and provides the students with the skills to know how to fill in the gaps on their own.

There are several flavors of classical education in the homeschool world at the moment. The most notable are:

• Susan Wise Bauer
• Christopher Perrin
• Martin Cothran
• Leigh Bortins
• Charlotte Mason

They all teach that there are stages, or cycles, of learning that every student goes through in his or her educational journey.

• The student begins with the grammar stage, which we know as the elementary years.
• Then he or she progresses into the logic, or dialectic stage, which typically happens around the middle school years.
• Finally, the student finishes with the rhetoric stage, otherwise known as the high school years.

In each stage, you are teaching to the student’s strengths and working on building the skills that will become assets in the next stage.

You can learn more about classical education from the following books:

• The Well-Trained Mind (This one is my favorite!!)
• The Core (I don't agree with everything in this book, especially when it comes to teaching science, but it is a good look at classical education.)
• The Writings of Charlotte Mason (These are available for free online.)
• The Lost Tools of Learning (This is the speech by Dorothy Sayers that is said to have kicked off the modern revival of classical education.)

If you find classical education a bit later in your homeschooling journey, here are a few tips to help you decide what to do if you find classical education mid-cycle.

The basics of teaching science at home

Now that we understand what classical education is, let's look at how science should be taught.

There are three keys to teaching science:

1. Performing Hands-on Scientific Tests
2. Gathering Information
3. Keeping a Record

These three pieces need to be represented in each week of your plan. They work together to create a solid science curriculum.

• Too much focus on the hands-on will leave the students lacking in the core knowledge that they need to know.
• Too much focus on the facts will lead to the students to not knowing how to apply those principles to real life. 
• Too much writing and the students will begin to despise science.

On top of that, a solid plan for science will start early and build upon itself throughout the years. We all recognize that the body of scientific knowledge can not be taught in the span of four years and many of the basic concepts of science can be learned at a young age.

You can learn more about teaching science at home from the following books we have written:

• The Three Keys to Teaching Science
• The Homeschoolers Guide to Experiments
• Success in Science: A Manual for Science Education

What does science in the classical education model look like

Science is taught like any other subject in the classical education model.

You focus on the different skills of the subject that are appropriate for each stage while seeking to build their knowledge base at each level.

• In the grammar stage, you are working on sharing basic information.
• In the logic stage, you are building on the foundation by asking why things are the way they are. in the rhetoric stage you are analyzing what you know and learning how to apply it to what you don’t know.
• In the rhetoric stage, you are analyzing what you know and learning how to apply it to what you don’t know.

For science, The Well-Trained Mind suggests that you do this by following a four-year cycle, with each year focusing on a different field of science.

• In year 1 you focus on biology
• In year 2 you focus on earth science and astronomy
• In year 3 you focus on chemistry
• In year 4 you focus on physics

Then you rinse and repeat, digging deeper into each discipline as you progress through the stages.

For a more detailed look at what science in the classical education model looks like, check out the following series:

• Classical science curriculum for the grammar stage student
• Classical science curriculum for the logic stage student
• Classical science curriculum for the rhetoric stage student

For a more personal glimpse, check out the following:

• Our experience with the Classic Series from Elemental Science

You can also listen to the following podcasts to about classical science:

• What does science look like for the classical educator?
• What do I do if I find classical education mid-cycle?

Resources to help you teach classical science

The classical student will not follow the traditional model, but rest assured, he or she will be well prepared to handle the rigors college-level science when that time arrives.

We provide easy-to-use plans for classical science, which have earned a top recommendation from the authors of The Well-Trained Mind. You can learn about our programs by clicking on the links:

Grammar Stage

• Biology for the Grammar Stage 
• Earth Science & Astronomy for the Grammar Stage
• Chemistry for the Grammar Stage
• Physics for the Grammar Stage

Logic Stage

• Biology for the Logic Stage
• Earth Science & Astronomy for the Logic Stage
• Chemistry for the Logic Stage
• Physics for the Logic Stage

Rhetoric Stage (High School)

• Biology for High School 
• Earth Science for High School (Coming Soon!)
• Chemistry for High School
• Physics for High School