Monday, July 12, 2010

AIMS for Science and Math

When I taught in Georgia I was introduced to AIMS. (Activities Integrating Math and Science). AIMS is non-profit organization dedicated to helping you give students a solid conceptual understanding of math and science, built on research in best practices and brain-based learning.

I have always loved their hands on activities. They sell books that range in price from $20-$40 with activities by theme for grades Kindergarten through 9th grade. Some examples of themes are: Plants, Physics, Problem Solving, Probability, etc. They also have fabulous $2.00 activities you can download. If you live near a university with a Teacher Education Library, they sometimes have the books available to borrow. Inter-library loans would be another way to try them out. There are also free samples of activities on the web site.

My kids love the activities. The supplies are usually things you have around the house, or very basic science equipment. They also sell a small group/homeschool science kit. The activities include making predictions, making a graphs, and charting results. The charts and all forms are all made for you. The instructions are easy to follow.

This is a great way to add experiments to your science program, or problem solving to your math curriculum.
Enjoy!