NatureGlo eScience (A Homeschool Crew Review)

 Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

For the last few weeks, we have been supplementing our science curriculum with online classes from the NatureGlo's eScience MathArt & Science Course Bundle from the NatureGlo's eScience website. 

 

Taught by Gloria Brooks who holds a BA in K - 12 education, certificates from the Wilderness Awareness school, and over 20 years of eclectic teaching and child self-directed learning experiences in private schools,  Gloria now teaches online science course for homeschool students through the NatureGlo's eScience website. 

NatureGlo's eScience is a one stop eLearning website for ages 10 and up to help encourage homeschool students to fall in love and appreciate the natural world through online streaming science courses.

 NatureGlo's eScience offers a large selection of learning ranging.  Students will easily find something that will catch their interest.  From learning about insects, cute marine mammals such as dolphins or scary deep ocean creatures like the angler fish, the delicate patterns in snowflakes, or the life and mathematical art of Leonardo da Vinci, there's sure to be a number of courses to strike any student's fancy.

Just a small selection of the courses available

Each course offers video learning taught by Ms Brooks as she walks the student thru the topic using slideshows and discussion. Students are able to download a copy of the slide show, as well as resources and a study guide to use along with the class. 

The study guide consists of a short PDF containing fill in the blank style questions pertaining to the topic.  The questions can easily be answered from the video lesson or from reviewing the slideshow presentation for the lesson.  These are easy to download and print out for the student before the start of the course.

How We Used It

For this review, I have been allowing the kids to pick and choose from the various different online courses available from the NatureGlo's eScience website.  We have been trying to complete one class a week.  This has been easy as a number of the courses available have been short in length, allowing them to complete both the video lecture as well as the activities within an hour.  However, we are beginning to branch out and are starting to use some of the courses that are are in depth and take a longer period of time (about 3 to 6 weeks) to complete. 

Each week, we have been alternating between letting the kid choose which course they would like to watch. 

For our first course, Garrett decided he wanted to watch the course about the Giant Redwood trees.  We have taken a few family camping trips to the Sequoia National Park and it's turned out to be one of his favorite places to go, so the course quickly caught his eye. 

Ashleigh and Garrett in front of a Giant Sequoia tree

 

This course took less than an hour for us to complete and by the time it was completed, Garrett and Ashleigh could describe the differences between the Coastal Redwood, the Giant Redwood and the Dawn Redwood tree.  This even included being able to recognize the tree based on it's pine cones.

Both kids were able to pay attention to the class without any attention issues.  The video lesson itself was roughly 30 minutes, with a second video from National Geographic that really showed the size of the Giant Sequoia trees.

Ashleigh selected the second course that we viewed, which was on Tide Pool communities.  This class ended up being a family affair as the extra videos included for the activities allowed the kids to see some really neat sea creatures such as a tiny octopus, a sea snake, and a few other really cool critters using videos from Coyote Peterson. 

We also really enjoyed the Wildcat course, again, another pic from Ashleigh.  This is part of the Mammals: Wildcat, Wolves and Right Whale course.  We will actually be viewing the Wolves portion of the course this week.  This course is a three lesson course, with one lesson each dedicated to the wildcats, followed by wolves and finally lesson three discussing Right whales.  The first lesson introduced the kids to the Scottish Wildcat, how the domestic cat came to be, and about cat's in literature and mythology. 

Students are also given achievements for taking courses.  After the kids complete a lesson, they are awarded an award for completing the lesson, followed by an award for completing the projects, activities and videos that go along with the course.  I thought these were a neat way to entice the kids to look forward to completing courses to see what the next achievement would look like.

 

Overall, I've been enjoying adding these lessons to our classroom.  It's fairly easy for us to fit a course in on Friday and the kids have really been enjoying what they are learning about.  The guides and slideshows also make for easy reviewing of the material to be sure that the kids picked up most of the material.  

For more information about NatureGlo's eScience, be sure to visit the vendors website.  You can also find them on the following social media platforms:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/natureglo1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/@natureglo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natureglosescience/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nesschool/
YouTube: youtube.com/user/1hasc

Fifty reviewers from the Crew have been using the various classes from NatureGlo's eScience with their students in their classroom.  Be sure to click the banner below to read their reviews and see what courses they used today.