Jason Gibson "has earned advanced degrees in Engineering and Physics, worked as a Rocket Scientist for NASA, and has a passion for teaching Science and Math!" Unlike some engineers, Jason does have some personality and does not talk over your head. His tone is conversational and his attitude is happy. He shows and explains the materials you need for each experiment, and then goes on to demonstrate some amazing feats of science. With the use of several camera angles (including the ones like they use in cooking shows, top down), you get clear pictures of what is happening in the experiment.
Some of the experiments we had seen and done before: Egg in a Bottle, Lifting an Ice Cube with a String, Keeping Paper Dry Under Water, and Invisible Ink. A couple of the experiments went right along with our Apologia Physical Science and General Science texts: Matchstick Speedboats, Floating Eggs, Balloon in a Candle Flame, and the Density Tower. And a couple of them were brand new and pretty impressive: Building a Lemon Battery, Making a Cloud in a Bottle, Building a Motor with Lights and, one of my favorites, Dry Ice Bubbles! There are more, but you get the idea!
Mr. Gibson does a good job of presenting each experiment in an organized way. I liked how his props were often colorful so that you could really distinguish all the parts. We've done Color Changing Milk before, but he got even better results than we did, so it was fun to watch. After each demonstration, he goes on to explain the science involved, covering "electricity, magnetism, heat, temperature, pressure, surface tension, buoyancy and much more." The experiments average about 10 minutes, though a few are closer to 15 to 20 minutes long. My kids found some of the explanations slightly redundant, but the information was always good and the demonstrations themselves were great.
This volume appears to be religion-neutral -- with no mention of God or evolution that I picked up on.
You can get all 23 experiments together on 2 DVDs on their website for $19.95, a $5.00 discount from the retail list price. Or, you can download all the experiments to your computer for only $17.99 and not have to worry about shipping! Besides Amazing Science!, www.scienceandmath.com have other math, science, physics and chemistry DVD sets available. You can also get free videos e-mailed to you if you join their mailing list.
I think these DVDs would be good for kids who LOVE science as well as those who STRUGGLE with science. Seeing some of the demonstrations might be a good way to provoke interest in your children who are normally less interested.
Disclaimer:
As part of the TOS Homeschool Crew for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, I received this 2-DVD set for free in exchange for an honest review.
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