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Building Foundations in Scientific Understanding is a K-8 program created by Ph.D scientist, Bernard Nebel. He believes that children have the natural ability to learn and be curious about science and wanted to create a curriculum that would allow them to develop scientific literacy. The goal of his program is to help kids be able to filter facts from “hogwash.”
There are three books in his program, divided into a K-2, grades 3-5, and grades 6-8 levels. Unlike other programs that are designed to cover a single topic each year, BFSU merges four different scientific categories each year, building on each other to create a stronger understanding.
- The Nature of Matter
- Life Science
- Physical Science, Technology, and Engineering
- Earth and Space Science
The program is a teach guide, written to the parent/teacher. There is no student workbook. Instead it focuses on helping the teacher understand what they are teaching. Then they can help encourage children to think for themselves, building on what they know already. Hands-on activities, observation, questions, conversations, and a personal science notebook are key.
There are times in the program where the book suggests looking on Google for videos or images, etc, but there is also a free community were resources have been gathered together to make it easier if you would prefer.
- Print Books / Digital
- Multiple Subjects Per Year
- Focuses on Science Literacy
- Grades K - 8
- Hands On , Teacher-Led Program
- Secular
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BUILDING FOUNDATIONS IN SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING REVIEWS:
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Price
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Ease of Use
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Quality
Very Teacher Intensive but Excellent Outcome
I have a love-hate relationship with BFSU. I was somehow able to complete volume 1, and if you’ve ever held BFSU in your hands, you’ll know that that is an amazing feat. I love BFSU because it gave my son a wonderful foundational understanding of science - basically it does exactly what it says it does. However, it does it in the most complex, teacher intensive way possible.
The book itself is written 100% to the teacher / parent. It is not scripted. It doesn’t tell you what to say to your child. What it does is teach you the material and give you age appropriate ways to explain it to your child. There are some experiments mentioned but they are described in passing, e.g.. “Facilitate students growing crystals… put some salt solution on a plate and cover with an inverted plate.” There’s no lab sheets, no step by step experiments. Ideas are given and it is up to the parent to figure out how to implement it. You’ll hear many complaining about the flowchart. BFSU divides science into 4 “areas of study”: Nature of Matter; Life Sciences; Physical Sci, Engineering, Technology; Earth and Space Science. You’re told to float back and forth across the most confusing flowchart imaginable so that your child will get a complete view of science. Sounds great, in theory.
I am science inclined myself and was able to make BFSU work by reading the Lesson ahead of time, gathering books, videos, and experiments that helped support the topic I was covering. But in truth, I taught most of it lecture style with markers and a whiteboard. This worked for my science inclined 7 year old, but after 7 months he was bored and wanted something hands on (we switched to RSO).
BFSU is inexpensive. I purchased vol 2 on Amazon Kindle for $10. The material is high quality. It’s just so hard to implement. Shannon Jordan created “Early Elementary Science Education” aka EESE, as a way to bridge the gap and make BFSU more accessible. It sort of worked. In an attempt to simplify BFSU, EESE cuts out a lot of what makes BFSU so great, and therefore all EESE is, is a way to (hopefully) help you schedule BFSU. (EESE was a wasted purchase for me. I did not like the flow her schedule took.)
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