Just want to get to the REAL Science Odyssey Reviews? Click here.
REAL Science Odyssey is a complete grades K-10 Science curriculum. The grades are split between Level 1 courses and Level 2 courses. Level 1 contains all the elementary grade levels and teaches Life Science, Astronomy, Earth and Environment, Physics, and Chemistry. The Elementary courses require parents to be involved each day.
Level 2 moves on to grades 6-10 and contains Biology and Astronomy. The high school courses are designed to be done independently by the student.
REAL stands for Read. Explore. Absorb. Learn. The curriculum uses reading about concepts and theories, exploring what they’ve learned through projects, and learning in a way that is natural and will, potentially, create a life-long love of learning.
- Print or Digital Books
- Students Learn Through Labs
- Encourages Students to Think Like Scientists
- Grades K - 10
- Story Format in Early Years
- Secular
Want to check out other science curriculum options? Start Here.
- Only review products that you have actually used.
- Please include clear details of what worked or what didn’t in your homeschool. Think about what you would want to know if you were researching this product to use in your homeschool.
- Please don’t leave a review if this is your company, you work for this company, or you have been given a sample of this product/been paid for this review.
- No links are allowed. This includes links to blog posts or personal reviews posted somewhere other than on this website.
- Please do not include any private or personal details in your reviews. You can mention your children but please do not use their names.
- Make your review informative and respectful. Even if something didn’t work for your family, be polite and refrain from any attacks on a creator or company.
- If every review you post is negative, your reviews may be blocked, removed, or refused for posting.
- Please note that all reviews are moderated, but will not be edited in any way.
- We reserve the right to refuse any review we feel doesn’t meet the standards of our guidelines. This includes reviews deemed as spam.
REAL SCIENCE ODYSSEY REVIEWS:
-
Price
-
Ease of Use
-
Quality
Secular and Experiment Heavy
I’ve currently only used Chemistry 1 with my science loving 3rd grader. Originally, looking over the course, I pulled out sections because half of it felt WAY too advanced for 3rd grade. Honestly, some of the concepts I didn’t learn till I was in university. So we did parts of it and moved on to study other things. The course is designed to last one school year, and I worried that my son would get bored of only doing chemistry all year long. My son is now BEGGING me to go back and complete the entire course.
Truly secular science curriculums are hard to find. A lot of curriculums label themselves as secular but really teach “neutral science”, meaning they simply avoid mentioning evolution and the age of the earth so they can appease the religious folks. RSO is TRULY secular. I was a little worried when I looked into it because it is so experiment heavy. Every concept is followed by at least 1 experiment or lab, many times 2. Thankfully, the supplies list is available to view for free before purchase and 98% of the items are household/easy accessible items. There is a handy Lab Supply Checklist included so you could gather all the materials at the beginning and have them ready to go. I know the author has been asked before if it’s okay to skip experiments, and her belief is that children will learn best by doing. (I will admit that for some of the messier / hard to put together experiments I have gone online and found videos that we can watch instead.)
Each chapter begins with a poem (which are in my opinion not needed and contrived), followed by the lesson pages labeled “For My Notebook”, and then lab pages, which we placed in a separate folder labelled “Science Labs”. I don’t know if it’s recommended but it was nice to separate out the curriculum into two different “books” so we could reference the concept while we did the lab.
At the beginning of the curriculum is what the author calls “What’s the Big Idea?” and it lists all the key points learned for each topic. This works great as a quick review or to write on flash cards so your child doesn’t forget concepts through the year.
Pros
Cons
Did you find this review helpful? Yes (2) No