Anyone have experience with CTY science classes? While I’ve seen many threads on math and a few on language arts, I can’t find anyone describing experiences with CTY science classes.
Scenario: DS11 is a mathy guy, just finishing grade 5 (no acceleration or in-school enrichment). He loves physics - especially cosmology and particle physics - but has had no real science education thus far. He has random bits of high-level knowledge and theory gleaned from videos and books, but lacks a lot of the basics and underlying math. I want to feed that love with real knowledge and info he can use and think about and apply, but I don’t want to turn him off with something that feels too drudgery or school-like (the two go together in his mind). He is not particularly fond of formal after-schooling, though he is insatiable for new ideas and creating theories. My questions:
* Depth: From the samples available, the CTY physics (grades 6-8) seems much more basic than I would expect, for example spending an awful lot of time on explaining states of matter. Does it get more substantial/ complex/ thinking required, or does it stay more as an overview of facts rather than a deeper exploration of what they might mean?
* Interactive: Does the course really get interactive, and if so, how? The samples are really just a voice reciting info.
* Testing and assignments: As noted, don’t want it to feel like school, or make-workish. Big writing projects would also be a turn-off (we have writing issues). How big/ significant/ demanding are these, and what are they like? Does the student mostly work within the on-line program, with these incorporated and flowing naturally out of the lessons, or are they more distinct and formal? Can you skip them if you don’t want a grade?
Learning by doing is important, but not if the doing is onerous enough to take the fun out of the learning. It’s not like we’d ever be able to claim credit for CTY courses around here, so what matters most is getting him excited about learning. Low, slow and shallow would all be turn offs. I think he’d benefit a lot from having more solid, consistent foundations, with practice actually applying the ideas to real problems, which is why I am looking at a course like this. However, I wonder if he’d nonetheless be better off with Great Courses or viewing MOOC materials, which may do less to strengthen his foundations/ practical applications, but could keep him challenged and engaged with big ideas (if still unable to calculate a vector). Suggestions?
