A Waldorf Chemistry curriculum for homeschool & classroom educators.
Welcome to the home of our Waldorfish middle grades Chemistry program!
What's Included?
Approximately 20 lesson videos per grade (7 or 8) that model HOW to guide your child through a phenomenologically-based Chemistry block (*Phenome-whut? See our helpful video, below!)
Ongoing discussions w/ teacher Ari Magruder & demonstrations for adults covering:
Step-by-step demonstrations showing HOW to do each lesson with your child
How and why to create rhythm in the lessons
Easy-to-implement ideas for DIY-ing some of the necessary supplies
sample Main Lesson pages
PDF templates for collecting data for many of the experiments
sample block schedule
ongoing access to Ari inside the classroom for questions, ideas and inspiration!
In this video, we talk with Ari about what a “phenomenon-based” science curriculum looks like in Waldorf education. This will help answer many questions, including “who are these courses for?” This video is about 18 minutes long – pour yourself a cuppa and settle in!
Details:
Like our other Waldorfish courses, this program is video-based. The lessons are pre-recorded and accessible inside our online classroom.
After enrollment you will get immediate access to all the lessons – this will allow for planning ahead, and working through the lessons at your own pace!
As with all of our other courses, once you have paid in full, you get unlimited access to the lessons, forever. They will continue to be accessible whether or not you are able to watch them right away or not.
Ready to enroll?
(refund policy is in the FAQ section of this page.)
In the 7th grade Chemistry course, caregivers and teachers will learn how to safely guide their students through a variety of investigations and demonstrations on the topics of combustion, crystallization, acids and bases, and culminates with an exploration into the lime cycle. Highlights of the 7th grade chemistry curriculum include: exploring the nature of substances by observing how they burn, learning about the process of crystallization by creating Borax crystal ornaments, and investigating saponification (a neutralization reaction between and acid and a base) by making soap.
The 8th grade Chemistry course expands on the experiences gained through the 7th grade course, though each can be used individually. While 7th grade Chemistry focused on inorganic chemistry, in 8th grade we move on to organic chemistry. Caregivers and teachers will be guided through a series of investigations and demonstrations that explore the topics of carbohydrates (sugars and starches), proteins, and fats. Highlights of the 8th grade chemistry curriculum include: conducting “lunchbox” tests for the presence of simple sugars, starches and proteins, exploring the nature of proteins by creating curds and whey, then making a simple farmer’s cheese from the curds, and investigating fats and oils by making lip balm and lotion.
Bundle Pricing Notes:
*If you would like to Bundle a mixture of Chemistry and other courses, please contact us, here. Please include the course names, grades, and preferred email address for us to enroll you with. We will send you an invoice - once paid in full, we will manually add you to your courses and notify you via email.
*Mixed Bundle pricing:
2 courses purchased at the same time = 15% discount
3 courses = 20%
4 courses = 25%
5 courses = 30%
*Bundle pricing cannot be applied retroactively.
*Payment plan options available through Afterpay and PayPal Pay Later.
*Customers using charter school funds may not use Bundle pricing.
Please use full individual course prices. This includes Charter Schools purchasing directly with a credit card.
Supplies:
Part of teaching science in an experience-based way involves the use of a variety of supplies.
After registration, you will receive a detailed supply list inside your classroom.
Ari explains everything she uses, and also offers DIY & alternative options for materials.
Be prepared to watch through the lesson videos prior to teaching this block, in order to plan your supplies ahead of time. This is not an “open and go” program!
Your Guide:
Our program has been built in partnership with Waldorf teacher, Ari Magruder. Ari is currently the middle school science and math teacher at Sacramento Waldorf School. She also contributed to the teacher education and summer Art of Teaching programs at Rudolf Steiner College for many years.
Frequently Asked Questions:
-
We encourage families to think of our science courses as "Levels" - they are designed to match the science content typically taught in specific grades at Waldorf schools - however, if a child is in a different grade but has never done any Physics or Chemistry, we encourage you to start as close to the beginning of the series as possible. The benefits of our lessons are cumulative, with each lesson building on the knowledge that came in previous lessons.
-
Each Chemistry course contains 20-ish lessons. Each lesson contains 1 video. The videos vary in length, however, they average out to around 15 minutes each.
Some families use the lessons in a typical Waldorf "block", which means they will cover a single grade in about 3-4 weeks. Other families spread the lessons from one grade out over the whole school year, doing 1 lesson every week or so.
There's a lot of freedom around how you choose to use them, and you could definitely cover more than one grade in a year if you wanted to.
-
Yes, all videos are high quality, so you will need a fairly high-speed Internet connection to view them. The videos are a vital part of the content of this course, so please do consider this. We are not able to provide alternative viewing options for people on dial-up or on very slow connections (and we cannot give refunds if you are having issues viewing the videos due to your internet connection). Therefore, please bear this in mind when registering. If you have regular broadband, you should be fine. The videos in this course are *not* downloadable.
If you are easily able to use any of our sample lessons with your current wi-fi/internet setup, then you're good to go!
-
Families can view course content from any recently updated web browser or mobile device.
-
Forever! Once your course is paid in full, you get access to the lessons for as long as you need them.
-
Due to the digital nature and immediate access of course materials we do NOT offer refunds.
*Contact us within 24 hours of purchasing your course if you need to request a grade switch.
-
This course is sold to be used 1 per household. If you would like to use this course in a homeschool group or class, please contact us first to discuss price & permission.
*I'm still not sure if this course is right for me.
Uncertain if this is the right course for your family? Send us an email! We'll help you sort it out :)
“In a phenomenological approach, one strives to give the students an experience of the phenomena and then have them wrestle with finding relationships or order.
This process actually cultivates the true powers and capacities necessary for thinking. Here thinking becomes an activity, a verb, something that is dynamic and living.”