Yes. A single package can be shared between multiple students and with various ages of children.

Each student will need their own lab manual to document their own scientific discoveries. The Experiment Guide and Experiment Kits can be easily shared between 2-3 students if they complete the experiments together. Additional Experiment Kits would need to be ordered if each student wanted to complete the experiments on their own. 

 

Yes. Noeo can be used in the kitchen, the co-op, or the classroom. Here is what an instructor will need to use Noeo with their students in a co-op or any group teaching situation:

1. One full package of the appropriate level and your choice of subject. (If you plan on doing the Living Book reading together.)
2. An extra experiment kit for every 2-3 students so that everyone can get hands-on. (You will need an experiment kit for each student if you plan on having the students complete the experiments separately.)
3. An extra Lab Manual for each student to document their science discoveries!

Depending on your group’s schedule, you may want to have the parents cover some of the material at home (e.g. you could purchase an extra Instructor's Guide for every parent to allow them to review the lessons and complete the Lab Manual questions separately).

Our Level to Grade recommendations are:

Level 1 for Grades 1-3

Level 2 for Grades 4-6

Level 3 for Grades 7-8

If you have students of widely varying ages, then you may want to consider purchasing separate levels according to their age/grade bracket. However, many instructors have successfully used our curriculum by having the younger student(s) “listen in” on the Level 2 or 3 study. This is typically done with the understanding that the younger children will hear the information again at a later date.

For extra assistance, message our science curriculum advisors on Facebook by clicking here.

Charter editions for Noeo that have a different introduction to the curriculum while preserving the whole curriculum. Some charter schools reimburse their members for curriculum purchases, but not for "religious" purchases. We are a Christian publisher, but, if your charter school reimburses for curriculum purchases, Noeo is still reimbursable according to the Department of Education's own guidelines for the Charter Schools Program under Title V, Part B.

§D-2 describes how charter funds may be used: “However, to the extent that their [religious organization's] involvement promotes academic learning and the mission of the charter school, religious organizations and their members may partner with and be involved with charter schools so long as the charter school’s decision to partner with the religious organization is made without regard to the religious character or affiliation of the organization and is not otherwise reasonably perceived as an endorsement of religion."

More positively put, see §D-3: "Charter schools may not limit participation in the partnership to religious groups or certain religious groups, and they may not select students or encourage or discourage student participation with particular partners based on the religious or secular nature of the organization."
See the full guidelines at this link and contact us with any problems.

Other districts reimburse for some items but not others -- if you need an itemized invoice, just let us know and we will try to accommodate you.

The Noeo Packages (Bio 1 & 2; Phys 1, 2, & 3; Chem 1, 2, & 3) contain everything you need for a year of science: a lab manual, experiments and their materials, books, and an instructor's guide. The packages do not contain common household materials, such as baking soda or cardboard. 

You can find a comprehensive list of the household materials which will be used in the experiments for the entire year. Simply choose a product from any of the packages, then at the bottom of each page, click on Curriculum Samples to view the common household materials from there.

Instructor's Guides provide minimal commentary but coordinate books with experiments by giving you an easy-to-tweak schedule. The time and money it saves you is a bargain. The Instructor's Guides also provide an answer key to all the reading and experiment questions students will answer in the Lab Manual so you can confirm if your student is comprehending the material. 

Our Instructor's Guides are designed to provide a logically organized structure to the reading assignments, experiments, and activities. They allow you to use multiple books and experiment kits concurrently, rather than simply "read this book, then this book."

The books and experiment kits provide the substance of the program. The experiments relate closely to the reading and multiple books add variety to the topic being studied. 

No, the student Lab Manual is included in the full package. The Lab Manual has the weekly schedule, so the student can open the book and work independently. Once they have completed the reading and experiments assigned for the day, there are questions to answer that will improve their understanding and retention of the material. The Lab Manual will sometimes have space for them to draw something they are reading about or the results of an experiment they have done.

A parent could decide not to purchase the Lab Manual, but would then need to guide their student with the work that needs to be done each day as well as spend time reading the books and working through the experiments to guide their student's comprehension of the material. 

Yes and No. To accommodate those that use their library or already own some of the titles, we list the individual titles for each package. However, we do not sell the Living Books independent of the full package. To purchase these books separately, we recommend finding them on Amazon. Only the Experiment Kits, the Instructor’s Guides, and Lab Manuals are available individually. 

Please keep in mind that our curriculum is intended to be used as a complete program. It will not be nearly as effective if only a few books are used or the experiments are excluded. However, if you have a great library nearby and can organize your checkout times to correspond to your schedule, then you can definitely use our program successfully.

We have no plans to create a Bio 3 and suggest you check out Riot and the Dance Foundational Biology. This curriculum, published by our sister company, functions as our high school "level 3" Biology offering, which is eligible for high school credit.

Our curriculum is written to provide a framework for an organized study of science, not as a tool to provide our own commentary. If science is viewed from a Christian perspective, then His invisible qualities will be clearly seen without any need for comments from us.

We have chosen not to include Scriptural references in our materials outside of the introduction. Many science programs are being marketed as Christian homeschool science because they have sprinkled in a Bible verse here and there.  Noeo takes a different path. We provide the highest quality literature, experiments, and lessons and leave religious interpretation up to the instructor.

While a couple living books in the curriculum are Christian, and a couple others have evolutionary commentary, the instructor is informed of this in the Instructor’s Guide and they can choose what they will include or exclude.

Evolution and other secular ideas are occasionally presented in the books that we provide. However, we do not include books that are overly dogmatic in their presentation of these ideas and the instructor is informed when the books are in the schedule for the week. We think it is important for children to learn differing views and to have meaningful discussions about these topics with their parents.

Covering up or hiding these ideas only creates confusion for the child who hears and sees this information presented elsewhere (e.g. social media, the internet, television, co-workers, college, etc.).

We also believe it is more important for children to hear what their own parents believe about these issues than to hear what we believe. For this reason, we have not included commentary for these discussions.

 

While we do not have quizzes and tests, our student Lab Manual offers daily questions about the reading and experiments to further students' understanding. We provide teachers with the answer key in the Instructor's Guide, so they can make sure their student is comprehending the material. Our Experiment Guide, in coordination with the weekly lessons, offers students hands on learning that will be hard to forget! 

The recommended ages for our courses are directed more towards a child’s current reading level than their prior knowledge of science.

The Level 1 courses are not required to be completed before the Level 2 or Level 3 courses. However, if you feel that your child will become frustrated by the more challenging reading in the Level 2 courses, then we would suggest using a Level 1 program with that child. Our age and grade levels are simply recommendations.

You are the best judge of your children’s reading levels and needs. For extra assistance, message our science curriculum advisors on Facebook by clicking here.

No. We recommend that you select the course that is most interesting to your child. Our goal is to promote an interest in science.

A child may start at any point in our curriculum without prior knowledge of that subject. There is no particular order of study that needs to be followed or any material in one subject that requires an understanding from another. If you were to poll the “experts”, you would find wide disparity in their opinions of which science should be studied first, and a variety of reasons why. The opinions seem to be determined as much by area of expertise as anything else.

So, there's no "required" sequence, but our usual go-to sequence for new Noeo Instructors is:

Bio 1 for 1st Grade

Chem 1 for 2nd Grade

Phys 1 for 3rd Grade

Bio 2 for 4th Grade

Chem 2 for 5th Grade

Phys 2 for 6th Grade

Chem 3 for 7th Grade

Phys 3 for 8th Grade

But if it's your first time using Noeo and your 2nd grade kid(s) is especially interested in animals and other nature in your backyard, you can start with Bio 1. If they're more interested in rocks, wood, and mixing things, perhaps Chem 1 would be a great first-time bundle. Or, if they like gadgets and making things move, perhaps Phys 1 is the place to start. Again, our goal is to develop their interest in science. For extra assistance, message our science curriculum advisors on Facebook by clicking here.

Yes! That is one of the main features of our program. We understand how frustrating it is to be asked to complete an experiment that is completely unrelated to the subject matter being studied or to buy a "complete" curriculum that includes a scavenger hunt for materials. Our Instructor’s Guides are designed to provide a logical order to the reading assignments and experiments.

However fast or slow your family can take it. Most days, the times below include times to read, illustrate, experiment, notebook, and even clean-up.

 

Each Noeo Package is intended to take an entire school year (36 weeks) to complete. For example, you may decide to do Chemistry 1 in grade 1, followed by Physics 1 in grade 2, followed by Biology 1 in grade 3 (also see the related question below concerning order of study). This is assuming that you follow our scheduled outline.

Yes, you can. As per PayPal regulations, your receipt will be emailed from the official name of our parent company, The Amazing Dr. Ransom's. This is similar to how HarperCollins is the parent company of Zondervan.