Review: Fascinating Education ~ Chemistry

For our latest review, we have been completing the Fascinating Chemistry course from Fascinating Education. Though aimed at the middle to high school age group, our oldest boy, aged 10, has found the Fascinating Chemistry course interesting.

 

Fascinating Education is an online Science Program that uses bright, simple illustrations as well as text to teach students.  Dr. Margulies, who is also a neurologist, knows a fair bit about brains and how they work and has used his knowledge to make this program with an clear, step-by-step, easy to understand approach that will have your child fascinated. 

There are currently three programs available: Chemistry, Biology and Physics. 

In Chemistry, there are currently 18 lessons, each with their own test. Each lesson does contain many slides, so the length of each lesson varies. It can take anywhere from 45 minutes to one and half hours to complete a full lesson. There is a course outline available on the Fascinating Education website.

 

How did we go?

On arriving at the site, I had a quick look around. I found this How to use the Site video in the Frequently Asked Questions and thought it was great. Then I showed my son the login details and we logged  in under the Member’s tab on the menu bar.

First he watched a lesson. Then I tried the Script next to the lesson button. It is a pdf (printable) script of the lesson. Our son loved to read along with this script as the video was being shown. He also found the glossary heading next to the menu in each course very useful. As he is quite young, there we a few words that he didn’t understand, so by going to the glossary, he could find the definition of many of the words used in the video.

 

After completing all the lessons, he would take the test. To pass the test, a score of 80% or more is needed. The test can be completed as many times as you wish.  

In some of the lessons there are suggested labs that can be completed. These labs use materials that are readily available.

One thing I found was that Fascinating Education does not track the results. You are able to print out the test results and redo the tests over, but the only record of each test you will have is the one you print out. As stated on the Chemistry Course Outline page, you can contact Fascinating Education for a secondary password if you want to print out a pdf copy of the test and answer keys.

The printout of the test results great. Letting you know when the test was taken, what result your child received and what questions were asked and if they were answered correctly or not. 

Due to the age of our son and the concepts he was learning. We broken the lessons up, watching only a couple of slides in a sitting, which means one lesson could take one to two weeks for him to complete.

Overall, even though our boy was younger than the recommended age and had hardly any previous knowledge, he found the lessons easy to understand and fun to complete. I loved how he could go back and rematch lessons if he couldn’t fully grasp the concept the first time, or wanted to do some review. It was also great how the labs were added to some of the lessons as our boy loves hands on activities. 

 

 Details At a Glance!!
Name: Fascinating Education
Website: Fascinating Education
Product: Fascinating Chemistry
Price: $79 for a full year’s access. You can also purchase a package, check the Fascinating Education Registration page for more details.
Ages: This site is for middle to high school.

 

 If you would like a 50% discount on your subscriptions.  use coupon code 2ZDWL5NHDB. This offer is available through December 15, 2014.   This code will provide a discount of 50% on any one course OR any of the combination of courses.