The Story of Science

“I’m convinced, and I hope to convince you, that science is not just for scientists. In the twentieth century, we compartmentalized knowledge; in the information age, that doesn’t make sense. Today, you can be a hermit on a mountain peak and still have access to the world’s learning. For scholarship to be so available, so democratic, is unprecedented in world history. To use that opportunity well, we all need to be generalists first. And no field of knowledge is as basic or as creative as science. . . . that human quest to understand the universe underlies almost all other creativity."
-A Writer’s Reasons, from The Story of Science, Aristotle Leads the Way

The above quote is from Joy Hakim's website. She is the author of a 3-part series called "The Story of Science." We've been slowly making our way through the first book, Aristotle Leads the Way, this year, alongside our studies of physics and history and philosophy. This is the book that ties so much of the subject matter together. Early scientists were writers and philosophers. They were historians and mathematicians. The science could not be separated out into it's own compartment, the way it so often is now.  We find ourselves frequently moving from this book to the Ponderables books on Philosophy, Math, and Physics.

We've been using the companion student workbook, which is helpful for reinforcing material, but I'm not sure we'll use the workbook for the next book, as we're using Hakim's books as a supplement, rather than a core. One could certainly use it as a core curriculum in middle school (5th-8th grades?). The material is very readable and could be a great science spine in earlier years. (And this is exactly the kind of material that makes me want to homeschool another child through the younger years now that I've learned the ropes!!) As an older student, Mane is studying more detailed and technical science material. This book has been a great "story" to tie it all together and to make sense of how science impacts the world. And, although it's very readable for younger students, it is fantastically well-written and appealing to older students and adults...sort of in the way a great, classic picture book can have layers of meaning.