Science and history have many natural connections. The great natural philosophers and scientists of the past and present have not asked questions or pursued answers in a vacuum. They’ve been formed and fashioned by their own current events as well as by those who came before. Just as the study of history is much richer when we focus on individual people and their stories, so the study of science blooms in the living context of the people involved. Thus it should come as no surprise that blending science and history studies can greatly enrich our homeschool education.
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Benefits of Integrating Science with History
Integrating subjects in our home school helps our children develop a holistic understanding of the world. There is always overlap and connection between literature and history, philosophy and science, math and art… the list could go on and on! Giving our children the opportunity to dive more deeply into the connections between subjects not only deepens their engagement with the material, but encourages them to develop critical thinking skills as they witness how ideas have consequences. Integrating subjects also makes learning more relevant and just plain fun!
Integrating subjects like science with history has the added benefit of making our homeschool more efficient, rather than having dozens of different areas of study to keep track of. And if you’re trying to blend multiple grades and ages together in your family learning, having a streamlined approach to history and science makes it even easier!
Practical Strategies for Blending Science with History
Using living books and original sources in our homeschools captures our children’s imagination and connects them to the people, places, and perspectives of the scientists throughout history. Story-based learning and biographical studies are always my favorite way to approach homeschool history lessons, and it’s easy to do this for your homeschool science lessons as well!
Hands-on activities, crafts, and experiments can also be a natural way to combine your science and history lessons. Are you studying ancient history? Read this picture book biography of Eratosthenes then do an experiment measuring the shadows on a sphere from lesson 28 of Science in the Ancient World by Dr. Jay Wile. Studying the middle ages? Read stories about Robin Hood’s mastery of archery, then learn about the science of projectiles from lesson 58 of Science in the Ancient World. Studying snowflakes is more fun when you also learn about Wilson Bentley and try taking photographs of them yourself, and learning about the life of Marie Curie makes learning chemistry more meaningful. And visiting a planetarium and learning about the history of outer space exploration is a fabulous combination!
Connecting Science and History at Every Grade
There are easy ways to find connections between your history and science curricula at every grade.
Elementary
In the elementary years, use simple experiments and stories of famous scientists to capture your children’s imagination. One of the things I’m looking forward to this year is using Science in the Ancient World with my younger students. It’s organized chronologically and seamlessly pairs short biographical sketches with science topics, activities, and experiments. While we’re learning about ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome in our history lessons, we’ll be further deepening our understanding of those times and places through our homeschool science curriculum!
The elementary years are also prime times to create history timelines that include scientists and their discoveries. And, of course, nature study was the earliest form of scientific endeavors. We can look at the same stars as the ancient astronomers and discuss how our understanding of astronomy today is still based on lessons learned years ago.
Middle School
As our children grow older, we can begin including lengthier biographies of scientists and other historical figures in their homeschool curriculum. They can also pursue more complicated integrated projects and research assignments in their homeschool plan. This is a time when tweens and teens also begin asking a lot more questions about many big ideas, so embrace the opportunity to dive more deeply into their questions from a Christian worldview perspective.
High School
High school is a time when we see the results of the many years we spent laying a solid science and history foundation in our homeschools! Encourage your teens to focus on in-depth studies of significant scientific and historical events and note their connections. Assign cross-disciplinary research papers and presentations (bonus: now you’re also integrating your writing curriculum with your science and history!). Promote a deeper philosophical and theological understanding of historical events and scientific discoveries and ask how they’re related.
Resources for Further Learning
Science Through HiStory from Berean Builders
As I mentioned above, our family will be using Dr. Jay Wile’s Science in the Ancient World in our homeschool this year, to coordinate with our antiquity history studies. It is the second book in the Science Through HiStory series from Berean Builders, which takes a unique chronological approach to the study of science.
Because it takes a linear approach to the study of science, it is a Christian homeschool science curriculum that would be easy to coordinate with whatever homeschool history curriculum your family is already using. I also love how varied the scientific topics will be throughout the year because of this chronological approach!
From the moment I read this excerpt in the introduction, I knew I was going to love Dr. Wile’s perspective:
“What is science? It is an attempt to understand the world around us and how it works. People have been doing science for a long, long time, even though it wasn’t always called ‘science.’ For the majority of human history, science was known as ‘natural philosophy.’ In this course you will learn about some of the earliest natural philosophers and how they tried to understand the world around them and how it works.”
The textbook contains 90 lessons split into six sections. But unlike textbooks that are dry and boring, this text is written in an engaging, narrative style that will be perfect for my learners who are used to a living book education.
There are tons of experiments and activities throughout the course, but I love how simple they are. These are all hands-on activities I think my kids will be able to easily do on their own with adult supervision, using materials we should be able to find easily at home.
I also love how the lesson review questions at the end of each section give suggested questions for youngest, older, and oldest students. This makes it perfect for a multi-age approach to our homeschool science lessons! I plan to stick to just the reading, activities, and oral narration for my elementary-aged son. I will probably only give the tests (included in the Helps and Hints booklet) to my tween daughter.
I was also super excited to learn that there is an audiobook version of the textbook. My youngest son is still a slow reader, but I think being able to listen to the audiobook while following along in the text will be a wonderful option for him this year, especially in the midst of his ongoing cancer treatments. It will be a transition year for him as he grows into more independence in his education, and having our homeschool science curriculum in audio form will be perfect. This would also be a great option for students with dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning challenges.
Check Out My Other Textbook-Free Homeschool History and Science Resources
- Nature Study in the Christian Homeschool
- Natural Philosophy: Recovering a Natural Science and Christian Pedagogy (with Ravi Jain)
- Textbook-Free Science: all the resources you’ll need to learn about OUTER SPACE in your homeschool!
- High School Science at Home (with Dr. Kristin Moon)
- Exploring Homeschool Science with Wonder and Hands-On Fun: a video interview with Dr. Kristin Moon
- Snowy Homeschool: picture books, art, and fun wintry activities to learn about snow in your homeschool
- My First Science Experiment: a fun, simple, hands-on project you can do at home to fascinate preschoolers and kindergartners with the scientific method!
- He clasps the crag with crooked hands: Simple Science Unit Study of Eagles and Other Birds of Prey, inspired by Tennyson’s “The Eagle”
- Textbook-Free Science: all the resources you’ll need to learn about WEATHER in your homeschool!
- Bones of the Human Body Song
- Birds: 50+ resources for your elementary and early-middle school science and nature studies
- Homeschool History Made Fun: Sonlight Hands-On History Project Kit
- Ancient Greece: A Textbook-Free History Study For Your Homeschool
- WW2 For Teens: Resources For Your Homeschool Study
- Medieval History: Textbook-Free Homeschool Resources for Elementary and Middle School
- Printable Timeline Figures for Hands-On Homeschool History Fun
- Early American History: Textbook-Free Homeschool Resources for Elementary and Middle School
- Nonfiction Graphic Novels for Kids and Teens
- Hands-On History Craft Project Inspired by Native American Winter Counts
- Textbook Free History Masterclass
