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How to Easily Meet the Lab Component of Homeschool High School Science

July 22, 2021 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Teaching the lab component part of high school science doesn’t have to be expensive or overwhelming. Quite the opposite, it can be utterly fun and fulfilling.

With that being said, when I had my first homeschooled teen I was at a loss as to where to start. So today, I’ve rounded up some fun ways to easily meet the lab component of homeschool high school science.

Lab Component Goals Matter

The first place to start when planning is to identify the end science goal for your teen.

Not all kids will be science majors.

If your student will be, then you’ll want more of a traditional experience. The best thing for kids pursuing a science major is to always ask the college for their requirements.

If your kid will not be choosing a science major, you have so much room for flexibility and to mix and match lab component resources.

6 Things to Know When Choosing Science Lab Components

Moreover, look at these six things to know when choosing science lab components.

1.
Determine your teen’s science learning track – career or college?

Will your teen follow the traditional high school science route? What I call the traditional route is studying these areas: Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. It begins in your teen’s freshman year. A lot of the traditional curriculum providers follow this sequence. So for beginners, it’s easy to follow this sequence if you use a textbook.
Also, depending on what your teen chooses to do after graduating, your student may need a fourth year of science if attending a specific college.

For example, if your teen will be going into a STEM field, then the course and labs will have to meet high expectations.

Another point to understand is that if your child is a science major, you still have much room to pick and choose lab resources. Labs are meant for your teen to experiment, engage, and interact with the information your teen is learning.

Whether your teen is choosing a career track or college track, try to keep all future options open by doing at least two or three sciences for high school.

How to Easily Meet the Lab Component of Homeschool High School Science

2.
Meet your homeschool state law science requirements, if any.

Next, each state’s law is different. For example, some states list hours needed to cover subjects only, but don’t separate the lab component.

Other state laws require two labs; others divide hours by core and non-core. However, they may not state number of labs hours needed or even separate the lab component. Many others list no requirement for hours, but to just teach science in high school.

For a lot of states, you have much flexibility in how many labs your teens does and what actually counts as credit and how many hours too.

Point is know exactly what is your state law.

The second step is mix your teen’s goal with your state law to give you a wider picture of your goals.

3.
If this is your first teen, will you get your money’s worth by purchasing some home lab equipment now to use with all of your kids?

Subsequently, I realized that I had quite a few more future labs after my first high school teen because I had younger children. Determining how much science equipment, if any, I wanted to invest in was my next step.

Purchasing science equipment, using it with my first high school teen, and using it for every child after that gave me my money’s worth for my purchase.

One of my best purchases early on when all my kids were younger was the niftiest microscope sold by Sonlight which was specifically built or made for home use. Check out the Sonlight Homeschool Microscope.

The final step before you choose resources for the lab component is to understand how high school science curriculum is organized.

4.
Traditional high school science courses incorporate labs in their curriculum.

For beginners, purchasing the type of curriculum that easily adds science lab component which can be done at home is a great starting point. This is what I started out doing.

It was sanity-saving when I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare labs to know that my teen could gather most items needed at home and perform the activities.

For example Apologia has step by step instructions. The course description for Biology states: Labs that cover experimentation, field studies, microscopy, and dissection.

Bob Jones and Abeka homeschool are more examples of a science program which includes instructions for labs. Some of the curriculum providers have science kits which you can purchase separately.

Finally, you’ll want to know what is a good rule of thumb for counting lab hours. The simple answer is that it varies, but that didn’t help me much in the beginning..

5.
Thirty (30) lab hours is a good rule of thumb for a lab science course.

Fast forward twenty years of homeschooling and research I learned a good rule of thumb is thirty lab hours.

If you’re using 180 hours for 1 science course then logically that means 150 hours would meet the academic course and 30 meet the lab hours.

6. Simple Lab Report

Another area I stressed about in the beginning was how to get my teens do what I call the official lab reports. I learned that because he was not going to have a science major that I could ease up on the reports.

Sure, I wanted him to know what one was and to have some of the official experience. However, I learned too that thoughts could be penned in a worksheet just as well and still accomplish much of the same.

Like I mentioned we did lab reports on certain labs because they were valuable in teaching my kids how to write down what they were learning, draw pictures, and label. You don’t really have that ability with a straight worksheet.

Again, the point is you decide when you want your teen to do an official lab report and when sometimes a worksheet will work just fine.

8 Easy Homeschool Science Lab Component Resources

Next, if you have flexibility in planning labs, there are other ways to meet the lab component which are creative.

Because a lot of homeschool state laws don’t describe what counts as a lab science, you have wiggle room.

Depending on how your teen learns you can use many resources to meet science lab. Mixing and matching to add spice works best.

1. Dissection Kits and Supplies

A lot of curriculum providers provide kits which can be purchased from them, but separately from the course.

However, one of the BEST science provider through the years for me has been Home Science Tools.

Not only do they put kits together for numerous curriculum providers, they also have the best science tools and supplies for home use.

Also, look here at my Amazon store for more ideas for kits and supplies.

2. Videos

Although you’ll want your teen to know how to write a lab report to analyze his findings and learn from his mistakes, writing lab reports is not the only component to learning.

Many students benefit from watching videos and incorporating them as part of the lab.

Look at this site, Biologybyme which has many dissections and videos. Brainstuff is another one I love and Deep Sky Video. Deep Sky Video is amazing. And here is another super one about the human body.

The point is there is NO shortage of wonderful videos and science channels.

However, remember when choosing resources to count for high school credit your resource needs to be for a high school level. Unless your child has special needs, you want to choose videos for teens to adults.

Also, paying for a video course is a great option too. I love The Great Courses They can be a bit more, but then somebody else is also doing the teaching. That can be a good thing when you want that option for you or your teen.

3. Yes, Adult Science Coloring Books

In addition, a lot of teens love to learn by the color and/or label method. It wasn’t too long ago that science coloring books were frowned on, but hands-on education has come a long way.

Too, many of the coloring books are great reference tools and encourages students to dive deeper to learn the different parts of the science topic.

I have MORE great science coloring books here on my Amazon storefront.

Then another choice we love as homeschoolers is to do labs with others like in a co-op.

4. Homeschool Co-ops

Homeschool co-ops which are set up to suit homeschool families instead of ran like mini private schools maintain tons of flexibility and teens love them.

Some subjects are just better learned with others. Lab science is one of those subjects my teens loved doing with others.

A co-op can be as simple as two, three or more families meeting together sharing science supplies and the best part is sharing the teaching. If you’re not a science-minded mom, this is a great option to let your girlfriends do some of the teaching.

5. Community College

Another option we had available in our area was doing a science at the local community college. Teens mature at different rates and some of them enjoy taking courses or dual enrollment at colleges. Be sure to talk to the counselor at the colleges like I did.

It was very helpful to understand how they assigned credit for high school and college with a lab.

6. Virtual Labs

Next, virtual labs are another way of meeting the credit for science labs.

Remember, your teen’s science track determines if virtual labs are frowned on by colleges. Some colleges where teens are seeking STEM careers may designate that only a certain amount of time is credited for virtual learning.

A lot of colleges want teens to have the interaction of learning hands-on, then still others may not care.

However, if there are no strict guidelines to abide by, enjoying the flexibility of adding virtual labs.

Look at some options for virtual labs and simulations.

VirtualLabs is a fun one about testing food for humans and animals.
The Biology Corner. From the site: It contains a variety of lessons, quizzes, labs, web quests, and information on science topics for all levels, including introductory life science and advanced placement biology.
PhET Interactive Simulations has virtual labs which you can search by grade.
the Science Bank. Their online dissection resources are fantastic.
Disease Lab.
The CDC has this Microbiology Series.
This next site, SERC, is pretty fun and helpful because it’s a year long earth science course (free) with labs.
ChemCollective. From the site: The ChemCollective is a collection of virtual labs, scenario-based learning activities, tutorials, and concept tests. Teachers can use our content for pre-labs, for alternatives to textbook homework, and for in-class activities for individuals or teams.

7. Field Trips Count

In addition, don’t forget to count field trips as labs too. I know some in our group counted the whole time as hours and other moms only counted the time the teen was learning, etc. Again, it’s up to you.

There are many places near you that you may not have thought of. The easiest is a museum with classes, but also we lived near a state park that offered classes outside on various topics. I had learned about the rangers leading discussions early one when we had scavenger hunts there when the kids were little. So it was a great resource as the got older.

Don’t forget the zoo counts if your teen is leaning towards biology. At Galveston near where we lived they had classes for ocean science and even on the beach. Even the aquarium offered classes. They’re constantly changing so I had to research each year.

Too, if you live near an estuary, it’s a great place for labs outside.

Next, remember since you’re the one in charge and fun in science doesn’t have to stop in the high school years, you’ll want to add games.

8. Science Games

If you’ve homeschooled for any length of time, you know the value of games. Not only is it a fun way to review concept, but teens love them.

I love the ones from Ellen McHenry’s Basement. Also, check out her fun courses and free games.

How to Fit In Homeschool Science Labs With a Busy Schedule

Additionally, I wanted to share one more important tip to take out the struggle of how to schedule labs. With my first teen it felt like huffing and puffing to get the labs in.

However, I learned that when we did them on our own, having an all day science day worked for us. We would basically pull out all of our supplies and do several labs in one morning or one day. Even leaving the items out overnight so we could tackle more labs the next day was good for us.

Just like I did with my kids when they were younger and we would have an all day reading day or all day history day that tip was great for high school too.

Sometimes, having a lab a week worked, but with so much on our plate it was hard to do them consistently a few years.

Doing labs with other teens at a co-op where you have a set time and an all day science days was great too.

Finally, remember labs are fun ways to test theories for a teen and to get your students thinking.

There is no one right way to teach science at the high school level or to do labs. Just relax, have fun, and fit them into your day naturally.

Look at these other helps:

If you have a question, let me know. What do you like to do for your teen’s lab?

Hugs and love ya,

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids

September 9, 2020 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Have you ever wondered about the effects of ocean pollution and other waterways?

Beware of Ocean Pollution

It’s important that we bring it to our children’s attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution!

The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted, how difficult it is to clean it up and to make it like it was before.

Beware of Ocean Pollution: Fun Science Activity for Kids. It’s important that we bring it to our children's attention now so they can make responsible choices and be part of the clean up solution! The best way to do this of course is through a fun hands-on activity that lets them see first hand how easily water is polluted. You’ll love this easy hands-on science! CLICK HERE to go there! #oceanpollution #handsonscienceforkids #homeschoolscience #oceanpollutionactivity

This project can be done with things around the house; you may just need to grab a couple items from Dollar Tree or somewhere else.

First, gather all your materials before you bring in the kids. Kids lose interest quickly if they spend a long time waiting at the table for you to find everything.

Better yet if you have an older kid who knows everything right now (wink) get him or her to do the gathering of supplies.

Next, here is the list of supplies for the hands-on ocean pollution science activity.

A large shallow container
Blue food coloring (optional)
sea shells
clean sand (optional)

water
plastic sea creatures
feathers

Teaching Kids About Ocean Pollution

Then, here is the list for the pollution items and the list for cleaning items.

cooking oil
food crumbs
pieces of plastic bag

dish soap
toothbrush
sponge
cotton balls
paper towels
coffee filters
cotton swabs
tongs
small nets

coffee grounds
straws
soil

Water Pollution Exploration

Start by adding items to your container that belong, explaining to your child that these are the items that naturally occur in an ocean and are part of its ecosystem.

Fill your container with several inches of water.

If you like add a few drops of blue food coloring to your water and mix in.

Place sea creatures, seashells, and sand if you are using them.

Next, talk about what happens when we visit the beach or travel on the water.

As you talk about oil the spills from ships, trash that is tossed aside instead of being safely placed in trash containers let your child add each of the pollution items you have provided.

Stir it all up together. What has happened?

The once nearly clear and pristine water is now discolored.
Creatures are covered in oil and dirt.
The water no longer looks appealing at all to play in does it?
Turtles, dolphins, sharks, and other animals get plastic wrap around them.
Sea animals choke on items that don’t belong in the ocean and die or are suffering from the effects.

What can we do to clean up the ocean?

Ocean Pollution Clean Up Activity

You can pick up bigger items if they are floating on top with a net or tongs, but what about items that sink to the bottom of our deep oceans?

Demonstrate how to use cotton balls to absorb some of the oil on the surface of the water.

Toss in a few feathers to demonstrate what happens to water birds when they pick up oil and other undesirable things from polluted water.

Use Dawn dish soap, a toothbrush, and other items to try and remove the oil and debris from the feathers.

Dawn has a program for cleaning up animals that have been injured due to oil spills. You can read a bit more about it here at Dawn Helping Saving Wildlife for Over 40 Years.

Be Ocean Explorers

Examine clean ocean water, polluted ocean water, and “cleaned” up water.

Grab 3 clear glasses and place water and food coloring in one.

Take some of your polluted water and place in the second.

Finally, after you have cleaned up your water some, put a coffee filter over the third glass and run your cleaned up polluted water over the coffee filter.

Compare the difference in water color and quality.

Even the water that has been cleaned up is still not left unchanged, it is cloudy, dark, and still contains trace amounts of debris.

This makes a big impact on my kids as it allowed them to understand how big an impact peoples actions can have on our water sources.

Look at some pollution vocabulary and spelling words to use for an ocean or water unit study.

Pathogens
Waste water
Pollution
Biodegradable
Hazardous

Pollutant
Habitat
Conservation
Ecosystem

If you are looking for read aloud or independent reading books for your child that go along with the theme you need not look any further than your bookcase or library and grab something anything that has an ocean theme like Island of the Blue Dolphins, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, Treasure Island, or Swiss Family Robinson!

Continue with your study using some great books to look through or use as living text books.

Earth Science Activity for Kids

This hands-on activity can easily lead into learning about all the fascinating creatures who live in the sea.

Lastly, teaching kids to learn how to care for our earth by not polluting the oceans empowers kids to be part of the solution and no the problem.

You’ll love these other resources to keep expanding how to care for the ocean and enjoy the beauty it provides:

Hugs and love ya,

How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

March 3, 2019 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I don’t know about you, but in my house, if I can take a subject or unit of study and apply it to LEGO creations it is pretty much going to be a big hit. How to garden plan with kids using LEGO is a way to sneak in some learning. My kids, like so many others, love to create and build with LEGO so it is just a great hands-on natural extension to learning.

How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

This time I applied it to a study on Garden Planning. This application gave us science, math, handwriting, fine motor skills development, critical thinking, and so much more. We will definitely be using LEGO again as the core of our learning.

You don’t even have to be planning a real garden, this is still the perfect way for them to dig a little deeper into the concept of gardening no matter what size space you live in or grow in.

After determining how many feet your real garden will be and whether you want it square or rectangle you are ready to move on to designing it with LEGO. We worked on our garden planning with LEGO in two different ways and I am going to share both of them with you so you can choose one or do both!

1 LEGO GARDEN SUPPLIES How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

Gardening Activities For Kids

If you haven’t started your LEGO journey yet this is a great box to begin with!

For this one, it was a fun fully hands-on activity that required no writing from the kids (my sons favorite). I love how it gets their creativity flowing and provides them with a 4D visual of how our garden might look.

2 lego garden planning 1 LEGO GARDEN SUPPLIES How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

To begin, gather up a flat LEGO base plate in whatever size you like. I had two kids doing it and needed to display them for a while in our classroom so we used 5 x 5 base plates in the interest of space.

LEGO Garden Activity

Then, grab a bunch of LEGO in all different sizes and colors, we opted for 2 x 2 bricks and smaller, as well as LEGO plants. If you don’t have many plants LEGO and want to include them you can purchase a poly bag with a variety of plants.

Single round studs and square 1 peg bricks can be used to create many items for your garden, you can see on our garden that we mixed in both and it still looks great. 2 x 2 bricks make great pumpkins, eggplants, tomato plants, etc..

Explain to the kids that while planting it is especially important to leave room for your plants to grow. Use the pegs on top of your base plate to represent square feet, you can use however many you like but just keep it throughout to represent the scale. We chose to use 3 x 3 to equal one square foot. Now as you “plant” with the LEGO keep that in mind, research how large space each of your intended plants’ needs.

Once you know your square foot and the needs of each plant you can begin constructing your lego garden. Work in rows placing the plants you create, remember to check for plants that should and shouldn’t be placed next to each other.

4 LEGO GRAPH FINAL How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

Now when you are done you have a fun visual for your real garden and pretty display piece for your school room, living room, or wherever you would like to put it!

This version combines the fun of LEGO and some writing and graphing skills in a mixed media approach to creating a garden with LEGO. I like this one because it gives the kids a chance to develop other skills and also it is so easy to change up and if you laminate your graph paper once colored it can be used again and again with LEGO to create new spaces.

GRAPH How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

Grab some graph paper, smaller lego pieces, and something to color with. We used 1” graph paper because the large squares are perfect for representing 1 square foot.

LEGO Bricks for Kids Learning

Choose your desired garden size and color in those squares, brown of course is best for creating “soil”. We created a 5×6 plot to make our graph paper vegetable garden plan on. You can do the whole page if you wish, and use as many squares as you want to represent your one square foot.

6 LEGO GRAPH ROWS How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

Decide what crops you will plant and choose small LEGO bricks accordingly. Demonstrate to your child how to place the rows, explain the placement and how to allow room for growth. Let them design a garden that they would like to help build and once they are done have them label their crops.

7 LEGO GARDEN FINAL How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

Our little red studs are radishes which can be crowded together a little more than something like say… squash plants which need a lot more space around them. Leave some blank rows for paths.

How to garden plan with kids using LEGO is a way to sneak in some learning. My kids, like so many others, love to create and build with LEGO so it is just a great hands-on natural extension to learning. Click here for this fun LEGO garden activity for kids!

Both of these ideas can be photographed and added to your garden journal or used as part of your end of the year evaluation in your homeschool portfolio.

You’ll also love these other hands-on ideas:

7 Super Easy and Free Nature Lapbooks Guaranteed to Beat Boredom

December 11, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Nature studies revive the most listless learner and teacher. Today, I have 7 super easy free nature studies and lapbooks guaranteed to beat boredom.

Free Nature Studies

Hands-on learning is best because it actively engages the brain. And getting outside is always a way to ground my kids (ha ha corny pun intended.)

I know it’s not always easy to get outside, but whether you live in a snow covered or snow bare area like I do here in Texas, one or two of these nature lapbooks will work.

7 Super Easy and Free Nature Lapbooks Guaranteed to Beat Boredom

With boys it can be hard to separate the feeling of being refreshed and letting off energy while being outdoors and the same positive feeling they get with exercise. They’re synonymous right?

3 Benefits of Studying Nature

I don’t try to separate the two anymore because being outside or studying nature has a way to revive and renew you and your child’s sluggish feelings.

Look at these three benefits of studying nature and why I was focused on adding more to our year

1. Nature-based learning reduces over stimulation.

It’s easy to fall into a rut of being inside and doing book work. It’s simple. Kids can be over stimulated by being contained indoors.

2. Nature-based learning increases motivation, curiosity, and creativity.

As educators we also can fall int our own rut. We may think that unless we can put a letter grade beside a skill, it may not be important.

Nature has a way of shifting focus and increasing creativity.

When a kid can study the patterns in nature, not to mention see the colors and sights it gives them a natural shift in focus. A shift in focus spurs creativity.

Creativity spills over into academic skills that we can put a letter grade to like writing and math.

Also, be sure to check out a lot of the activities at Ellen McHenry’s Basement Workshop. We love a lot of their fun ways to keep learning engaging and fun.

3. Nature-based learning can reduce anxiety and stress.

Let’s face it. Homeschooling can be just as stressful for our kids as it can be for us as the educator.

We know it shouldn’t be like and in our anxiousness we can over push.

Studying nature allows our kids to step back and focus on the natural wonders of the world. There is something calm about watching the waves whip up onto the shore. It can reduce stress and clear your kids’ mind.

There are more benefits to nature-based learning or being outside so I know you’ll love these free nature-based unit studies to add to your curriculum.

Too, don’t forget that if you have a backyard, you have a place for nature study.

7 Free Nature Studies and Lapbooks.

Additionally, I know you’ll love the nature studies and lapbooks below to help your kids beat the boredom.

One/ Above & Below: Pond Unit Study, Hands-on Ideas, & Lapbook.

Two/ Super Seashore Watching Unit Study and Beach Lapbook.

Three/ Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook.

Four/ Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook.

Five/ From Egg to Sea Turtle Nature Unit Study & Lapbook.

Six/ Colorful Winter Bird: Northern Cardinal Lapbook & Unit Study.

Seven/ Free Arctic Ground Squirrel Lapbook & Unit Study Resources

Lastly, the unit study resources have been linked above, but the free printable nature lapbooks are a subscriber freebie.

How to Download the Lapbooks.
They are Subscriber Only Gifts.

From time to time, I do Subscriber Freebies only. This lapbook is a subscriber freebie. I do this to show my appreciation and because I want you to follow me and give me a chance to make a difference in your homeschool.

Too, when you join my email list, you get access to my Subscriber’s Only Exclusive Library of Freebies.

This is how you get access to this form quickly.
1) Sign up on my list.
2) Go to to your inbox and confirm your email.
3) Look for the automatic reply giving you the password to the private subscriber’s area. You should have it soon.

IF you are already a follower/subscriber, PLEASE do NOT email me asking how to find it. You may not want to wait on me replying since I get bombarded with emails.

IF you’ll find the MOST RECENT email from me, the password and link to the Subscribers Area are ALWAYS at the bottom of every email. Look for the most current email since I change the password frequently.

How do you add nature-based learning to your every day?

7 Super Easy and Free Nature Lapbooks Guaranteed to Beat Boredom. Nature studies revive the most listless learner and teacher. Grab these beautiful printable lapbooks and hands-on unit study nature study ideas at Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus!

You’ll love these other articles and fun tips:

Hugs and love you,

Whether your kids are having winter doldrums or you feel like your kids learning has become stagnant, nature studies can revive the love of learning. CLICK HERE to grab these 6 Free Nature Study Unit Studies and Lapbooks!

Hands-on Ancient Mesopotamia: Easy STEM Irrigation Activity

November 30, 2018 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

The study of Mesopotamia is one of our middle school requirements. I’ve been really surprised by how much fun we’ve been having studying about this time period. I’m sure the STEM projects we have been including may have something to do with it! We have this next one ready which is an easy stem irrigation activity.

Ancient Mesopotamia STEM Irrigation Activity

With this project, kids learn how this ancient civilization invented a system to grow crops. The most extraordinary thing about this is that we still use this system today! Irrigation has been the main contributor in the development of agriculture.

If you are studying about erosion in science, this could also double as a great STEM project for science as well.
About the Mesopotamians

Mesopotamia was a region situated along the Tigris-Euphrates River system located in Western Asia. It’s where Kuwait, Iraq, sections of Saudi Arabia, the eastern sections of Syria, Southwestern Turkey, and parts of Turkish-Syrian and Iran-Iraq borders are today. The name Mesopotamia means “between rivers.” It’s said this was the center of culture and where the influence of agriculture began.

Agriculture changed the game for ancient people. Instead of hunting and gathering, tribes of people were beginning to settle down and form civilizations. The Mesopotamians were the first to develop a written language and invented the wheel. They also built ships to travel the Persian Gulf in order to trade with other civilizations.

In the center of their cities they constructed temples of the many gods they worshiped. The anatomy of these structures would have involved thousands of workers and would have taken many years to construct.

Mesopotamia’s Engineering

In Southern Mesopotamia, the Sumerians built city walls and canals to prevent flooding. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers carried monstrous amounts of silt, resulting in fast rising rivers.

The irrigation system was of a basin type. They would dig a hole in the embankment and then use mud to close it back up. Water was then lifted up using a swape, which is a pole acting as a lever. Some of these canals may have been used for 1,000 years before they were left and others rebuilt. Today, 3,000-4,000 years later, remains of the canals are still present.

To build your own Mesopotamia irrigation system you will need the following items:

• a big baking pan
• sand
• cotton squares
• water
• pieces of wood/popsicle sticks
• soil
• green construction paper/green food coloring
• sticks and leaves
• monopoly houses
• hot glue

You may also want to cover your table or do this outside. Have a trash can nearby, as this project tends to get messy.

I was able to find many of these supplies around the house. The only thing I had to buy was a big bag of sand from Home Depot. This is what makes this STEM project really affordable.Start by filling up one side of the baking pan with cotton squares. This will help prevent your sand from eroding when you fill up the river with water. The other side will be the river. Play around with the sand until it begins to look like a beach. After you get the look you want, begin sectioning off where you want to place the fields of crops. This is where you’ll need the soil. You can also plan out little sections to build homes or temples to represent the cities.

Also, you’ll love these super hands-on history resources from Home School in the Woods.

Using green construction paper, or leaves, place your crops in the fields. You can dye some of your sand green to represent fields. Use the sticks and leaves to look like trees. We used the hot glue gun to glue the leaves onto the sticks.Now it’s time to build your canals. Begin digging trenches in between the fields with a ditch leading out towards your river. (You’ll fill in the river in just a bit!)Now that your canals have been dug, you will need a gate to control how much water will be needed for your crops. You can use popsicle sticks, pieces of wood, or sticks to build a gate to fit between the edges of your canal. The gate will need to be able to open and close, and it will need to be water proof. We hot glued pieces of popsicle sticks together.Once your gate is built, install it into your canal. Pour water into your river with the gate shut. If the water leaks keep modifying your gate. The river should not be released into the canals until the gate opens.

Hands-on History for Kids

Search online for pictures of irrigation systems of Mesopotamia if you are stuck. I found an image to show my kids before I let them go. They always surprise me with ways to build things that I never would have thought to do.

These ancient people were truly remarkable. I love being able to build small replicas of engineering systems so the kids can understand how they work. Not only does it improve their comprehension of what is being read, it also improves their critical thinking as they try to build what they read!

If you are looking for more STEM activities to add to your day, check out this post!

You’ll love these other activities: