Creation Illustrated - Pine Trees Unit Study (Review)

Creation Illustrated, after 25 years in print, has started offering a new product line of nature based unit studies as well as digital copies of their magazine.   Today I'll be sharing our experience in reviewing their Pine Tree Unit Study.

This is a pretty straight forward, 16 page unit study (including a 3 page answer key), geared towards students grades 5-8, but it could be used with other students as well.   The study includes links to reading resources (including a link to Creation Magazine Fall 2017 digital edition) and educational videos.   Also covered in the unit study are vocabulary and spelling, Bible study, geography, science and math connections, writing and penmanship, art and a crossword puzzle.    While this is a complete unit study, it isn't tedious or boring, nor does it cover every single thing you ever hope to know about pine trees, but it's a great launching point to get you started and give you a firm foundation. 

 

As expected, everything in the unit study is taught from a Biblical, creation based world view.  However, for those who may have a different world view, the vocabulary, spelling, geography, pine tree identification, writing, art and search puzzle can be taught without crossing over.

We used this unit study as a supplement to our botany class that I'm teaching at our weekly co-op.   We mostly focused on the geography (where different types of pine trees grow), the science study, math and the introduction of Fibonacci numbers in nature and the artwork as we did some nature journaling.  Since the unit is a download, I could print off the pages I wanted to use each week and skip the ones that I opted not to use.  Our co-op class is only 60 minutes weekly, so I added a segment of this unit study at the end of class for several weeks.   I was surprised that only my kids had ever heard of Fibonacci numbers, so it was good to have something totally new to introduce.

You could do the entire study in one day if you like, or draw it out over one or more weeks depending on your student(s) and your time constraints.   The videos and reading might be a bit much for younger students to get through all at once.    My children, ages 12 and 14, were happy to tag a few extra minutes onto their regularly scheduled school day to knock out a video or two as time allowed.  The links and videos were not an option for us during co-op due to lack of Internet at our facility.

Other available unit studies include topics such as badgers, black bears, dragonflies, fragrances, Joshua tree, manatees and snow.  We also received the snow unit, and we were able to incorporate that unit a bit into our homeschooling as we had our first major snowfall of the year in late March during the review period.  There's a great section on meteorology and the water cycle in this unit, and includes links to the Creation Illustrated Winter 2018 digital edition.  Each unit study is currently available for $6.95 and is a quick and easy  PDF download, making it available immediately.

Here's a sneak peak at the upcoming Creation Illustrated Spring 2018 edition.

To read other Review Crew opinions on this and other unit studies from Creation Illustrated, click here.