Starting a Science Before Science Group
This page contains information and recommendations for starting a Science Before Science study group in your local community. Items in bold italics are particularly important.
- Get a group of people together who are interested in the material. Advertise at your school or church. Handing out pamphlets, talking to friends, and posting email bulletins are all great ways to spread the word.
- Obtain names and email addresses of all interested in attending.
- Gather a larger group than your target amount. Some percentage of your group (especially for larger groups) will not come to all (or even any) of the meetings.
- Require that everyone buy the Science Before Science. The book is usually available on Amazon for around $15.
- Either require or strongly encourage that everyone buy A Kid's Introduction to Physics (and Beyond). Remind them that this book is for everyone, not just kids. They will find it a valuable quick reference guide during the meetings.
- (Optional material) Purchase a copy of the Science Before Science DVD produced by IAP and EWTN. You can show one episode every other week and hold discussions in the meeting between. These episodes cover the first five chapters (the first half) of the Science Before Science book.
- (Optional material) Depending on the level of discussion you wish to have, you may find material in the Science Before Science ICU Course helpful.
- Send reminder emails before the first meeting and before each subsequent meeting. Encourage them on the importance of the material and briefly mention which interesting topics will be discussed at the upcoming meeting. Be clear about the time and location of the meeting.
- Hold weekly meetings for about an hour to discuss chapters from the book. Start the first meeting with chapter 1 and move forward from there. Remember that some chapters are long and may require two or more meetings to adequately discuss the chapter. (Optional: Watch/use some of the optional material discussed above such as the DVD episodes during the meeting).
- Prepare discussion questions and material for each meeting from the chapter. Here is a good resource for discussion questions. It is helpful to create a typed or handwritten sheet of notes for yourself. It may also be helpful to create handout sheets with a few questions from the chapter for people to think about after each meeting.
- Require everyone to read each chapter of the book that is being discussed. It is important that people spend the time to directly read the material themselves, as opposed to relying on someone else's summarized adaption of it.
- Send reminder emails before each meeting as discussed above.
- Encourage discussion and questions. Be sure to admit if you don't know the answer to a question. Direct the person to the other IAP resources including magazine articles and textbooks which more than likely contains the answer to the question. Contact IAP at gro.bewpai@ofni if you need help or are having trouble.
- To promote better discussion, you can have people read How to Have Productive Enjoyable Conversations.
- Have fun and learn as much as possible!