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Dr. Jay Wile

2023 IAHE Parenting and Homeschool Conference Featured Speaker

Dr. Jay Wile

Dr. Jay Wile

Berean Builders

Dr. Jay L. Wile holds a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry and a B.S. in chemistry, both from the University of Rochester. He has won several awards for excellence in teaching and has presented numerous lectures on the topics of Nuclear Chemistry, Christian Apologetics, Homeschooling, and Creation vs. Evolution. He has more than 30 articles in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, but he is best known for his award-K-12 science textbooks designed specifically for homeschoolers, which have been translated into Korean, Chinese, and Afrikaans.

Workshop

 

Teaching Elementary Science Using History as a Guide

In this seminar, Dr. Jay L. Wile discusses a different method for teaching science in the elementary years: covering science topics chronologically. Science was learned in a definite, chronological sequence as early scientists developed ideas that were tested and improved by later scientists. If science is taught this way, students cover a wide range of topics each year and then revisit many of them as they were improved by later scientists. This has a lot of similarities to the spiral approach, but when students revisit a topic, it is not just repetition with a little more depth thrown in. The student learns the topic in the context of a new scientist and his improvements on the idea. This produces the high levels of recall that the spiral approach produces, but it is more interesting to the students. It also gives students a more realistic view of how science is done in the real world.

“Teaching” the Junior High & High School Sciences at Home

In this seminar, Dr. Jay L. Wile explains how any parent can help his or her children learn science at the upper levels. As a former University teacher and a former high school teacher, Dr. Wile is a staunch advocate of homeschooling a student all the way through the high school years. He agrees that most parents do not have the ability to teach the high school sciences at home, but he also contends that this is not a problem. By the time a homeschooled student reaches high school, he or she should have the ability to learn independently or with the help of another. Thus, Dr. Wil admonishes the parent to learn the subject right along with the student. With both the parent and the student helping each other learn, an upper level science experience can be equally rewarding for both!