Review: Northwest Treasures

Northwest Treasures is a company that is new to me. Their focus is on geology with an emphasis on seeing the Christian faith (or the bible) in the study of geology, they have a number of courses that they do. Over the past while we’ve been able to watch their Dinosaurs and the Bible series and my son has been captivated. We also had a chance to watch their Mystery of Geology Video.

Taking the Mystery Out of Geology Video

An approximately 20 minute video of slides with terms interspersed with full colour images, overlaid with audio teaching. We have a three month access to this online video available on Vimeo.

“I learned about that while I was learning about Ancient Greece” Pause video… lad explains the rock cycle to me. I loved how he was able to connect the pieces. Having my lad explain things is wonderful.

A number of geologically important terms were defined. Science, History, Philosophy, Uniformitarianism, Evolution, Creationism, Bible, Geology, Rock Cycle, Rock Types, Tectonics and Orogeny, Geological Time Scale and Fossilization.

Laughter from the lad at times. I found speaker stressed defining what is or is not science. He defined terms well and used good definitions to show flaws in how secular geologists think.

Son’s reaction: “It was okay”, which from the lad is praise indeed. He is often quick to point out what he doesn’t like about something and he didn’t point anything out to me.

Dinosaurs and the Bible

We spent the bulk of our time with Dinosaurs and the bible. Six lessons, which we get to use for six months, giving us ample opportunity to listen to them again.

Each video comes with a worksheet. It took me a fair while to figure out where the worksheets were located. When you have a list of the videos you can click on them to pull up a description of what the video is about, on the description will be a link to the video worksheet, this downloads as a PDF from Dropbox. You only have to download the answer sheet once.

The Lessons are as follows:

How we got our Modern view of Dinosaurs – running time 18.26
The Classification of Dinosaurs – running time 18.24
Dinosaurs and the Bible, the Great Dinosaur Rush – running time 16.55
The Extinction of Dinosaurs – running time 16.23
Dinosaurs and the Ice Age – running time 17.51
Fossils, Age and Soft Tissue – running time 21.38

How did we use it?

We’ve had access for the past four weeks, and today my son, when I mentioned that the review was due today, said “MOM! We have to make sure we finish watching all the videos!” He knows I’m apt to forget about finishing a review once it is off my radar, this one he wanted to make sure he finished. A good thing that eh?

Previous to today, our normal routine was on Wednesday at supper I’d put a video in and we’d discuss it over our meal. Gave us a time to chat while dad’s away at work. I’d simply cast it to the TV and we’d have our bowl of chili or a sandwich and watch. I’d have the PDF open so I could stop it and ask questions as we went through the lesson.

We had the option to print off the PDF files (one for each lesson) but chose to just keep the file open and talk through the answers and take any rabbit trails as we went along. Each lesson averaged 10 questions.

I did the same thing with the final exam. Just asked questions, the lad came over a couple of times to read the multiple choice answers when he didn’t’ know the answer off the top of his head.

We did take a couple of rabbit trails. The lad was curious about Lyell, so we did a bit more research on him. We talked about who Darwin was as well. Isn’t it nice when a program is so enjoyed by a lad that he actually WANTS to learn more? It’s a good thing that!

The course is laid out with a series of slides with Patrick Nurre teaching in the background. The lessons are laid out on Vimeo and I’ve learned to let them buffer before starting to play. They are geared for grades 5 and up, and play time averages about 20 minutes. Picture quality is good and audio is excellent as long as I let it buffer.

My Thoughts:

Well done, learned a lot. I loved having the PDF’s for questions/answers. One thing I wished for was that occasionally he would put a cut out of himself talking in the corner of the video, adding a more personal touch. I would also love to see a PDF that has blanks in it so as you go through the video you can write things down. Or even a PDF listing the main points so notes could easily be taken. There is SO MUCH information contained in these videos that it’s hard to remember it all.

I found it fascinating to learn that dinosaurs have been pictured on rocks and such. This was new information to me. Kinda speaks to dinosaurs being around with people eh?

My Son’s Thoughts:

“I like it, I enjoyed it. I liked everything about it. The lesson on the ice age really interesting.”

In addition to the online classes, Northwest Treasures also offers physical courses such as the high school level Northwest Treasures Curriculum Project or for younger students the Geology for “Little Eyes” series.

Dinosaurs and the Bible – six lessons
Taking the Mystery out of Geology – 20 minute Video
Northwest Treasures
ages 5+
Geology, Online, Science, History, Geology Class
Video series on Vimeo (on demand)
Purchasing information can be found here.

If you have a membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com Patrick Nurre has a geology course on there called Rocks and Minerals. It is just as interesting as the Dinosaurs course. Check out the course, see if you like it, and then sign up for courses from Northwest Treasures. 🙂

75 members of the crew reviewed various programs from Northwest Treasures:

Dinosaurs of the Bible
Volcanoes for Little Eyes
Geology and Apologetics
Fossils, Dinosaurs and Cave Men
Rocks and Minerals for Little Eyes

These programs are just a sampling of the variety of materials offered by Patrick Nurre and the Group at Northwest Treasures. I urge you to check out their kits such as their Fossil Identification Kit (which intrigue me) as well as their other offerings. Click here or on the image below.