Literary Mom Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 I have been planning to use this for the coming school year, but I read through the couple other threads here about it, and the feedback was primarily negative, even from others who generally like this series. Since it's a pretty recent title, and those threads were from last fall, I'm wondering if there is anyone out there who used it over the last school year and had a good experience. Also, would it work well with a 7th grader? My oldest has enjoyed all the other books, so I'd like to be able to have her finish the series with us (my younger two are 9 and 7). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acsnmama Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 I haven't used it, but I say go for it!! I've seen a lot of good reviews when I find a google search and good reviews on Pinterest. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 I used it with my son this last year and will finish the second half this coming year with lab exercises. We paired it with the GPB videos with a good success. He liked the videos, they really boosted up the level of practice that Apologia offered, but apologia raised the level of what the videos provided enough for me to feel good considering it a preparatory course for high school chemistry. I personally would not consider the material in Apologia high school level. It is not bad, but it is light. I find it great for middle school! It gave my son a good foundation, not an overwhelming amount of information, and presented it in a manner that will really allow him to build on his chemistry knowledge in a few years when he wants to take AP Chem. I don't know if that helps, or if you have any other questions, but I can try to answer them if you do! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotsofpumpkins Posted August 7, 2014 Share Posted August 7, 2014 My 4th and 6th graders are using this right now. We started it in mid-July, and so far they are enjoying it. There are a lot of hands-on activities thrown in there, which my boys love. As for the negative feedback, what specifically don't they like about it? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
provenance61 Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 What negative reviews did you find on Apologia's Young Explorers Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics for young elementary? I haven't found any yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 :lurk5: The negative reviews I've seen have been about typos/page formatting. How are the experiments? Are the materials easy to find? Would it be too light for a 7th grader (which OP already asked - sorry)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 My 4th and 6th graders are using this right now. We started it in mid-July, and so far they are enjoying it. There are a lot of hands-on activities thrown in there, which my boys love. As for the negative feedback, what specifically don't they like about it? Your signature says you used General Science for 7th grade. How do the two compare in difficulty (I know the GS book has different topics covered)? Did you think the Chemistry/Physics book was too light for your 7th grader? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Literary Mom Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 I dug up some of the negative reviews (more threads have popped up since then that have been positive): http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/485202-new-aplogia-chemistry-anyone/ http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/491445-apologia-chemistry-and-physics-im-not-loving-it/ We actually have been using this all year and it's been a mixed bag. It is more challenging, akin to the level of their anatomy & physiology book, which was why we did it over a whole year instead of a semester like we usually do. But the biggest challenge was getting my kids interested in this topic. There were glimmers of that, but on the whole, it didn't grab them. They preferred the chemistry chapters (which we supplemented with Basher's periodic table book and another periodic table book - the beautiful coffee table one with all the pictures) to the physics chapters (which also were harder to understand). The experiments were usually either not stuff they wanted to do or they didn't work (our kit was sometimes inferior, so in fairness, that could have been part of the problem...as well as my ineptness in this area!), but we did have a few successes. Despite the "meh" response to the book, I do think they learned a lot from it, and I'm not convinced another curriculum would have been more effective. We did study chemistry four years ago using Elemental Science and I preferred this to that. I also think that because we've done the whole Apologia Young Explorers series, we may just be ready for a fresh, new approach...which is why we're breaking out of the four year science cycle and will be using Jay Wile's Science in the Beginning for this next school year. (Btw, my kids are 12, 10, 8, and I used it with all three, though I usually had my oldest write more, and she - with her technical mind - was good at explaining the concepts to her younger siblings when we discussed the chapter review questions) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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