Dina in Oklahoma Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 (edited) THANKS -- I appreciate your feedback and now have it figured out! Hello~ Unfortunately we are behind in science and need to get back on track. So as you can see from all the questions, I really need some help! Quick background: DD is 11, only had Apologia Astronomy (last year & loved) and some science readers Abeka 2nd. Watches Nova faithfully. 1) What do you think is a better combination and WHY??? McHenry's The Elements with Carbon Chemistry McHenry's The Elements with Elemental Science McHenry's The Elements with RS4K 2) Is Elemental Science meaty enough for this age? 3) Please name the best Physics program for this age. 4) Please name the best Biology program for this age. A thousand thanks no, make that a million. Dina:001_smile: Edited January 23, 2010 by Dina in Oklahoma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melmichigan Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 What grade level are you discussing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 We'll be using CPO Life Science next year and I've already purchased the SM & TM and I LIKE it! http://www.cpo.com/home/ForStudents/MiddleSchoolLifeScience/tabid/247/Default.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 (edited) For middle school, I highly recommend the CPO Science texts. CPO is a small science publisher founded by a physicist from MIT. The format & layout are quite different from the usual school text, and the concepts are explained and illustrated really well. If you search for "CPO" on this board you'll find a lot of discussion about these. Is your DD in 6th? Since you only have half the year left, I would recommend doing Earth Science. That's what many schools do in 6th; it's the easiest of the three typical middle school science curricula and something you can do in 1/2 a year. Then you can spend a full year on Life Science next year and Physical Science (combined Chem & Physics) in 8th. (Or if your DD is only in 5th, you can do separate years of Chem & Physics) Here's a link to the CPO website, there are sample chapters and tables of contents for their 3 middle school texts: http://www.cpo.com/home/ForEducators/MiddleSchoolEarthScience/tabid/261/Default.aspx There are tons of free resources on the website. Look under Media for videos and simulations, and under Teacher Illustrations for posters you can print out. Jackie Edited January 21, 2010 by Corraleno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dina in Oklahoma Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 (edited) She just turned 11 and is doing 4/5 grade work. What grade level are you discussing? Edited January 21, 2010 by Dina in Oklahoma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Well, "best" will depend upon the child. I will be using McHenry's Elements and Carbon Chemistry next year with a twelve year old. I will be adding in more reading on the subjects from other books, such as Eyewitness Matter and Chemistry, a science encyclopedia, online sources, experiment books, and I have the basic Microchem chemistry kit (as well as some others I already had at home). I also just bought Fizz, Bubble, and Flash and like the way that it introduces topics. It also has many straightforward experiments in it. Now, I also have a program called Friendly Chemistry that addresses a lot of formula writing, but I'm getting a friend's husband who's a chem professor to look over it for me because a few years ago some chem prodigies I know said there were some mistakes in it. I ordered a couple of basic chemistry workbooks from RRC and like the look of those (I'm pulling all these resources because I'm also looking at teaching an outside chem class with my professor friend). For physics, I still like the Science in a Nutshell kits or the newer Thames and Kosmos kits, but you do need to add in more reading. Eyewitness has a bind-up of all it's chem/physics topics if you can find it that would make a great resource. Or the separate books contain the same material, generally. I ended up buying the beginning level of RS4K biology a few years ago but really didn't like it at all. I'm sorry. It's not that it's poorly done; it's just not meaty enough in my opinion. Perhaps their second level chem is better.... I have not ever used Elemental Science and it's been a long time since I've reviewed it, so I can't really speak to that subject. There are some online, free programs available now for various studies. MSNucleus.org has free secondary level life and physical science studies that include labs as well as readers. I don't like to do a lot of stuff online so I print out the PDF version of the teacher's edition, which just includes some extra notes and the answer keys. There's a test at the end of each section, too. It's a free program. It's sound, but there are some grammatical errors at places in the text that you might want to correct ahead of time. I read the text aloud so we can talk about it as we go, so I just tend to correct as I go. I haven't found any text or online program in recent years that doesn't contain at least some grammatical errors, unfortunately. MSNucleus has also begun to carry some kits that go along with their labs, so that you can have ready at hand materials for doing those. I just bought a bunch of their earth science kits this fall for my use at home as well as in a class I'm doing. I've just begun using them, but they have been fine thus far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dina in Oklahoma Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 Any thoughts on questions one and two??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemykids Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Our current plan for next year is to do RS4K Level 2 Chemistry in addition to RS4K Physics; my dd will do the Physics with her younger siblings. We are also going to use a physics kit and various other resources, including TOPS science. My dd self- educates a lot when it comes to science. She is currently reading several science books; one of them is The Usborne Book of Science. She is also reading through and taking occasional notes from the UIL- Science Encyclopedia and Mysteries and Marvels. (Tiner’s Exploring the World of Chemistry is next). We are revisiting both RS4K Chem and The Elements; she is doing more activities this time and she likes to have a class with her siblings. We may start Carbon Chemistry after RS4K 2, my dd loves chemistry so any redundancy that pops up doesn’t bother her much, I’m sure she just skims over the material and then takes whatever new information that she can. I think she enjoys the various presentations. For Science History, we will read The Story of Science by Hakim and complete a Thames and Kosmos kit; this is easy enough for the younger children to join in as well, so we are all looking forward to it! I think if you add in extra books, (like Noeo does) you can have a very well rounded study using Mc Henry’s books. Her materials do seem to go into more depth than RS4K, but we love the colorful engaging style of RS4K here. We love both curriculums!! I hope this made sense; I’m rushing through this… :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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