Jill Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 I need to find a science curric that ds, who will be 10 in Dec, can sink his teeth into. We've really enjoyed the Scott McQuerry books but need a little more depth. Up until now I've just supplemented but I'm running out of supplements that are chewy enough in themselves - Bill Nye's great but ds is starting to leave that level behind. I'm comparing the CPO middle school Life Science to EM's Life Sci + Elements +Chem. I note that McHenry's website has a Bible History category. Are the science programs fairly nondenominational and "old earther"? I'd be ok with that, I'm not okay with a creationist slant. I haven't seen anything in the samples I've read but I figured I'd double check. I like the playfulness of the text and the cartoons; it doesn't seem to distract from the content but my ds is a little hit and miss with that kind of thing. McQuerry's writing style is a bit playful too but I'm wondering who here has had issues with that in EM's texts? And if anyone has further analysis or comments on these I'd appreciate that too. The CPO LifeSci book also looks really good to me with my biggest concern being whether we'll be able to do some experiments/demonstrations or not. Are there many projects in there with specialized supplies we might have a hard time accessing outside the public school realm? I noticed a plant based experiment with 4 clover samples; I was thinking I can probably substitute other plants but the example made me wonder if supplies might be hard to get. And are there many demonstrations or not so much? I also haven't been able to find out how much the teacher guide is (web server errors I guess...) and how necessary it might be, any ideas? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Ellen McHenry's chemistry programs (the only ones I've used so far) are similar to Mr. Q in their sometimes humorous tone and how they make difficult concepts accessible to younger students. Both Mr. Q Life Science and Ellen McHenry's chem programs have been big hits in our house! The Elements is totally neutral, while Carbon Chemistry has a few rather subtle "Intelligent Design" references. Nothing that I as a Catholic Christian who leans towards a "theistic" evolution and OE POV had any problems with, but someone who is an atheist and/or materialist might object to them. I listed them in this thread. I haven't really looked over CPO all that much, but it is available free online if you search for the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted November 10, 2011 Author Share Posted November 10, 2011 I haven't really looked over CPO all that much, but it is available free online if you search for the link. Thanks for your comments. :) I have already downloaded the CPO middle School Sci books from a website provided in another "accelerated elementary science" thread here (http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/node/52) but the teacher's editions are not there. :( On bad personal days, I need to be able to crutch on a teacher's guide plus it has the experiments in it. The main website for the CPO sci is choking on my request to shop for items (which doesn't surprise me because it's School Specialty and I've had a lot of bad experiences with them with supplies for our public school this year.) oo, just found some versions used on amazon. google and ye shall find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 The CPO LifeSci book also looks really good to me with my biggest concern being whether we'll be able to do some experiments/demonstrations or not. Are there many projects in there with specialized supplies we might have a hard time accessing outside the public school realm? I noticed a plant based experiment with 4 clover samples; I was thinking I can probably substitute other plants but the example made me wonder if supplies might be hard to get. And are there many demonstrations or not so much? I also haven't been able to find out how much the teacher guide is (web server errors I guess...) and how necessary it might be, any ideas? Thanks! My 10yo is using CPO Life Science this year. We ordered supplies from Home Science Tools. They didn't have clover seeds, but they had other seeds that worked just as well. They also carried the brine shrimp eggs needed for another experiment. You can even buy cups with lids and dirt in baggies from them if you need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 You can even buy cups with lids and dirt in baggies from them if you need to. lol, sometimes it is just easier to have things delivered to the house than have to make another run into town to the store... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 lol, sometimes it is just easier to have things delivered to the house than have to make another run into town to the store... And to have everything right in a box and not even need to go looking around the house or digging in the frozen ground. ;-) It makes it a no excuses situation. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Ellen McHenry's materials are fabulous, and my son and I had great fun with The Elements last year. I have not used her other materials. I have CPO Life Science and planned to use it this year but ended up doing something else. One reason (though not the main reason) we didn't do CPO is that many of the labs were just not feasible to do at home without a lot of preparation or were simply not possible to do at all (required something from the publisher that was not available separately or was very expensive). Aside from that, it seemed like a good program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 Ellen McHenry's materials are fabulous, and my son and I had great fun with The Elements last year. I have not used her other materials. I have CPO Life Science and planned to use it this year but ended up doing something else. One reason (though not the main reason) we didn't do CPO is that many of the labs were just not feasible to do at home without a lot of preparation or were simply not possible to do at all (required something from the publisher that was not available separately or was very expensive). Aside from that, it seemed like a good program. Do you think it might work well to do The Elements and then follow up with CPO limiting ourselves to labs we can pull off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofCM Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 My 11yo is using CPO Life Science and Earth Science concurrently. My daughter already went through these books. Some of the experiments are indeed too hard to do at home, or simply to expensive. But I have found that many can be done or adjusted to do independently at home. I love the way the books aren't cluttered. We also have physical science at home and the labs in this boo are fairly impossible to do unless you want to spend a fortune. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffeemama Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Thanks for your comments. :) I have already downloaded the CPO middle School Sci books from a website provided in another "accelerated elementary science" thread here (http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/node/52) but the teacher's editions are not there. :( On bad personal days, I need to be able to crutch on a teacher's guide plus it has the experiments in it. The main website for the CPO sci is choking on my request to shop for items (which doesn't surprise me because it's School Specialty and I've had a lot of bad experiences with them with supplies for our public school this year.) oo, just found some versions used on amazon. google and ye shall find. The experiments are called Investigations and are listed on the CPO site under Student Record Sheets Read through them to see how difficult you think they are. We are using Earth Science right now, and have been able to do or adapt or substitute without much trouble. If I had known the lab book was online, I wouldn't have purchased it. At least I only spent $12 on it. The Teacher's Guide does have a lot of valuable info. I got mine used for around $30. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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