NancyL Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 Any feedback? I like the fact that you get a solutions manual. A lot of the physics books don't really give you complete solutions/answers. For Giancoli it was more of a study guide. They seem to be stingy in the number of solved problems compared to math. How might this compare to Apologia? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryM Posted June 30, 2008 Share Posted June 30, 2008 Since I avoided(!) answering this earlier for fear I'd step on some toes and since there is still no reply let me gingerly step into this! Like the Saxon Math programs, physics is done in the spiral method. With physics, I think that this can be incredibly hard for some students and you add to that the fact that some of the material is presented in a rather quirky style, it makes it a challenging book. Saxon does present some calculus topics so doing calculus or having done it would be a big help. BUT, the problems are excellent, the student does truly LEARN the material and is well prepared to take the AP physics exam. And as you mention, the solutions are complete. There are still a few instances where an understanding of the material wold be helpful for the parent though or at least have an outside source to use if the student gets stuck. I know nothing about Apologia, sorry. Finally, have you seen the kineticbooks.com physics options? More to add to the mix for you!! Mary P.S. It is nice to have those Saxon tests too but no solutions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyL Posted July 1, 2008 Author Share Posted July 1, 2008 Thanks Mary- I appreciate the pointers-anything at all. Please don't worry about toes. My husband has a degree in physics and that helped a lot . With my older dd we waited too long to start Physics so she only had 1 semester, plus one of Physical science. We should have started earlier. He even helped her some after she went to college and had to take the Engineering Physics. With that in mind I think the more we can get done for D2 while she is still home the better. The Saxon Physics looks sufficiently challenging but the website has little info about it. They haven't updated the course since 93. (do you know which AP Physics test you could take? Also would it help for the SAT test which is supposed to be hard!! Yes, I have though about Kinetic books also and maybe Thinkwell. My husband said that you really don't enjoy physics until you take the calculus based one.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryM Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 Oh, Nancy, I do agree with your husband about the real fun of physics starting when you can use calculus! We own Saxon and Thinkwell Physics along with Giancolli. Thinkwell is much more "fun" than Saxon, I will say that, but the student will need trig and derivatives. I wouldn't feel comfortable using Thinkwell alone for AP prep though only because it doesn't have the repeated work on problems like Saxon does but you could supplement. If I remember correctly, Saxon will prepare for the AP BC course and definitely will prepare for the SAT subject test. Use some good prep books for either/both though. Feel free to PM me if I can answer any specifics about any of the books I happen to own! Mary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyThreeSons Posted July 1, 2008 Share Posted July 1, 2008 I was told I could choose the text, so I looked at several, including Saxon. I REALLY disliked the Saxon because it jumps around so much. For example, look at this group of 10 lessons (from the Table of Contents): Lesson 24 Freely Falling Bodies Lesson 25 Radian Measure * Angular Speed and Acceleration Lesson 26 Fluid Pressure * Weight, Density, and Pressure * Fluids at Rest * Pascal's Principle Lesson 27 Inclined Plane Lesson 28 Gravitational Theory Lesson 29 Gravitational Potential Energy * Kinetic Energy * Conservation of Mechanical Energy Lesson 30 Conservation of Momentum Lesson 31 Snell's Law Lesson 32 Ideal Gases * Using the Gas Law Lesson 33 Two-Body Tension Problems Also, while I recognize that Physics is very much about math, the samples of Saxon lessons that I saw seemed to not explain the science behind the math very well. I liked the BJU text, but I couldn't make it work for our co-op year. I simply didn't like the Abeka text. I ended up using Apologia, and it was fine. I know there are topics, though, that aren't even touched on that I learned in high school -- for example, basic fluids and thermodynamics. I'm in the process of reworking my lesson plans for this co-op year. I'll be doing more supplementing from some websites I've found, as well as writing my own versions of several of the labs. (The labs as written are fine for one student at home, but we have the luxury of having more resources at co-op, so I want to take advantage of that.) HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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