Anyone familiar with these physics texts?

[Penelope]

http://www.novarescienceandmath.com/catalog/textbooks/

 

I've been reading here of the arguments to begin high school science with algebra-based physics in ninth grade. This author takes this approach and wrote these texts for Christian schools. One assumes students have previously had algebra 1, and the less rigorous text assumes concurrent algebra 1.

 

He also has a lab report book that looks interesting, which looks to be also sold through Classical Conversations.

[regentrude]

I have never heard of them, but clicked on your link and looked at the samples.

 

Phrases like this on p. 62:

"The First Law... should be used when no acceleration is present, in other words when objects move at constant speed..."

make me want to scream. This is inaccurate. The object has to move at constant velocity for no forces to be present. This is a major conceptual difficulty for the students (objects at constant speed can have acceleration if they are changing direction, such as in circular motion) that it is absolutely essential for an author to use precise language.

Finding sloppy language like this on the first preview page I examine would be sufficient grounds for me not to consider this book.

 

"Another common way to use this law is when an object is moving at constant speed and then a collision or other event occurs..."

No, no, and no. This obfuscates physics for the students. Nobody will treat a collision problem with Newton's First Law!

 

I dislike the focus on using equations to plug and chug. The wave section begins with the words "There are two important equations for you to learn for our work with waves. Both of these involve letters of the Greek alphabet which seems to make it challenging for the students to remember these equations correctly." Ouch.

This is not what I want my college students to have learned in high school physics - honestly, I'd rather they had no high school physics at all, than being taught that physics is a grab bag of equations with difficult symbols.

 

The sample problems for Newton's Laws on page 50 in the first book are not teaching the most critical first step of drawing a diagram before attempting the problem.

I'd much rather have a physics book teach good problem solving than pose study questions like whether the Holy Spirit or the Archangel Gabriel create gravitational fields (I kid you not: p.206).