Reviews of Science in the Atomic Age?

[Calizzy]

Has anyone used this science book? I know people have strong opinions about Jay Wile, but I have loved his books. I find them interesting and well written. I wanted my 8th grader to do Science in the Atomic Age with the online class for next year, but one of the reviews online said it was a lot of work. She is NOT a science kid. She is just looking to get it done and I'd like her to have basic knowledge. Any other suggestions?

[countrymum]

My 7th grader did it independently last year. He has dyslexia, but reads quite well. His writing and spelling are very slow and inaccurate. He does not love school... Like he'd rather work than do school....

I got him the book and audio. He listened while following along in the book and did most of the experiments. He did not keep a lab book, he wrote the answers to the daily reading questions in a notebook, he did the chapter review orally with me, he did not do tests. He actually found the course pretty interesting and learned alot he says;) We're doing earth science this fall. I may or may not require more writing.... we'll see. I'm working on it separately.

[LauraClark]

My oldest did it last year in 7th independently. It was definitely a big step up from the elementary series, but I thought it was excellent. The first 5 chapters were especially difficult.  Ds did not do all of the labs and did not write any of them up, so that helped. He wrote answers to the comprehension check questions at the end of each section and took notes throughout. We did the tests. He struggled with the note taking more than anything, but that could very well have been inadequate note taking instruction on my part. In fact for the last couple chapters we ran out of time in our school year so I taught him how to quickly skim read and told him notes were not needed: he loved those chapters; read every single word! I think the note taking was holding him back.