Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition by Apologia Review

Many of you know that we are involved in a once a week homeschool CoOp during the regular school year.  It offers a variety of options of classes for students.  I'm super excited for this upcoming year because both B (8th grade) and C (7th grade) will be taking a class using Exploring Creation with General Science by Apologia.

B and C with Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition

So when I was given the opportunity to review Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition I jumped on it.  A already completed this course with the previous addition so I was specifically interested in seeing how this newer edition compares.  This course is recommended for 7th grade (can work well for 6th-8th).

I was generously provided with the Textbook, Student Notebook, and Solutions and Tests.

Here is the 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition side-by-side

Seeing as how we own the 2nd edition of this course, I really wanted to see what the differences were between the 2nd edition and the 3rd edition and focus on that.  The covers are completely different which I really appreciate because it is very easy to distinguish between the two.  The 2nd edition is mostly black, while the newer, 3rd edition is mostly white.

Student Notebook

While the 2nd edition had a student notebook, it was seen as a companion notebook, not a requirement.  This has changed for the 3rd edition.  The Student Notebook is consumable and is also a requirement for this course (not optional).  This Student Notebook interacts with the student and helps teach proper note-taking skills.  It is specifically designed to help students transition from elementary to middle school science while preparing them for high school.  Since it is consumable, you will need a Student Notebook for each student taking this course.

Page 1 of the Course Schedule

A huge asset of the Student Notebook is the schedule included in it.  This schedule splits this course over a full school year.  The planning leg work is done for you!  This schedule has students working on lessons four days a week for ~ 1 hour each day for a total of 33 weeks.  The Student Notebook not only has daily lesson plans, but it also includes pages with prompts for students to take notes (as mentioned above), places for them to record answers to module questions as well as a place to write hands-on activity results.  I really like this notebook and I'm glad that it is a requirement as I think it adds a lot to this course and definitely helps transition to more independent learning.  I also want to note that there are not answers provided for the questions and prompts in the Student Notebook on purpose.  Apologia believes note taking is a learned skill and aims to help students learn this skill.  There is not just one way to take notes and all students notes will not and should not look the same.

I also want to note, if you are familiar with Apologia then you probably know that this curriculum has a Christian worldview.  It teaches the beauty of creation and God's handiwork throughout science.  I like that the text includes information about great scientists in history who were passionate and eager to learn about science because they wanted to know about God more.  The text is written in a conversational style as the author talks directly to the students making this program great for independent study and in CoOp situations.  Both editions have this conversational style even though the author has changed.  The 2nd edition was written by Dr. Jay L Wile while the updated 3rd edition is written by Sherri Seligson.

3rd Edition book is less thick than the 2nd Edition

Another big change is the length of the course.  While the 2nd edition was divided into 16 modules, the updated 3rd edition has 14 modules and is a slightly shorter course; therefore, the book is not as thick.  The chapters are slightly shorter.  There are exams for the first 13 modules while in the final module, students will build a project by creating a Rube-Goldberg machine in lieu of an exam.  They will use principles they have learned throughout the year.

Change In Table of Contents

Another change is the content and what topics are covered in this General Science course.  The 2nd edition had numerous modules devoted to Anatomy and the human body.  The 3rd edition covers a broader variety of sciences like astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, earth study, geology, paleontology, general chemistry, general physics, and environmental science.

Solutions and Tests

As before, the Solutions and Tests manual contains tests, test solutions, answers to study guide questions and module summaries.  How are tests different?  I think the updated tests are easier than previous ones.  There are more multiple choice options, fill in the blanks and the tests are shorter.  In our CoOp, these tests were given open book.  I think the updated tests would be easier for students to do well on without having to be an open book test.

There are more hands-on activities in this edition as well.  There are the standard required formal experiments (29 of them) but there are also optional Explore More sections (47 activities) designed  to be quick and easy and help students really comprehend the material they are learning.  One formal lab report is required every module.

Now, a look at activities.  In Module 1 there are two experiments and 4 explore more activities.  Below, you see us performing one of the experiments.

 Module 1, Experiment 1.2

Materials needed for Experiment 1.2 (we had everything on hand)

Pennies halfway inside the lemon

 Experiment said to leave pennies inside the lemon for at least 10 minutes.  We left them in for 20 minutes.  Here you can see the difference between the sides of the pennies that were inside the lemon and the sides that were left outside.

 The same pennies with salt and water on them.

You can see that the pennies are starting to tarnish again.

I like that the experiments are simple, often use materials already on hand, and really emphasize a concept and the material being taught.  Can I give an example of one of the explore more activities?  Yes!  Below is one of the explore more activities from Module 1.

Explore More Activity 1 from Module 1

Again, we had everything we needed on hand.

Doing Activity

Remember when I told you that the Student Notebook has a place to write hands-on activity results.  Here is C's Student Notebook for this activity.

I already thought this was a great homeschool science for middle school students.  I actually really like the changes.  Now, we have not completed the updated version in it's entirety but I'm looking forward to digging deeper into this edition with my kids.

Another big thing to be aware of is that the 2nd and 3rd editions are different enough that the text and notebooks are not interchangeable - meaning you cannot use the 2nd edition textbook with a 3rd edition student notebook and vice versa.

You can also purchase a video instruction thumb drive for this course which contains module-by-module instructional videos.  These videos feature Apologia author and marine biologist, Sherri Seligson.  Sherri includes on-location videos, animations, explanations, experiments and more.  Check out the sample video below from Module 2 on Scientific Inquiry and the Scientific Method to get a feel for what I mean.  While pricey, this is an awesome option!  I'm really hoping to obtain this in the future.



You can also check out the video about this course from author Sherri Seligson.



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Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science Audio Book Review

A has been learning about General Science this year through Apologia.  We have the textbook and she recently completed the course at our weekly coop.  When Timberdoodle offered me the chance to review Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science audio book at a discounted price I jumped at the chance!  It's a great companion to the printed text and makes a great addition to a homeschool library.

MP3-CD Exploring Creation with General Science

I love having both of these products: the printed text and the audio book.  Many students learn best by hearing, rather than reading text.  The Exploring Creation with General Science MP3-CD contains an audio recording of the complete text of Exploring Creation with General Science, 2nd edition, as read by Candice Jones.  This MP3-CD also includes "On Your Own" problems but it does not include the study guides, tests and answer keys.

Here is A with her textbook.

This is meant to be an accompaniment to the textbook, not a replacement.  I love that students can follow along in their books to this recording or just listen on their own.  This will be the first time that students learn many of these words, I love that the recording gives them the opportunity to hear the correct pronunciations.  This is so great for doing schoolwork on the go or involving multiple children in lessons.

The Exploring Creation with General Science textbook is very conversational so the audio book read by Candice Jones translates well.  The text is read word for word.  The figures within each module are clearly not going to be on the audio book but even the figures descriptions are omitted.  This is a great example how this is meant to be an accompaniment.  As I mentioned earlier, some students may have an audio strength when learning, some may be visual learners and so it would be important to note they should refer to the text and study the figures and there explanations at some point.  The experiments are also not read in the audio text - supplies, introduction and procedure are excluded.  You are told to perform the experiment and then the audio jumps right into the results of the experiment.  This is why I personally feel that students following along in their textbooks while listening to the audio book is the ideal situation to use both of these products.  Just something to note.

A with her ipod.

This is not a standard CD but an MP3-CD which basically means you will need to play it in a computer, MP3 compatible CD player or an MP3 device such as an iPod or iPhone.  A received an iPod a few years ago for Christmas so this was perfect to put on that!

A's Ipod with the Audio Book loaded

If you are planning on using Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science curriculum I would highly recommend having this MP3 Audio CD as a companion.  Check out more about Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science audio book on Timberdoodle's website.  You can even listen to a sample for yourself!

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  Timberdoodle sent my family the Apologia Exploring Creation with General Science audio book for a discounted price in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are my own.