Three complete units are available, each focusing on a different science topic. Every unit includes its own student text, set of lab worksheets, and teacher’s manual. Each 70-page student text is formatted similarly to a high-school text, with each chapter broken down into smaller segments on more specific topics. Although the text introduces concepts most children won’t encounter in their elementary science curriculum, the explanations are clear and are presented in a way that they can understand. To give you an example of the types of topics covered, in Chemistry, chapters discuss matter, molecules, types of chemical reactions (including combination, decomposition and exchange reactions), acids, bases, neutralization, polymers, DNA, and more. Biology covers taxonomy, cells, photosynthesis, plants, protists, life cycles of the butterfly and frog, the water cycle, and more. Physics includes chapters on: force, work, potential and kinetic energy, motion, electrical energy and charges, electromagnetism, conservation of energy, and so on. Each text contains ten chapters in all, split up into smaller segments on more specific sub-topics. Each segment focuses on one topic, and is short enough to read at one sitting without taxing short attention spans. The pages also incorporate colorful graphics and simple diagrams, and important words in the text are printed in red. A summary wraps up each chapter, recapping the main points kids should take from the reading, and a combined glossary-index is included at the end of each book. The lab workbooks include ten experiments and ten reviews, each intended to be completed at the end of the corresponding textbook chapter. Each experiment contains an objective, a materials list, a step-by-step procedure, charts and blanks for students to record data, and a space for them to write up a conclusion. The experiments have been selected to reinforce concepts covered in the text, require only ordinary, around-the-house items (including food, household cleaners, iodine, toys, and other objects) and are usually a lot of fun. Stephen and Janine especially enjoyed extracting the DNA from an onion at the end of the chemistry unit! Review sheets are composed of short-answer questions, which touch on the main topics from the chapter. Please note that worksheets are designed to be consumable, but are not reproducible. Worksheets are perforated and and 3-hole punched so they can be removed and placed into a binder if desired. The teacher’s manuals are laid out to correspond to each chapter in the text, and cover the experiments as well. The beginning of each chapter in the teacher’s manual contains a list of objectives, an estimate of the amount of time the reading and the experiment for the chapter will take, notes on any experimental set-up, and a list of additional materials needed. Teaching information is keyed to the sections of each chapter, which recap the information in the chapter and add additional information for you, the teacher to draw upon as you wish. This allows you to read the both teacher information and the text earlier, to provide you with a slightly more extensive knowledge base on these topics than is taught in the text. This information would be especially helpful if you do not have much of a high school or college-level science background. Lab worksheets and review sheets are reprinted in the teacher’s manual in a reduced format (with answers), so you can follow along during the labs. Each reduced experiment page is accompanied by additional teacher information for each step of the lab, prompting you to discuss concepts, to demonstrate an activity, or offering you examples or tips on the activity. Suggested conclusions to each lab have been included, so you can help students draw their own, or give them hints as to what they have learned from the activity. The last page of the teacher guide for each chapter includes a reduced copy of the student review sheet with answers, and a space for notes. If you are interested in completing all units in the program, it would definitely be worth your while to purchase the Complete Teacher’s Manual, which includes the teacher manuals for all units into a conveniently spiral-bound guide. There is no recommended schedule for finishing the units, rather, you are free to complete the units in as much or as little time as suits your student’s pace. It seemed to work well for us to complete one chapter per week. We would read each chapter between Monday and Thursday, and finish the week with the experiment and review. At this pace, the complete course could be finished in one year. 66 pages. Dr. Rebecca W. Keller Author. Real Science for Kids. Recommended Grades 4-6.

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