Middle School Science: Lab-Aids / SEPUP??

[KarenDV]

Has anyone used these curricula? Here's the link to the life science module:
http://www.sepup.com/catalog.php?item=SALI-MM1-1032

They look very interesting -- I otherwise will buy Science Explorer per everyone's recommendation.

Karen

[jhettinger]

These text books are heavily lab based. Basically, they are made up of relevant real life reading connections to labs, having not taught from them yet, I am not sure if they will cover material deep enough to not need extra supplement. The labs look really good though, very similar to labs you find in GEMS, CPO, and other high end companies module systems. Having said this I am looking at purchasing them and materials for a school. I am going to also, however, allow them access to the CPO middle school Life, Earth, and Physical Science texts as support resources - so that they can go more in-depth. The SEPUP/LAB-AIDS books have really good real world connection reading material that goes with each investigation; they are just not as deep in content knowledge as CPO. I would personally advise against Science Explorer. It is a popular book only because it is printed by a huge text book conglomerate, it is readily available, and it is broken into units. In terms of content and accuracy of content it does not receive high marks by the scientific organizations that have reviewed it. I personally have used it to teach with, and I was not impressed. I have also taught with CPO and I became more and more pleased with it each year I used it. The test and review questions are written exceptionally well and the content depth is appropriate to the age level. The SEPUP / LAB-AIDS text was produced with the help of Lawrence Hall of Science which also helped to create GEMS and FOSS science modules. CPO science was developed by a high school physics company that has been around for a long time and has a very good reputation. I personally find these smaller companies work to be more closely tied to science and what works for kids. When I taught with the CPO text I actually used labs from Delta Science Modules and FOSS Middle School Modules because the textbooks came out after we already had the kits and because the CPO material cost for 8 set-up is REALLY expensive. I can say that many of the FOSS middle school modules are really good - I especially love the Electronics kit, Earth History Kit, and the Populations and Ecosystems kit. These kits are pretty pricey for home school use.