PH Science Explorer -- more questions

[Mom2legomaniacs]

I am really close to deciding on this for 5th next year. I do have some questions though.

There were a lot of parts to each book -- along with each book that is. What is needed and what is not needed but nice to have and helpful?

What books did you do in a year's time? Did you keep them in the same category (biology) or mix it up? What worked best for that?

Any other info that I have left out that might be helpful for ordering?

thanks!

[Sue in St Pete]

Dh and ds tried SE Human Health and Biology for 5th grade. It became apparent fairly quickly, though, that it was over ds's head. We switched to Noeo Biology 2, and while I don't know that it was great, it was better with ds's ability. We are not science-oriented folks here. I have heard of others using SE for 5th grade, and they were more science-oriented families.

We are using SE Astronomy for 6th grade this year, and it's going fine. I think Angie W in Texas (SE expert) says that Astronomy is one of the easier books. If you search her posts, she answers your question about #books/year and more.

For me, the teacher's book is invaluable because it has the answers to the section assessments and chapter tests. I have bought the guided reading and study workbook. Email me if you would like a sample. I kind of like them, but the answers are only in the all-in-one teacher's manual which is $$$ and so I don't know if I'll continue to buy them.

I have the Lab Zone CD, but don't use it as much as I think I should.

I bought the student book on CD for $1.25, but it's not very exciting and it's not user friendly either.

HTH!

[Mom2legomaniacs]

Thanks! I emailed you through the boards.

[Sue in St Pete]

I have the student edition and the interactive text on CD-ROM. $1.25 with text purchase, so it's not like it costs much to try it out.

Sue

[AngieW in Texas]

My middle dd started Science Explorer in 5th grade. She only completed two books that year, but I think that's fine for 5th grade.

The easiest books we've done so far have been:
Inside Earth
Weather and Climate
Astronomy

The Earth Science books are generally easier than Life Science and Physical Science. We haven't done the other two Earth Science books yet.

[EKS]

We used Inside Earth, Earth's Changing Surface, and Astronomy in 5th grade. I also got the CD-ROM and was able to print out the worksheets from it.

My son would do the questions at the end of the sections/chapters orally and would also fill out the worksheets. I made up my own tests. If I did it over again I would get the tests from PH because for some reason my tests were either too easy or too hard.

Science Explorer is a great program!

[Jenny in Atl]

We also are using PH Earth Science this year. My 6th grader has finished the Environmental Science, Earth's Changing Surface, and is currently doing Weather and Climate. She is enjoying them very much. My younger 2nd grader also likes to look through and read passages that interest her as well.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

So, would these be the items to get:

teacher's edition
student's edition
guided reading and study workbook
tests (I like to have those for practice)

on the website it says "Student Express with Interactive Textbook CDROM"
Is that the same , sort of, as the student's edition?

The site is kind of confusing as far as what to get. And the descriptions of the items are seriously lacking, IMO.

[EKS]

The CD-ROM has everything that is in the guided reading and study workbook. You can just print it out. It also has the labs (with answer sheets) in a form to be printed out. And I think it has some extra workbook type pages that aren't in the actual workbook. I had the workbook but ended up printing everything because the workbook was printed on newsprint type paper and newsprint type paper in workbooks makes me cranky!

I liked having the teacher's editions, even though they were expensive. Though I usually knew the answers to the questions, it was nice having it right there. You won't have the answers to the workbook questions in the TE. There must be an answer key for the workbook, but I didn't have it. It would have been nice to have though.

I'm also starting to have a memory about why I didn't have the tests and ended up making my own. I think that the printed tests that PH had weren't specific to each book. I think the questions were all mixed up from all the books. I can't remember exactly. I'm pretty sure that the test generator software would be the way to go, if you are planning to use SE for several years. Otherwise, it's really expensive.

[teachermom2834]

I've been on the website but haven't seen anything called "tests". Are these part of something else? I don't see them on the list.

And do I want the teacher's manual or the "all in one resource pack" ? Is the teacher's manual part of the "all in one resource pack" or are those two separate purchases? Are the tests in the resource pack or the teacher's manual?

And it says I have to have a school purchase order to purchase teacher materials. I believe someone said before that if you call and explain you are a homeschooler they will sell to you. Is this correct?

I picked up one of these texts used and really like the looks of it. I look forward to using it but am confused by the options.

Thank you,
Marie

[AngieW in Texas]

Once you register with Prentice Hall as a homeschooler (I did it over the phone), you will be able to order anything on their website. The "school purchase order" notation won't make any difference.

The All-in-One Teacher Resources package has all the teacher materials, but it's extremely expensive. I don't recommend buying it. The answer keys to the workbooks are in the All-in-One Teacher Resources package, but I wasn't willing to pay $75/book for it.

The Teacher editions aren't really necessary, but are nice to have, especially if science isn't your thing. You should check out ebay and amazon for the teacher editions because you may find them a lot cheaper there. You should make sure that your teacher edition is within 2 years of your student edition. There was a format change between 2003 and 2005, so those editions don't work well together. The 2000 and 2003 are nearly identical. I'm using the 2003 workbooks with the 2000 texts and they even have identical page numbers so far.

You can use the Teacher edition to teach from rather than the student edition. They're printed in wraparound style, so that the entire student text is inside just like it appears in the student edition and the teacher notes (and answers) are in the wraparound section that surrounds it. For some of the books I have only the teacher edition because that's what I found cheap on ebay. It has worked out just fine. We did Human Health & Biology and Environmental Science out of the teacher edition because I don't have student editions of those.

If you don't have the teacher edition, you should get the Lab Zone Easy Planner cd-rom. It has all the experiments from the entire series: lab sheets, teacher information, everything. You won't see it on the website unless you type in the ISBN: 0-13-181196-7. It's only $30.

I have tried using the cd-rom and using the workbook and I prefer the workbook. My dd and I don't mind the newsprint paper that the workbooks are printed on and we both find it much easier to have a pre-printed workbook than to print out the pages from the cd-rom. This was true for the one Science Explorer book we tried the cd-rom for and for high school level Biology as well. That's a personal preference thing though, so you may prefer the cd-rom.