Evan-Moor Science Works: Plants

[Melissa in St Louis]

anyone used it? Thoughts for a 1st grader? Yes, we'll be doing lots of experiments/exploring, but DS is visual and has a thing about making a "science page." :D Would this be cool to use as our "plant spine?"


TIA!

Melissa in St Louis

[K&Rs Mom]

I don't have the Plants one, but am using another Evan-Moor Scienceworks now (geology), and am not particularly impressed. I think you'd be better off with something like Mudpies to Magnets or a Janice VanCleave book, where you can have experiements for all 4 years in one. Another option is a series called Action Labs from Frank Schaffer - we did the human body one over the winter and it was pretty good. Of the entire Scienceworks book, I think there are about 6 pages I'll be using, with a couple of ideas from others. It doesn't have a ton of reproducibles, and the ones that it does include are either busywork or way too simplistic for the grade level (I think mine is labeled 1-3). The experiments are okay, but nothing you can't find elsewhere. If you haven't bought it already, check places like paperbackswap (that's where I got this one) - it's worth a look, but not worth the purchase price for new, IMO.

[Wendy Inman]

I'm currently using the Geology one (we just started). We used Plants last year and LOVED it. I've used a bunch of the Science Works books and we've really enjoyed them. Plants was one of the favorites - especially combined with a lot of hands on planting/digging/observing/etc in the back yard :)