Showing posts with label physics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label physics. Show all posts

Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Review for K-6th grade

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Having seen Apologia Educational Ministries, INC at the vendor hall, heard them speak at homeschool conventions, having drooled over the Apologia curriculum and having done a review for them in the past while on the TOS Review Crew, I was thrilled to be asked to take part in this review. Once the Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics, a homeschool science curriculum showed up in the mail, homeschool young man was ready to start. Our son was just going crazy over the color pictures, upcoming fun experiments and the activity pages in the Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal!! Due to a shipping error we were sent the wrong notebooking journal by Apologia, they offered for us to keep the wrong one and then promptly sent us the correct one. I was excited to be able to use the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal. I've never had chemistry or physics so I thought it would be a great way for me to pick up on some of the materials so I have at least a foundation in those two subjects.

The homeschool young man is interested in becoming a physician. (this is the reason why this homeschool Momma will not be re-joining the TOS Review Crew for the 2013-2014 school year. The homeschool young man has been accepted to a medical school's physician prep program, so our days are going to be a little busy with this program, so I would not have the needed time to devote to the wonderful TOS Review Crew.) So in preparing the homeschool young man for a ministry in medicine, I've got some tough subjects in my future as a homeschool Momma. Chemistry and Physics SCARE ME and can keep me awake at night if I am not careful! lol. When this review came out, I saw that it was for K-6th grade, but thought this would be helpful to me, so I applied and explained my reasoning. I was so excited when we were approved for the Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics review.

While completing this review, I noticed that the materials were right on this tired, old homeschool Momma's level and of course too low for my freshmen homeschool young man (remember that Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics is for K-6th grade), but he still enjoyed it. Sometimes it's fun for our homeschool kids to have something that is educational, yet easy.
 
There were so many concepts in this homeschool science resource from
Apologia Educational Ministries, INC that were a great foundation for homeschool young man to learn before stepping into their high school series on these subject. I think it is important to learn some concepts as a younger student, they might not fully understand them or know exactly how to put them into practice. Nevertheless, when the full scope of learning comes about, there are some foundational materials in the brain already and I think it helps things come together in the end.
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The Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics book is a very nice hardcover textbook, which could be used by more than one student. Textbook is $39.00 (hardcover) and is authored by Jeannie Fulbright. You all know me and how I like bright colored pictures in my textbooks, you have got those in the Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics, and LOTS OF THEM! Nothing less than what you would expect from a quality homeschool science curriculum like Apologia Educational Ministries, INC. "Engaging text, many hands on demonstrations, projects and experiments and exciting articles." Your child will make bouncy balls, lava lamps, smoke bombs (COOL!) and mini motors. There is a list in the back of the book for needed supplies for the experiments. They are all pretty easy to locate. I will give you a hint though, for ease of doing the experiments in our busy homeschooling lives, I would shop around for a supply kit, because I find it is MUCH easier on me if I actually have everything bagged up for me, for each experiment, otherwise I find it an effort to drop what I am doing and drive to town to buy X. It is so much easier for me to say, "We will do this tomorrow." Well, ya know what? In our perfect world tomorrow NEVER seems to come! So homeschool Momma, treat yourself to a pre-made kit of supplies.

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The homeschool Momma's notebook was the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal it was just right for me! There were coloring pages, short vocab crossword puzzles, lapbooking (homeschool young man liked those, but who does not like lapbooking? lol). Very easy to do and great graphics as usual from Apologia Educational Ministries, INC. This notebooking journal for the young grades is just $24.00, you can use the hardcover textbook without the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal, but I do not recommend it. The notebooking journals add so much to the learning process that I personally think that they are essential.
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The homeschooled young man used the Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal also $24.00. The older kids notebooking journal has many of the same things as the Junior Notebook does, but at a higher level of difficulty. The fun and economical aspect of Apologia Educational Ministries, INC is that you can buy one textbook for your family and then just buy the needed notebooks based on grade. For one low price you can teach science to all your children together, while each works at a different level in their notebooks. How easy is that on the busy homeschool Momma's schedule!

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You all know that I like to get the most bang for my buck when it comes to education. When I think of skills learned by using Young Explorer Series Exploring Chemistry and Physics I think of public speaking (telling me back what was learned), reading/oral reading of daily work, writing skills, Bible and so much more! I love how the textbooks are written in an easy to read fashion, the text really flows as the student reads. The suggested use is 2 days per week, for this review we were asked to do 4 days per week. In our homeschool we do science 5 days per week, so it was manageable for us. We enjoyed the sections on atoms and energy, we had not studied either of those in the past. As a homeschool Momma, my favorite part was the fact that the answer keys were easy to use! Homeschool young man loved the puzzles in the book, I had thought he would like the experiments, but it was the vocab puzzles that he liked best. 
 
The only thing that I thought about regarding this review that was negative is that I think that there is a LOT of notebooking activities for the Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics Junior Notebooking Journal. I would not get bogged down with the notebooking at this young age (K-3rd), I would let them pick and choose what to do in the notebook, UNLESS you would be trading out handwriting class, for them writing on the copywork pages. To me the Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics Notebooking Journal would be just the right amount of work for a 4th-6th grader.
 
YET AGAIN, ANOTHER QUALITY PRODUCT FROM
Click below to see what my Crew buddies had to say when they wrote their reviews.
Moe

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TeenCoder C# Series Computer Programming & Gaming Review

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OK, folks this on is going to be a long one about an AWESOME review product, get your self a cup of JAVA…lol...pun intended :O)
Lets start off with a homeschool Momma funny! LOL. I kept calling TeenCoder C# Series, LOL….”TeenCoder C pound sign Series.” That got a real laugh out of my son, the proper pronunciation is TeenCoder C Sharp Series. OK, enough of the laughing here, because TeenCoder C# Series is a very serious year long educational computer course from Homeschool Programming INC. Homeschool Programming INC has won many awards including the
 


TeenCoder: Android Programming:
"Technology" Winner!
TeenCoder: Game Programming:
"Education K-12" Finalist!
 
 
 
2013 International Book Awards:
TeenCoder: Game Programming:
"Young Adult: Non-Fiction" finalist!
"Children's Educational" finalist!
 
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We were blessed to receive the TeenCoder year pack valued at $155.00 TeenCoder: C# Year Pack (Courses & Videos) our courses came as PDF’s and the videos came as DVD’s. I feel confident in the content of this program as the founders are homeschool parents AND have a BS & MS in computer science and electrical engineering…need I say more? I think they have it all folks! What happens when homeschool parents can’t find what they need to teach their children? They create a homeschool curriculum! AWESOME!

We got 2 CD Rom’s that were instructional videos
Ebooks in the form of PDF’s that can be downloaded to a Kindle
These products were valued at $155 dollars for 2 one-semester courses

Windows Programming and Game Programming
The course materials may be purchased together or separately and the CD Rom’s may be purchased together or separately. The CD Roms’s ARE optional, BUT you must have the Ebook to do the program. I like how you can pick or chose what works for your homeschool child.

TeenCoder Windows Programming or TeenCoder Game Programming
COST $20.00
TeenCoder Windows Programming Instructional Video CD Rom ONLY or Teen Coder Game Programming video CD Rom only
COST $75.00
Windows Programming Semester Course ONLY or TeenCoder Game Programming Semester Course only TeenCoder
COST $90.00
TeenCoder Windows Programming Semester Course and Instructional Videos on CD Rom or TeenCoder Game Programming Semester Course and Instructional Videos on CD Rom

Alternatively, you can purchase these as year long packs
$130.00 TeenCoder: C# Year Pack (Courses Only)
$155.00 TeenCoder: C# Year Pack (Courses & Videos)

Here are the computer hardware and software requirements

For the TeenCoder Windows Programming Course you will need Visual C# 2010 Express
For the TeenCoder Game Programming Course you will need Microsoft XNA Game Studio (free download)

Designed for 9th-12th graders with no computer programming experience. However, your child should have a basic understanding of using a computer mouse, typing, saving things to the hard drive, starting up programs and running them and clicking through different menus. After using TeenCoder Windows Programming and TeenCoder Game Programming, I am going to issue our homeschool son a full credit for Computer Science, as this was a very thorough course that fostered independence in our child.

Topics Covered in this Course
 
Introduction to the C# programming languages
Creating graphical Windows screens
Using dialog controls
C# data types and variables
User input and flow control
Math functions and string operations
C# debugging and exception handling
Object-oriented programming concepts
Classes, inheritance, and polymorphism
Collections, sorting, and recursion
File Input/Output


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We started out with the TeenCoder Windows Programming and will be moving into the TeenCoder Game Programming in a few weeks. We looked ahead at what to expect and found some really cool things,

What this homeschool Momma liked

1) First off let me say that if you have a student that is interested in programming or gaming TeenCoder is definitely for them!
2) AWESOME help desk with personal responses
3) I like how it talks about to do the grading.
4) There are chapter tests.
5) Solutions are included in the PDF’s yeah!!!!
6) Course Errata & document updates: nice to have & easy to find
7) There were a variety of activities to test putting skills to use.
8) Cute graphics. I think that the TeenCoder guy, teacher and students are adorable! Check them all out on the Demonstrations Video’s here.
9) Loved how it explained the history of programming
10) Pre-requisites are listed on the website

What this homeschool Momma did not like

1) I could not have taught this just from the Ebook, I would have to have the CD Rom’s for sure!
2) They say they are self study student textbook, but again, I think that the CD Rom’s are a MUST have.
3) We did not get a physical book that would have been nice to be able to highlight things and make notes on things.
4) We struggled with getting the Visual C# 2010 Express loaded, up and running on our computer. (a free version) There are other versions of this but you must use the 2010.
5)We had more struggles with finding things once they were on our computer.
6) We had trouble jumping back between screens and it really slowed down our computer.
7) This to me was a hard course, BUT in saying that, it’s a high school course, so it’s not going to be a snap and really it should not be easy if it’s a high school course :O)
8) I do not agree with the company website saying that no prior computer knowledge is needed.
9) Looking back at this I wish now that I had printed out the student text, but I hated to waste the ink and ½ of ream of paper. As we continue forward, I think that I may break down and do just that.

What this homeschool student liked
1) Liked the chapter reviews, the way they presented facts about each chapter.
2) Learned history of programming
3) Learned definitions and terms for computers terminology
4) I like how each lessons builds on the next one, I would not skip any lessons.
5) Text boxes were super cool!
6) Easy to download to Kindle Fire, nice to take in the car for reading the lessons, then coming home and doing the lessons on the main computer.
7) I really learned a lot and was surprised at how once we got going that it all started coming together for me.
8) Screenshots were VERY helpful, I like to see what things are suppose to look like.
9) Set up on an easy to use format once we figure it out.
10) You can make games for Xbox 360 (if you own one, we do not)
11) It was very easy to follow along as to where the lessons started and ended, there is an
activity to do at the end chapter.
12) Saving the best for last…ULTIMATE COOLNESS FACTOR making the graphic chess game, I can’t wait to get to the end of the TeenCoder Game Programming to make a Bumper Car Game!

What this homeschool student did not like
1) It was a struggle to learn by just the Ebook, so I HIGHLY recommend purchasing the CD Rom’s to go along with the program, to me it was much easier learn that way along with the reading of the Ebook.
ONLY 1 dislike here!

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In the 8 weeks we had to complete this review we were not able to make it to the second semester of course, but are sure looking forward to it. This second semester course is on creating Windows games. Your student will learn the following plus more during the TeenCoder Game Programming course.

Important game concepts
Object/movement in games
How to detect collisions between objects
How to create 2D images
Animations
Simple game physics such as bouncing and reflections
How to simulate wind & gravity
They will learn artificial intelligence
They will learn game physics and concepts such as velocity and gravity on projectiles
They will make fun games such as The Swarm Game (remember Space Invaders? LOL...It’s just like that.
Snowball Fight Game

Plans for the future...
I plan to work my way through the TeenCoder C# Series by Homeschool Programming INC myself, as I am pretty computer illiterate :O)

Stop by and see what my friends from the TOS Review Crew had to say about TeenCoder (they even have reviews for the younger kids computer programming courses.


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