Wordless Wednesday Teela's Pet Caterpillar

Teela & her pet caterpillar. It is making a cocoon!

Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation with Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set Review

This post contains affiliate links that will benefit my blog. My family had the privilege of trying the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set and the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Audio CD, read by Marissa Leinart from Apologia Educational Ministries for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. is the #1 publisher of creation-based science and Bible curriculum. They focus on Christian based homeschool curriculum. Their products are all taught from a biblical worldview. They have creation-based science, apologetics, language arts, Constitutional Literacy, and resources and books to help homeschooling families succeed.

Exploring Creation with Marine Biology 2nd Edition is a creation-based marine biology curriculum consisting of a Student Textbook, Student Notebook, Tests and Solutions Manual, and Audio CD. It is geared towards college-preparatory high school homeschool students who have already taken Biology. Here students will explore God's marine habitats and the ecosystem and marine wildlife within them. This is the newest and most revised edition, now in full color and with even more experiments. Students will explore our oceans, life in the sea, marine life, marine ecology, different communities and places in the ocean, ocean resources, and effects of humans on the sea. This course, like most Apologia high school science courses, is designed to be completed in two semesters, spending about 45 minutes, five days a week, on the subject.

We Received The Exploring Creation with Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set Which Includes:

• Student Text
• Student Notebook
• Tests and Solutions Manual

We also received an Audio CD as well to review.

Delbin reading the Apologia Marine Biology Textbook.

Exploring Creation with Marine Biology 2nd Edition Student Text is a hardbound textbook. This textbook has a total of 16 modules and 557 pages that explain marine biology and its many wonders. The book starts out with Apologia's Instructional Support that explains the different learners. It then has Student Notes which has notes on: what you will be learning, about the book, experiments, laboratory equipment, and learning aids. After that is the table of contents and Welcome pages which has scripture passages and things to ponder. Each lesson has colored boxes or colored paragraphs of text that contain: Dive In, On Your Own (OYO) Questions to be done after reading the material, Think About This (things to contemplate), experiments to do, vocabulary words in bold, color pictures/figures and charts/tables, Creation Connection (how what was learned ties to Creationism). At the end of each module there are answers to the On Your Own questions to check your students work and a helpful Study Guide to get your student ready for the tests. At the end of the textbook there is a Glossary; an Appendix with reference figures and tables, module summaries, and a complete list of lab supplies, and an Index to help find things in the book.

Modules:

1. The Oceans of Our Planet
2. Life in the Sea
3. The First Four Kingdoms
4. Marine Invertebrates I
5. Marine Invertebrates II
6. Marine Vertebrates I
7. Marine Vertebrates II
8. Marine Ecology
9. The Intertidal Zone
10. Estuary Communities
11. Coral Reefs
12. Continental Shelf Communities
13. The Epipelagic Zone
14. The Deep Ocean
15. Ocean Resources
16. Effects of Humans on the Sea

Delbin finishing a page in the Apologia Marine Biology Student Notebook.

The spiral bound Student Notebook is a consumable workbook and is intended to be used by a single student. At the beginning of the notebook there is an Introduction. This Introduction has Parent Notes, Rubric for Grading Experiments, Grade Recording Charts, Student Notes, Taking Effective Notes from Science Texts and a suggested Daily Schedule that outlines reading pages, OYO questions, and experiments for the student to do per day. The middle section of the workbook consists of lined pages to take Module Notes & OYO questions, Study Guide questions, and optional Summaries to be filled out by student. The last section in the workbook is Lab Reports and Presenting Your Research: Creating a Presentation Poster.

The Marine Biology 2nd Edition Test Pages and Marine Biology 2nd Edition Solutions Manual are packaged together. The test pages has a test for the student to complete after each module and quarterly tests as well. This comes in a softcover and is in black and white. Within the solutions manual are answers to the study guide, summary and tests. This comes in a glossy softcover and is in black and white.

The Audio CD contains the complete audio recording of the course Exploring Creation with Marine Biology 2nd Edition. It is read by Marissa Leinart. This is great for auditory learners, slow readers, or students with other learning disabilities that make reading difficult. This is an MP3CD so you have to play it in a MP3-compatable CD player or a computer.

I also want to mention that Apologia Educational Ministries has a Marine Biology Slide Set, Marine Biology Dissection Set, and Marine Biology 2nd Edition Video Instruction DVD as well. We did not receive these items, but they would be a great addition to the Advantage Set as well. These items would enhance the learning experience even more and provide a more hands-on environment for the student.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I used this curriculum with my son Delbin who is 16 years old and in 11th grade now. We did an average of three days per week. Starting at the beginning of the book this got us through Module 1 (The Oceans of Our Planet) and Module 2 (Life in the Sea) during the review period.

Both the textbook and notebook have a lot of  wonderful full color figures and tables that make the learning a lot more fascinating. We also made spelling lists with the vocabulary words from each chapter too. I loved the wonderful lesson by lesson supply list located in the back for knowing what to have on hand for the experiments from each lesson. Having an answer key for the "On Your Own" questions was also a tremendous help to me.

Apologia Marine Biology Mountain Formation from Plate Movement Experiment.

The experiments were really fun to do as well. In Module 1 there were 5 different experiments: Mountain Formation from Plate Movement, Removing the Salt from Saltwater, The Effects of Salinity and Temperature on the Density of Water, The Coriolis Effect,  and The Motion of Waves. In Module 2 there were 3 different experiments: Photosynthesis, Respiration, and Osmosis. We can't wait to do more hands-on experiments.

We loved using the link to the course extras website that is referenced in the textbook. It had a lot of fun third party websites that contributed more information to the study of different things. We loved the ReefVid to see real life videos of different creatures and things in the coral reef, Oceanwide Images that shows cool pictures of marine life, Plate Tectonic Animations, and Coriolis Effect Animations. There was a lot more too.

The Audio CD is very useful when Delbin got bored of reading the textbook on his own. He liked listening and following along a whole lot better and the lady that reads has a nice voice that makes it more interesting. I liked that I was given the option of listening too because I could hear what he was learning about without reading the text myself. My younger daughter, Zari, who is in first grade and does not read much yet could listen as well and glean information from it too.

I love the Apologia Educational Ministries Exploring Creation with Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set. I would recommend this homeschool Marine Biology from Apologia highly to anyone searching for a creation-based marine biology course for their homeschool. Apologia also has other great homeschool curriculum for science as well that I would love to check out.

BUY IT
Exploring Creation with Marine Biology 2nd Edition Student Text is $68. The Student Notebook is $39. The Marine Biology 2nd Edition Solutions Manual is $22 and the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Test Pages are $5. The Audio CD is $29.

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Memoria Press The Book of Trees Review

My family had the privilege of trying The Book of Trees from Memoria Press for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Memoria Press is a family-run publishing company that produces simple and easy-to-use classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. It was founded by a woman named Cheryl Lowe in 1994. They currently have preschool through ninth grade in most of their curriculum and some through twelfth grade. They also cover subjects in: Classical Core Curriculum, Latin, Classical Studies, Christian Studies, Logic & Rhetoric, Phonics & Early Reading, Penmanship, Literature & Poetry, American & Modern Studies, Writing & English Grammar, Science & Math, Greek, Modern Languages, Educational Resources, eBooks, Special-Needs, and Art & Music. I have also heard very good things about their Latin Curriculum.

For this review Memoria Press sent us a set of their three books for The Book of Trees: The Book of Trees Reader: An Introduction to Botany Through the Study of Trees, The Book of Trees Student Book, and The Book of Trees Teacher Guide. These are geared towards 6-8th graders. We purchased the other two books, that are recommended by the vendor as reference materials for the main 3, separately that usually comes in the complete set of The Book of Trees: The Tree Book For Kids and Their Grown-ups and the Peterson First Guide to Trees of North America. You can purchase all of these books separately as well, but the first three are necessary as a set for doing this unit study. The last two are up to you to purchase as they are referred to in the main 3 books, but you can find all of the information that you need online on the internet for researching the topics.

The Book of Trees Reader is a softcover book that teaches about botany through trees. It contains 83 pages and 9 chapters total, with the last two being for advanced work. These are all short and thorough. The chapters cover: The Beauty of Trees, The Root System, The Stem, The Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, Observing Trees, Photosynthesis, and Respiration. This has black and white drawings and photos throughout to show things in more detail.

The Book of Trees Student Book is a softcover consumable workbook that teaches about botany through trees that is to be used by one student. The prologue of the workbook goes through and tells goals that should be learned by completing this workbook and a Model Lesson Plan that shows what should be done by the teacher and student. It goes by unit rather than by chapter and contains five units, the last being the advanced work unit. Each unit has two to five lessons each with a total of 21 lessons including the advanced work.  Each lesson under each unit has these sections: Reading and Questions, Diagrams and Labeling, & Activities. In between lesson 15 and lesson 16 there is a Tree Observation section that has you pick a tree and observe it, collecting specimens and studying it by answering questions, identifying it, doing some research about it, and sketching its parts. You can do this up to 15 times in the workbook. At the end of each unit is a review of that unit. Unit four has the final exam at the end.

The Book of Trees Teacher Guide is a softcover guide that helps the teacher. It is basically an answer key for the Student Book and follows the same outline as it as well. It has all the completed pages of the Student Book filled out, as well as answers for quizzes, tests, and exams.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

We love Memoria Press and their classical christian curriculum for our homeschooling! We have a bunch of their other studies and have found them all wonderful. We've been very blessed to have been able to also receive a number of their curriculum to review here.

The Book of Trees from Memoria Press is a great set for exploring botany with trees. My family loves trees and nature studies! This classical christian homeschool curriculum is fantastic! I love the content myself and enjoyed doing this with my third grader, Teela.

Teela is advanced in her studies and works on a 6th grade level on reading and writing so I picked her for this study. We had a lot of fun together doing this and did a lesson a week. Although the lessons are short and each lesson could probably be done in one day, we have other studies as well we are trying to get through and I didn't want to overwhelm her.

Even though we were sent just the mandatory products in the set I thought purchasing the two reference books would be a good idea. Not only would we have them when we hit a place where it told us to look up something on a certain page of each book, we would have them in our extensive homeschool library. Also, we found the Peterson First Guide to Trees of North America a great sized pocket field guide to take with us when we did nature studies on trees, went on road trips other places, or were out hiking. The Tree Book For Kids and Their Grown-ups is a wonderful tree book with lots of beautiful hand drawn illustrations in color. In fact it has been awarded the Garden Writers Association Award for Best Illustration. I am very glad I purchased these to accompany the main books. If you purchase the complete set of The Book of Trees from Memoria Press it will come with these books as well.

Teela reading The Book of Trees Reader.

We started out with the reading and would read the corresponding chapter for the lesson. Then she would answer the questions individually and ask for help if needed. I would check her answers that she had written down. Then she would do the diagrams and labeling later in the week after we had done some review. After that we would do the activities together and do additional external research. Then for last part of the week we would review again and have the quizzes/tests.

Memoria Press The Book of Trees Student Book

During our studies so far of trees and botany we learned about Plant Systems & Organs, The Root System, External and Internal Structure of the Stem, & the first section on Leaves. There is a lot of workbook work for this study with an abundance of writing and charts/diagrams to label. We like this because the reading seems to stick better if discussed and then written down.

One of the hands-on activities about roots

We, however; loved the hands on activities the best and wish there were more of these with the book work. We love going out into the field to study nature. Teela and I have been enjoying this study so far. There are so many trees we do not know about yet. We cannot wait to delve deeper and do the Tree Observations so that we can identify and learn more of the tree species right in and around our own neighborhood as well as many trees at Lake Sacagawea Park in Longview Washington.

We highly recommend The Book of Trees by Memoria Press! It is a great science curriculum that is fabulous to use for learning about botany and trees. I look forward to using other curriculum books from Memoria Press with my children in the future!

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The 101 Series Biology 101 Review

My family had the privilege of trying Biology 101 of The 101 Series from Westfield Studios for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Westfield Studios was founded in 2004 by Wes and Tammy Olson for their two oldest boys. In 2003 Tammy was looking for a Biology curriculum for her homeschool that fit her needs and could not find it. Wes decided that since he had 15 years of corporate film production experience and a natural love of science he would produce it for his wife. Thus Westfield Studios was born and now it has three science productions: Biology 101, Physics 101, and Chemistry 101, with a forth, General Science, possibly coming in 2017. Before production these films were also reviewed by experts in the fields of biology, physics, and chemistry so they are scientifically accurate.

Biology 101 is a full Christian biology high school course designed specifically for ages 15 and up for homeschoolers. It comes as a set of 4 DVDs and Biblically teaches biology following the book of Genesis and the creation days. There are nine individual segments and a guidebook that you can print out to accompany the film. The combined running time is 4 hours and 37 minutes.

 

Contents:

Disc 1

• Introduction: Defining Life and Life Classification (15 min.): Classification and Taxonomy.
• 3rd Day - Plants (37 min.): Vascular Plants - Plant Parts (flowers with fruit and seeds, leaves, stems, roots), Grasses, Annuals & Perennials, Trees. Nonvascular Plants - Moss & Liverworts, Algae, Fungi, and Lichen.

Disc 2

• 5th Day - Aquatic Creatures (40 min.): Vertebrates - Osteichthyes (bony fish), Chondrichthyes cartilage fish), Agnatha (jawless fish), Aquatic Mammals (nursing), Aquatic Reptiles (creeping). Invertebrates - Mollusk (soft body), Arthropod (joint foot), Protozoa, Worms, Cnidarian (stinging), Porifera (with pores), Echinoderm (prickly skin), Extinct Aquatics.
• 5th Day - Avian Creatures (44 min.): Flying Vertebrates - Birds. Flying Invertebrates - Insects.

 Disc 3

• 6th Day - Land Animals Part 1 (22 min.): Vertebrates - Warmblooded (Cattle & Beasts), Coldblooded (Creeping Things) - Reptiles & Amphibians.
• 6th Day - Land Animals Part 2 (28 min.): Invertebrates - Land Arthropods, Land Mollusks, Land Worms, Bacteria & Viruses.
• 6th Day - Mankind Part 1 (27 min.): Anatomy & Physiology - The Brain, The Five Senses, Skeletal System, Muscular System.
• 6th Day - Mankind Part 2 (24 min.): Anatomy & Physiology Continuation - Circulatory System, Digestive System, Lymphatic System, Endocrine System, Human Development.

Disc 4

• Genetics: A Brief History of Biology, Cells and Genetics (40 min.)
• Guidebook and Accreditation Booklet (PDF): accompanied by a printable 114 page fact-filled guidebook that also includes multiple choice quizzes and discussion questions to review all the information covered in the film. This also has labs/activities and field trip recommendations. A 12-page “Course Accreditation Program” booklet is included for those families who want a year-long biology course.

SOME OF THE THINGS WE LEARNED SO FAR...

• Vascular plants have tubes that are a lot like trachea (windpipe) that take in nutrients and water.
• An easy way to remember the male and female part of a flower is to look at the ending: stamen is male and stigma is female.
• Algae played a roll in the making of dynamite.
• Grasses are essential for our survival.
• Trees are the oldest living things on the planet. The oldest living one is 4500 years old.
• The scales of fish have ring segments providing a record of their age similar to tree rings.
• Seahorses are classified as bony fish even though they do not look anything like a fish.
• California flying fish can glide up to 500 feet!
• Sharks use and loose as many as 2000 teeth every year!
• The word walrus means horse whale.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
Since The 101 Series is appropriate for the entire family we had everyone in the family watch the Biology 101 course. We had not had a taste of this series before, so this was new to us. My 16 year old did the questions in the guidebook, which goes along with the DVDs seamlessly.

I love that it teaches biology along with the Bible. The way the curriculum went along with creation was genius! I love that we could also reference back to the scriptures while we learned.

We completed aquatic creatures for this review. The Biology 101 course so far has been tremendously interesting and engaging. The videos are visually rich with pictures and illustrations. Wes is a great narrator and host for this program and he is both interesting and entertaining. He captivates his audience well. My children, even my younger ones, were fascinated with this course so far and are excited to learn and watch more. I was even learning things that I did not know!

We cannot wait to continue this course! It is fantastic and not just for homeschoolers!! You can use this as a supplement if your kids are in the public/private school system, especially if you want to have Christian education in your home. This is a great homeschool science, middle school science, and high school science course. We highly recommend this to anyone that wants to teach their children a biblical worldview of science.

BUY IT
You can purchase Biology 101, Physics 101, Chemistry 101 for $69.95 each or save money as a bundle for all three at $168.95!

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Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online Review

Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online.

My family has always had a love for science. We love doing science experiments at home and love learning about the world around us out in the field. The more interactive and hands on it is the more my kids love doing it. Ever since my children were very, very little they have been extremely inquisitive. My kids love to explore everything and find the answers.

I believe that teaching science is very important. It helps us unlock the mysteries of practically everything. Visual Learning Systems is an online based educational science publisher that has top of the line visual curriculum from kindergarten though twelfth grade. We have been given the chance to use both their Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition (Grades K-5) and Digital Science Online: Secondary Edition (Grades 6-12) if we wanted to.  We also have access to ALL the levels with Admin, Teacher, and Student accounts for a full year. For this review I have already used it for 3 days per week for 6 weeks with my children. This curriculum is great for teachers in public school as well as homeschooling parents.

Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online full screened video.

Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online is an annual K-12 digital subscription online to a vast variety of visual tools for science education. This wonderful media includes: videos, animations, images, and activities. The videos are a wonderful visual aid. The live action footage from all over the world on these videos is colorful and engaging. Chapter video clips are indexed within the lesson. You can either play them individually or play all. If you choose to play all they will be about 10-20 minutes long per unit study or lesson. You can make the video full screen too. They have vocabulary words that show up on the screen to go along with the lessons. A video review quiz follows each video and there are "you decide" questions throughout the program. This can be paired with the worksheets in the teacher's guide section or just done aloud with your student. The animations are easily accessed within the videos or all on their own by clicking the tab. In the images tab their are images that are annotated to give you more information. These also are in the video as well. The resources for the student/teacher include: printable worksheets, lab activities, vocabulary exercises, reading activities, assessments, quizzes, and tests.

Vocabulary words to go along with the program show up from time to time.

Teela answering the question asked in the trees video for Life Science.

Navigation is pretty simple. Once you are logged in you can see that the lessons are categorized into subjects and grade level along the bottom left hand side for easy access. Once you click a grade level then you may also pick a subject. Under each subject there are lesson titles which show up in the mid-bottom part of your screen. Above those there is a search bar to search for keywords in their database. Up at the top will be the lesson title you have picked and the clickable links to the videos, animations, images, and teacher's guides off to the right. Under those you will see chapter video clips within the lesson that you can either play individually or click to play all. If you click on the teacher's guides it will give you how to introduce the video to the student, student activities, learning objective list, and the video script. This whole program makes for a wonderful well rounded science curriculum.

Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition

Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online: Elementary Edition is geared to grades kindergarten through 5th. These lessons are split into two grade groups: Primary (K-2) and Elementary (3-5). My daughter Teela is six, going on seven in April and fits comfortably within the primary grades (K-2) under this edition. I don't have any children that fall into the grade group for elementary grades (3-5) right now.

Teela working on a tree worksheet for Life Science.

Teela worked through the Life Science units of study in the primary Elementary Edition section. We didn't want to skip around too much, but this subject interested my daughter the most and because it is Spring time I thought it was fitting to start there. The other science education subjects that are in this are Physical Science, Earth Science, and Health. We will be working through these at a later time, but I still wanted to mention them. The elementary grade level of this edition has Physical Science, Earth Science, and Life Science, but no Health.

Teela had lots of fun learning the lessons in Life Science. She learned about life cycles, food chains, classification and grouping, plants, trees, and specific groups of animals, etc. She loved the videos which were so informative and doing the worksheets too. We had her do a lesson per day, 3 days per week, for 6 weeks. This had her completely done with Life Science by the allotted time that I had to do this review. She said that her favorites were learning about the parts of the plant, about the rings on a tree, and the life cycle of a butterfly.

Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online: Secondary Edition

Visual Learning Systems Digital Science Online: Secondary Edition is geared to grades 6th through 12th (middle/high school). My oldest son Delbin is 14 and his younger brother Jaedan is 12, going on 13 in May and they both fit comfortably within this edition. Besides Physical Science, Earth Science, Life Science, and  Health the secondary studies have Integrated Science and Biology. We have not started this with my boys yet, a lot of this for them is refresher. I do know they will also love it though and plan to have them do it in upcoming months.

I love that this is so accessible to so many. This is available for subscribers 24/7 as well as seven days a week for the student, teacher, and/or parent. It is also accessible to so many different platforms. You can use it on digital whiteboards, LCD projectors, iPads, handheld devices, and all computers. This integrates with all networks and no servers or software is needed. You can also have closed-captioned on for the visually impaired.

This whole program works really well for us and so far we absolutely love it. I can't wait to dive into more of the lessons with more of my kids.

Pricing:

$.90 per student (minimum $300/year). They have multi-campus discounts as well. Also, homeschool pricing is available for $99 per edition (elementary or secondary), up to 8 students.

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