Description
Written from a biblical worldview, Exploring Creation with Physical Science, 4th Edition, bridges middle and high school science courses and creates a solid foundation to prepare students for higher-level science courses. Advanced concepts presented throughout the course provide students with optional opportunities to enhance their learning and challenge their mastery of physical science.
Curriculum Overview
Purposefully created for 8th- or 9th-grade students, Exploring Creation with Physical Science, 4th Edition will lead students to appreciate, understand, and grasp the wonders of God’s creation while exploring chemistry, physics, earth science, and scientific research.
Intentionally redesigned to accommodate students at a variety of learning levels, this curriculum visually cues students to basic or advanced levels of study—all within the same textbook.
Dive Deeper with Advanced Concepts
In each module, students can dive deeper into more challenging content with a new component called Advanced Concepts. These sections allow science-minded students to challenge themselves and expand their learning with additional rich content, study guide questions, and test questions. This new design feature makes the course adaptable to students at a variety of learning levels.
Connections to Creation
Throughout the textbook, Creation Connection sections connect science to the Creator. We go beyond the typical textbook to help students recognize the wondrous glory of God’s creation through science.
Textbook
Exploring Creation with Physical Science, 4th Edition, is written to excite and engage students with rich, conversational text and hands-on learning through labs and activities. To master the topics, students will answer daily comprehension questions, review study guides, and complete tests.
We believe your students’ education should prepare them for life, not just academics. So, we’ve strategically designed a curriculum that will give your middle or high school students an understanding of the world around them and the real-world relevance of scientific inquiry. This course is designed to be the last science course a student takes before high school biology.
Testing
There are two testing options for this course. You can choose AutoGrade+, our auto-graded online testing, or the traditional Course Guide & Answer Key containing answers to study guide questions, test solutions, and a set of student test pages. An extra set of test pages is also available as an add-on.
Student Notebook
The student notebook for Exploring Creation with Physical Science, 4th Edition, is highly recommended. It is designed to help students foster the independence, organization, and preparation they will need to thrive academically.
The textbook references the notebook throughout and directs students to complete the guided note-taking prompts, add experimental data and observations, and complete the comprehension questions. Your student will need this component to gain the best educational experience.
The student notebook introduces students to several methods for taking notes to build this skill set. Notetaking helps students retain information, review for tests, and record their thoughts as they connect the concepts presented in the textbook with their own ideas. Taking good notes can bridge the gap to mastering a concept.
Students will learn to:
- Outline the main concepts of a passage and list the minor concepts under the main ones.
- Use the author’s style to guide their notes. As the author defines a term, students will include that definition in their notebook.
- Compare and/or contrast two things using diagrams.
- Classify items referenced in the text.
Write notes in their own words instead of copying text word for word. - Look up and define new or unknown words to help build scientific vocabulary and better understand what they’re reading.
Additionally, the student notebook helps students keep a carefully organized, detailed, and complete lab notebook. Students can use the included lab report forms to record the information gathered during experiments and master writing a formal lab report.
The student notebook includes:
- Suggested Daily Schedule
- Breakdown of daily assignments, detailing exactly what needs to be done each day
- Note-taking pages which include prompts to help teach the student how to identify and record important information from the text
- Space to answer all study questions in the textbook, which serves as a review and prep for the tests.
- Space to record results from hands-on activities
- Lab report forms for each experiment found in the textbook
- Creation Connection pages where students record their intellectual, emotional, and spiritual reactions to what they are learning
Video Lessons and Experiments
With the streaming video lessons and experiments, your student will receive detailed lessons for each module and watch demonstrations of the hands-on experiments throughout the course.
These streaming videos are a 15-month rental and are accessed through your Apologia account.
Audiobook
The audiobook version of the Exploring Creation with Physical Science, 3rd Edition textbook, is the perfect accompaniment to the textbook for students who are auditory learners, slow readers, or have learning challenges that make reading difficult.
Experiments, Lab Reports, and Hands-On Activities
Lab exercises are provided throughout each module so students can gain hands-on experience that brings their learning to life. Each lab can easily be completed in a homeschool environment using common household supplies.
The accompanying Student Notebook contains lab report forms to walk students through each step of writing informal and formal lab reports—an essential science skill to learn.
Additional You Do Science activities provide visual and tactile “aha” moments for students as they see science in action and practically apply concepts they are learning.