Exploring the Building Blocks of Science Book 7 {Review}

"How will you teach Science?" is one of the most common questions I get asked when people find out I am home educating.  One of my greatest delights after being on this journey for 19 years is finding products which have been designed by professionals in the field of study and home educators for home educators.  Combine the two things and you have a marvelous product! Real Science 4 Kids recently blessed Nathaniel and I with Book 7 in the Exploring The Building Blocks of Science. I had been hearing some fabulous reports about this product and was super excited when they asked us to look over their book.

About the Author

I set up the program from a reversed viewpoint. I asked, “What would a high school student need to know to master college science? What would a middle school student need to know to master high school science? What would an elementary school student need to know to master middle school science?”
The basic concepts of science are broken down to a fundamental level so that a first grader can master a few key aspects of science. I don’t overload students with material at this stage. It isn’t necessary or beneficial. The program offers just enough to get them interested without making it complicated. Those initial concepts will be built upon in second grade, and so on. As learning capacity increases, so does the material. Dr. Keller

Rebecca W. Keller is a homeschool Mom with a difference.  She has a PhD and her professional specialty is science. When Rebecca began home educating her children she came to realise that there was a lack of real science for home educated children.  She realised that most scientific texts had been dumbed down to the point where there was no real content and therefore no connection with real scientific terms and concepts.  She couldn't find any texts containing chemistry or physics which are the foundations of all science.  Born out of many years this labor of love to give children real chemistry, physics, biology etc to inspire children to learn and love science which in turn has grown into Real Science 4 Kids. You can read a more in depth interview on why Real Science 4 Kids Works with Rebecca W.Keller PhD in her interview: Real Science Chat.

Her original series Focus On was set up to meet the unit study approach and focus on single subjects.  Dr. Keller realised that many families prefer to cover multiple areas of science each year so she repackaged the Focus On course materials into grade level books and created the new Building Blocks series.  Each year, students study all five areas of science as they would eventually do if they worked through the Focus On courses. Both text and illustrations in the student books have been borrowed from the Focus On series with minor changes and additions.

We received the following to review and share with you today: Real Science 4 Kids sent us their Building Blocks Book 7 Bundle consisting of: 

• Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Student Textbook - 422 pp
• Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Laboratory Workbook - 264 pp
• Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Teacher's Manual - 116 pp

About the Books

Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Student Textbook this is a beautifully illustrated full color text divided into 22 chapters subdivided into:

• Introduction using Science
• Chemistry - Pure Substances, Organic Chemistry (Carbon), Polymers and Biological Polymers.
• Biology - Plants, Photosynthesis, Plant Structure and Growth as well as Plant Reproduction
• Physics - Chemical Energy, Electrostatics, Electrodynamics and Electromagnetics.
• Geology - The Hyrdosphere,The Biosphere, The Magnetosphere, and Earth as a System
• Astronomy - Galaxies, Our Galaxy The Milky Way, Other Galaxies, Exploding Stars and Other Stuff
• Conclusion Putting It All Together.
• Appendix (Chemistry)
• Glossary/Index

The whole text book is beautifully written and every page contains beautiful crisp full colour photographs or drawings illustrating the point being taught.  It's a visual feast for the eyes and a banquet of knowledge for you and your student.  This books will introduce your student to foundation scientific concepts and terminology giving them a solid foundation on which to build their study of science.

There is no need to go looking for a suitable laboratory notebook for your students.  Real Science 4 Kids has a beautifully presented ready to use Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Laboratory Workbook which corrolotates beautifully with the student text. This 258 pages is printed in black and white and contains:

• Introduction
• Chemistry - Four Experiments
• Biology - Four Experiments
• Physics - Four Experiments
• Geology - Four Experiments
• Astronomy - Four Experiments
• Conclusion
• Appendix

Experiment 8 - Colorful Flowers

 Each section follows the same outline:

1. Introduction and Think About It with questions to answer before you commence the experiment.  This helps the students clarify what they are looking for.
2. Experiment - Here you will find a space to clarify the objective, your hypotheses, Materials you will need and then the Experiment with directions and Results recording page 
3. Conclusions
4. Why? This contains a discussion on what and why with deeper insights on the practical implications of what you are doing.
5. Just for Fun.  Sometimes students are encouraged to dream big and jot down ideas for the future and other times they are challenged to answer an extension question with an experiment.

Experiment 8 - Colorful Flowers Results

This book contains everything you will need to fulfill the hands on section of the course. Every question is clearly asked followed by double spaced lines for the student to write in their answers/thoughts. All the directions are clear and easy to follow and reinforce the subject matter being studied.

Building Blocks Book 7 (Grade 7) Teacher's Manual contains 103 black and white pages containing:

• A full list of the Materials at a Glance listed by experiment.
• A list of the Materials quantities needed for all the experiments.
• Introduction
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Physics
• Geology
• Astronomy
• Conclussion

 The purpose of the teachers guide is to assist you to guide your students through the experiments in order to help them solidify their scientific understanding in the five scientific disciplines through the 44 experiments presented. It also provides you with an answer key of what should happen in each experiment and the possible answers your children (and you) could come up with.

You can download and view Samples of each of the books here.

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Over All I thought ...
These books are beautifully presented and well put together.  They are twaddle free, logical  and provide you with challenging science instruction.  This curriculum will make it easy for any parent who has no scientific background or understanding to give their children and themselves a quality scientific education, preparing them for a life long love and understanding.  The books are available to purchase individually or as bundle sets.

Blessings
Chareen