Exploring Creation with Human anatomy and Physiology {Review}

Last month was certainly one of the very best happy post days in our homeschool. Apologia blessed us with the complete set of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. I was so overwhelmed with their generosity!

What we received

Human Anatomy and Physiology Textbook
Begining with a short history of medicine and following into human anatomy from a Christian perspective.

• Author by Jeannie Fulbright and Brooke Ryan, M.D.
• Hardcover
• ISBN 978-1-935495-14-7
• Pages 265
• The book is divded into 14 weeks of lessons:
  1. Introduction to Anatamy and Physiology. Cells, DNA,
  2. The Skeletal System (bones, ligaments, joints)
  3. Muscular System (tendons, musckles, cells, muscle types)
  4. Digestive and Renal Systems
  5. Health and Nutrition (nutrients, water, carbs, proteins, Fats, Vitamins, Minerals)
  6. Respiratory System (nose, lungs, asthma, diaphragm)
  7. Life in the Blood (veins, arteries, plasma, red and white cells, platelets)
  8. Cardiovascular System
  9. Nervous and Endochrine Systems
  10. Nervous system Extended
  11. Senses (smell, taste, sight,)
  12. The Integumentary System
  13. Lymphatic and Immune Systems
  14. Growth and Development
• Each chapter has a practical hands on experiment to reinforce learning.
• These books are a part of Apologia's Young Explorer's Series and uses the Immersion Approach to learning. Jeannie Fulbright the author explains that by examining one topic fully children go deeper so that they can really know, understand learn more fully, this in turn builds their confidence as well as giving them the tools to actually know science via the terminology and processes.

Human Anatomy Notebooking Journal 

• Softcover spiral bound journal 
• Contains 202 pages and an appendix of 66 pages.
• Consumable and intended for a single student use in grades 3/4th level and up.
• ISBN 978-1-935495-15-4

Human Anatomy Junior Notebooking Journal 

• This journal is for beginning writers.  It is divided into 14 lessons.
• Softcover spiral bound journal
• It contains 230 pages
• appendix of 66 pages.  The appendix contains all the mini book cut outs and templates to complete the assignments.
• Consumable and intended for a single student use.  
• This journal is similar to the and intended for use by younger students in years K to 2/3 grade level.
• ISBN 978-1-935495-47-5 

Differences Between the Journals

• The juniour journal contains colouring in pages with the scriptures on them, the older journal does not have these pages 
• Juniour Journal has less pages for notes.
• Juniour Journal contains lines with height spaces to make writing easier.  The lines are also wider apart.
• Older Journal uses crossword puzzles for the vocabulary exercise where as the younger journal uses matchbook mini books.

Human Anatomy and Physiology MP3 Audio CD 

• The CD contains the complete audio recording of Exploring Creation Human Anatomy and Physiology Textbook read by the author Jeannie Fulbright.  
• The CD is not in standard format.  The audio files are in MP3 and you will need an MP3 compatable player or computer to listen to it.  You can download a sample on the Apologia website.  

About Jeannie Fulbright 

Jeannie Fulbright is a mother of four and the author of Apologia’s Young Explorer Series. She is a regular speaker at numerous conventions, conferences, women’s retreats, and other events on all topics related to parenting, marriage and family, homeschooling and science. After her homeschool journey began, Jeannie discerned an immense need for Creation-based, scientifically sound, engaging, and easy-to-use science curricula. And so the Young Explorer Series was born.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

  How we used it
One of the many curriculumns I've had my eye on over the years is Apologia.  I really love the idea of teaching science from a Christian world view. Apologia's mission is "To publish homeschooling curricumlum and resources and host online classes to help families learn, live and defend the Christian faith."  I was thrilled to have the opportunity to look over and begin using their Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology.

At times I've been anxious about teaching the sciences as some of the fields are fairly complex.  One of the most inspirational quotes that has given me the confidence to continue home educating is the following statement I read by Dr. Jay L. Wile "Can I teach high school science?  NO As your student gets older, your role changes from teacher to fellow learner."  One of the things I've appreciated about using this series is the conversational tone that the author uses.  She speaks to the person reading the book and as such both Nathaniel and I have learned some interresting things about the human body.  Human biology has long held my interest and I've always enjoyed reading more about it and it's amazing complexity.

Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology is the sixth book in the Young Explorers Series.  Your journey begins with a short historical introduction to anatomy and physiology.  From here you move onto the study of the single cell which is the fundamental building block of the human body.  It then progressively teaches through the specific bodily systems such as the skeletal system, muscular, digestive, nervous, respiratory systems et cetera. Integrated into the learning is caring for these systems via life style, nutrition and finally all this is reinforced with hands on activities and notebook assignments.

The textbook is divided into 14 lessons.  Each of the lessons have been designed to be done over two weeks therefore covering 28 weeks of school.  IF you purchase the Notebooking Journal the weekly reading and suggested notebook assignments have been prescheduled out for you. In the sample above for Lesson one you can see four days worth of science.  The readings have been scheduled with narration breaks.  Narration is a Charlotte Mason method to encourage the student to pay attention, think, process and retain the knowledge they are learning. The narration breaks are clearly noted in the textbook.

Interspersed throughout the reading in the textbook are beautiful colour illustrations clearly illustrating what is being taught. Applicable vocabulary words are printed in bold type face.  The Try This! segments are hands on activities helping to reinforce learning.

  
Experiments to enhance understanding (and some are edible making them a true hit around here especially as they are created using highly desirable items 😀) are interspersed throughout the book.  In the introduction section of the textbook is an itemised list of what is needed for each of the experiments and Try This! sections. The items are listed by lesson and most of the items used are common household items we had on hand.

The Notebooking Journal and Junior Notebooking Journals are very similar and contain

• Suggested schedule
• Colouring pages
• Notebook pages to record interesting facts 
• Review Questions
• Assignments
• Scripture Copywork (print and cursive samples to copy) 
• Vocabulary Crosswords
• Project Pages
• Miniature Books
• More to Explore (extra experiments, biblical insights, and book suggestions)
• Field Trip Sheets
• Final Review
• Appendix - contains all the full colour mini books, and personal person resources needed to complete the journal.

The journals are designed to enhance learning and as such you are encouraged to choose which activities to do and which ones to leave so that learning does not become a chore.

The audio CD was a surprising addition we enjoyed. It is beautifully presented and Jeannie reads clearly making listening a pleasure.  We used the AEM MP3 player provided.  This made selecting the correct track for listening super easy as there are over 400 files on the disk.

It looks like a mini iPod on your screen and works in the same manner.  We really ejoyed the music which enhanced our listening pleasure. For example there was music in the transition between history of Anatomy and Ancient Egyptians.  The music had an Egyptian flare.

 The CD contains the complete audio recording of the course Exploring Creation with Human anatomy, it is not always verbatim as on occasion some of the words or sentences have been altered slightly to make it easier to listen to.  The CD is a great compliment to the book and especially helpful if you are not familiar with the pronounciation of the terminolgy in human anatomy.

Apologia has provided a section called Book Extra's which is located on their website.

You will need to create your account and log in. Your homepage will display the books your have registered.  Each textbook comes with a special code word that you use to add to your course list.  Once added you click on the course title which opens a page full of links which Apologia have curated to enhance each of the lessons within the book. Each link has a short discription of what you will find. For example here is a video they shared about skull bones. I really like these extra's as all the work has been done for me, and I know that the information is correct and I do not need to pre-check any of it.

 Connect with Apologia on Social Media



Blessings
Chareen

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.

Connect with
Real Science 4 Kids @realscience4kids
Real Science 4 Kids Blog
Real Science 4 Kids @rs4k
Real Science 4 Kids @RS4K_gravitas
RealScience4Kids
@realscience4kids


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

Aussie Fauna Silkworms {Review}

Silkworms have been a part of my childhood so when I saw an add on Facebook for Aussie Fauna Silkworms I just had to contact them to find out more.  This review has taken Paul and I down memory lane for the last couple of months and provided practical life cycle observation for Nathaniel.  As a child it was something we used to do annually at school and I was pretty pleased that we had a huge Mulberry tree in our back yard. This activity at school was one we did among ourselves and had nothing to do with school.  It was purely driven among the students and it contains such fond memories that it's an experience I've wanted my children to enjoy.  Upon further research at Aussie Fauna Silkworms I discovered their Silkworms in the Classroom Program and after chatting to them they blessed our family with a Premium Teacher's Pack to review.

What we received
Premium Teacher's Pack Includes:

• 100 Silkworm EggsThese eggs have been wintered and are ready to develop into silkworms. 
• 500g Silkworm chow - Chow is a powdered form of mulberry leaves from Europe and contains the highest nutritional value for your Silkworms and is available all year round. This product makes looking after your silkworms super easy if you do not have access to a Mulberry tree.  It is easy to make.  You mix with water and cook.  Feeding the worms involves piping some chow into their container for consumption.
• Customized book: Silkworm Life-cycle Lessons and Activities Plan: Linked to the Australian National Teaching Curriculum -
• A1(59.4 cm x 84.1 cm) sized Silkworm Life Cycle Poster -This poster is a gorgeous full colour poster printed on high quality paper.  It contains a combination of actual photographs and drawings of the six stages of the life cycle of a Silkworm along with a short sentence about each stage.
• Piping bag for silkworm chow - This is made of a strong durable thick plastic
• Petri dish to hatch eggs - our worms and kego lived in here for the first week after hatching.
• Plastic mesh for kego (baby silkworms) transfer between feeding.  Full instructions are contained in the book and the care sheet.
• Hatching/care instructions A4 sheet. This sheet contains photo instructions on how to use the mesh and silkworm chow on one side and care instructions on the other.
• Available support throughout duration of classroom project.

Aussie Fauna was established in 2012.  All the silkworms are bred in a veterinary approved facility here in Australia ensuring that the eggs and worms are all well cared for and in excellent health.

How we used our kit
Our kit arrived within 48 hours of ordering via courier delivery.  The kit contained everything we needed to raise the silkworms including a quick start guide to help us know what to do with our worms once they hatched and a food source. Caring for silkworms is a relatively easy process and once the worms are a little bigger easy for the children to participate in their care. We read the quick start guide which contained all the information we needed on silk worm care and feeding. The only item we had to provide was a shoe box.  We also collected a couple of toilet rolls and egg boxes for the worms to spin their cocoons in. We learned that silkworms need an environmental temperature of around 25 - 27 degrees Celsius and approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness to develop well.  It was fun watching them wake up when we opened up the box each morning.

I would like to share a photo journal of our silkworm life cycle journey.

The eggs arrived in a petri dish along with a wire mesh to use with the Silkworm Chow.  We took our eggs along with us on holidays and found a mulberry tree near our accommodation. As the day for hatching got closer we added a small mulberry leaf to the Petri dish. There were over 100 eggs around 2 mm in diameter.

Newly hatched silkworm which is known as a kego. (29 October 2016)

They are the tinniest worms (kego) I have ever seen! They hatch hungry and eat so very much.  We were stunned at how quickly they consumed the leaves we added to the dish every day.  In fact they grew so quickly that we could look at them in the morning and see a difference in them by lunch time.

Silkworm eggs after hatching along with plenty of frass.

4 days old - Ravenous Silkworm babies (2 November)

Their care involved removing the leaf skeletons and frass (droppings) and adding in fresh leaves. We had almost 150 silkworms.

4 days old - 2 November 2016

Caring for them when they were super tiny was easy. We placed fresh mulberry leaves on top of their depleted food source. They would climb onto the new leaf and eat their way around. We would remove the new leaf with the babies and then clean out their container. We used a paintbrush to remove any stragglers.

The most interesting part of the whole process was watching their exponential growth and it was not long before they graduated to a cardboard shoe box.

30 days old - 28 November 2016

The quantity of food and exponential growth is staggering. Paul made a time lapse of them eating a leaf in ten minutes. Whenever we gave them fresh leaves to consume you could actually hear them eating!

At a month old the head and six legs

Pseudopods

Silkworm Skin

38 days old the first worm was ready to start spinning (6 December)

Collecting fresh mulberry leaves became a daily adventure. On day 38 (6 weeks) our first worm began to spin. It was so very exciting. We removed the worm from the shoe box and placed it in an egg container so it had three points of contact in order to anchor it's thread to enable it to spin a cocoon. Some of our worms took almost two weeks longer to reach this point.

Upon completing the cocoon it's time to de-floss and remove the extra bits of silk and store the cocoons.

De-flossed cocoons

Hatched three weeks later.

Mating Silkworm Moths (28 December)

We learned so much watching the life cycle of the Silkworms. I have a few more photographs about our journey which I will be sharing next week.

About the book

• This book is a soft cover book 
• Written by Sarah Tuckfield and Dr. Brett De Poister  
• ISBN 978-0-646-96090-6
• Linked to The Australian National Teaching Curriculum.  
• Divided into different school year levels
• Full Colour photography is throughout the book.  Beautiful enlarged photographs of every stage of the silkworm life cycle.
• Contains:
  
  • Introduction 
  • A care sheet- Here you are given information on the food, environment, hygiene, growth, cocconing, reproduction, eggs, egg care, wintering and how to feed the newly hatched silkworms.
  • Quick Guide - This is a one page summary of the information found in the care sheet area. 
  • Life Cycle information
  • Lesson Plans- Each lesson plan provides you with: Approximate Time needed,  an introduction, Activity, Conclusion, Extension, Key Scientific Knowledge, Technology Extension and Resource list. The lesson plans are divided into school year levels (Pre-school to Year 6) and there are useful internet links throughout.
  • Silkworm Features
  • Differences between Silkworms and Moths
  • Shelters for Silkworms
  • Silk Production (Sericulture)
  • Pre Schooling Activities
  • Online Resources 
  • Useful YouTube and internet links.
•  Every section contains practical hands on actives and ideas for you to use depending on the age group you are working with.
• Fun Facts about Silkworms.  I found this list particularly interesting.  Did you know that there are no silkworms left in the wild ?  It takes 6,500 cocoons to produce one kilogram of silk! 

Nathaniel and I enjoyed reading from this book and following the links to different YouTube videos.

Connect with Aussie Fauna Silkworms 

• Website
• Facebook

Our Thoughts
What a fabulous hands on journey we have experienced.  The Aussie Fauna Silkworms team were amazing and answered any questions we had.  They touched base with us regularly to find out if we needed any help and were always willing to answer any questions we had no matter what it was.  We highly recommend you investing in a kit whether you are homeschooling or teaching in a public school setting.
 
Blessings
 Chareen

Win a Premium Teachers Pack and receive a 10% discount coupon
For your chance to win a Premium Teachers Pack be sure to head on over to Facebook and comment/share this post from Aussie Fauna Silkworms - Bringing in The New Year with a Term 1 GIVEAWAY and FREE VOUCHERS!!! The winner will be announced at 8pm the Sunday after the post on Facebook receives 300 Shares or on January 29th 2017, whichever comes first.