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God's Design for Science
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Has anyone used these from Answers in Genesis? Opinions? It looks like they’ve just come out with a new edition, but the old ones are still available at some places. I’d appreciate opinions regarding the old or the new.
Thanks,
Cindy
Hi Cindy
I have used and own a few of the older versions but I won’t use them anymore. The new versions are AWESOME:) I just saw some at a friends place last weekend and they are bright, color photos, expanded a bit of the text and made it overall more user friendly. I love AIG for their Creationist perspective, love that the info in the books is short, sweet and to the point.The kids can do their experiments, do the few questions and then we can spend waaay more time doing a much more CM approach to science like biographies, nature studies, etc.. If you agree with their perspective, and want something to span the ages easily, I recommend the new AIG volumes. Love how they segment out each lesson into different color boxes for the different age group appropriatness…I saw the Chemistry set, but I imagine all the new versions will be similar. We have done Chemistry, and The Animal World previously.
hth
Heidi
That helps tremendously, Heidi; thanks so much. I noticed that the newer versions seem to have been expanded to include 8th grade for all of the series, while the older ones were a little varied, tending toward 1-6. Would you agree with that from what you saw of the Chemistry one? My 7th grader is wanting something to do on his own and this is the one I’m considering, though the whole package looks enticing….
Thanks again,
Cindy
Cindy, I recommend these EXTREMELY highly, although I only have the “old” editions. Yes, I have used the Chemistry and the Physics series both with junior high age with very good results. I have used these for several years now and I just love them. I own the complete set of the older books and wouldn’t trade them! I got the opportunity to meet Debbie Lawrence several times and talk with her and she is just terrific. It appeared just to my brief perusal at the last convention that the “new” books are basically the same content, “glitzed up” a little, divided between two books and with a lot of the reproducibles on a CD now. I’m pretty happy with my older books since I don’t need glitz, just good content, and IMO these have that in spades. 🙂
HI again
I would agree with ‘bookworm’ that the content is much the same, but I just like the division of the information better, the way the pictures are colorized (I have very visual kids) and the inclusion of the 8th grade or ‘advanced’ boxes so you can reach all the way from 1st to 8th. My friend is going to use the Chem level in conjunction with Noeo Science Chem III because her son is VERY hands on and she knows he will need the meat of AIG as well as the experimentation with the chem set Noeo recommends. I am using Noeo on its own this year, then next year I am going to do AIG Earth and Universe pkg (not sure if thats the right name?) I would add AIG in this year as well, I think its an excellant idea, but i have already blown my budget, so we’ll use it next year. Looks great though, and yes, Cindy, your 7th grader could do this on his own. When he hits areas of interest you can always introduce living science books on the subject, or learn more about the scientist in question. Looks good to me:) Oh, and you are right about the reproducibles on the CD-but to me, thats another plus:) I love being able to pick and choose what to print and how many!
Heidi
Thanks, you all have been extremely helpful is a short amount of time! My husband and I are having our school budget talk this evening…
oooh, “the talk” , lol. good luck with that. I sometimes dread it more than ‘the talk’ with my prepuberty teens, depending on what I am hoping to buy that particular year:) Mind you, with SCM it has gotten markedly better and my tendency to curriculum hoard is becoming easier to manage!
Glad to help,
Heidi
For those of you who’ve used Gods Design for Science, would your recommed this over Jeanie Fulbrights elementary science? We’re trying to decide between her “Zoology 3-Land Animals” or Gods Design “The World of Animals” for our (almost) 9yo ds. Any opinions on either?
Thanking Him for you!
Heather
ditto on the question above – I have had some friends raving about the new AIG curriculum, but I have also heard many good things about the Apologia series – I’d love to hear some comparisons……
I have never used the Apologia books for younger children, but I did pick a couple up to look at one year at the convention, since I’d heard so much. They looked nice, but they seemed very “glitzy” to me–glossy photos, not much text per page, and I didn’t see any reason to switch to them from my trusty God’s Design which has served me well for several years now. That’s all I can say–I never used the Apologia ones. I know many love them.
Sorry I have missed the loop on this thread:0( forgot to link it..
I used them both!
We used the Land animals of the 5th day last year with my then 9 yo daughter and LOVED it. She is a big animal buff so she knew a lot of it, and yes, it is kinda glitzy, but the photos are great. We didn’t do it like a text book though, we did the lapbook lessons designed for it by Knowledge Box Central. She loves this program. We aren’t quite finished but it is going well. I actually have the AIG animals book, but not the new one, we have the first edition. We supplemented that whenever the topics were similar simply because I had to challenge her, but she wanted to do the lapbook projects. AIG is a bit more technical in its terminology, and I loved its theology. Haven’t seen the new version yet, but if its as good as the bio and chem, it will be great. And they did flow along together pretty well.
Bottom line, I think you can’t go wrong either way. Depends on how your children learn best I suppose.
Heidi
I’ve used both. I think it depends on the learning style of your children and the topic you choose. We used the Botany book from Apologia for the younger students and my girls did not like it (they were in 3rd/5th grade at the time). Nature Studies work best for Botany and living books. I also didn’t enjoy the book as much as everyone else did, but that’s just me.
We’ve also used God’s Design (Earth & Science) and again, my dd’s are different in their style of learning. My 6th grader likes textbooks and not activities and my 4th grader loves activities, but doesn’t like the text unless the topic is interesting to her. I thought I found the perfect set for them, but I had to finally sell it because it wasn’t a hit in our house.
I then tried Considering God’s Creation and my 4th grader likes that one. She enjoys the songs and the student sheets that come with it. I plan to use 106 Days of Creation along with Considering God’s Creation for my 5th grader and my now, 7th grader, will be using Apologia’s General Science.
You know your children the best and what will work for them. What may work for one family may not work for another. Maybe you can look at some samples before you make a decision.
Thanks for sharing your comparisons. For those of you who’ve used Gods Design, are there lots of activities for a very “hands-on” boy, then?
I love the Apologia series, but I think that the Botany book would be best LATE elementary. It is so full of techinical things that I got the glazed look daily. That said, we are absolutely loving the Swimming Creatures book this year. We are doing it for fun, and not doing all the hands on things ( my kids are not too hands on) and they really like this book. We go to the Chattanooga Aquarium quite often and it all works together so well.
I’m the opposite of Bookworm since I have all the Apologia books and don’t want to swiitch, BUT if money were unlimited I would get the whole AIG series as I love all of their things. 🙂
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