Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Before I tell you just what I think of this book, let me preface my remarks with the fact that I am a medical scientist, a member of the American Chemical Society who has taught science over many years to many people of all ages using a variety of textbooks. I am a firm believer in teaching science to the very young and making the ordinary housewife see that she knows a whole lot of chemistry once you drag it out from behind the language barrier. Let me be frank: this is the single worst chemistry text I've come across at any level. Keller crams a great deal of definition into the few pages in this book, but she does so in a very disorganized manner, often omitting pertinent material and including things that are far beyond the scope of a chemistry text intended for elementary school students. Thus, in a chapter titled "Matter" she gives a one sentence definition of matter, followed by the statements that balloons, pancakes and baseballs are all made of matter. She complete omits from discussion the three states of matter, surely the simplest of concepts to communicate and illustrate experimentally. A chapter on molecules never mentions that atoms carry a charge and provides no explanation of why atoms might bother to form molecules. Worse, the bonding rules that she presents are both incorrect and unexplained. An entire page is devoted to pH indicators that the average adult will find both unpronounceable and unobtainable. While interesting, these are of little importance to the introduction of chemistry to a 10 year old. There is a glossary in the back, but there is no distinction between the word being defined and the definition. Everything is listed in the same typeface without bolding, making the glossary hard to use. In short, this text is dry, boring and often incorrect. The fun of chemistry is obliterated. Worse, the book is markedly overpriced. By the time one purchases the Lab manual and the teacher's manual the cost of this 10-week program runs to about $70. A full year's worth of science using Real Science-4-Kids would necessitate the purchase of both the Biology and Physics curriculum. If you do choose to utilize this series - and I certainly do not recommend that you do - be prepared to both provide a great deal of supplemental material and put in a good number of hours of prep time. Not Recommended for those who do not have a background in chemistry themselves.