Workman Publishing

I'll start by saying that I am definitely not a high school student. I picked this up because I was curious about the format - if I enjoyed it, I figured I might try tackling one of the volumes on a subject I was shakier on.

This is divided into 12 units ("Basics of Biology," "The Chemistry of Life," "Cell Theory," "Bacteria, Viruses, Prions, and Viroids," "Protists," "Fungi," "Plants," "Animals," "The Human Body," "Genetics," "Life on Earth," and "Ecosystems and Habitats"). The text is set show more up to look like notes someone took on lined paper, with occasional highlighted bits, drawings in the margins, underlined portions, etc. Each chapter ends with review questions and answers.

My overall opinion of this is: meh. My eyes glazed over at about the same points where I generally had trouble in school (I'm looking at you, Unit 2). My favorite chapters were probably the ones on algae, molds, and fungi, because they covered info I don't recall learning before. That said, there are probably better, more memorable books out there on those topics for someone like myself, who is reading for enjoyment rather than to study for a test.

Speaking of the study guide aspects: I doubt just reading this book would ever have helped me much when I was a student, even if I forced myself to do the review questions. I did best with notes I actually took myself. This book also missed a bunch of opportunities to explicitly connect concepts mentioned across multiple chapters (not even a brief "remember, [Topic] was discussed in more detail back in Chapter X" - yes, there's an index, but in-text recognition of the relatedness of subjects would have been nice).

Assuming the other volumes are similar to this one, I don't think I'll be seeking out the rest.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

p. 195 and I've realized how much I miss unit reviews. Sure, every few pp. we get a quiz, and I'm fine on those, but not every bit of knowledge builds on every other and so I'm losing stuff. Also, here on exponents, we've lost word problems... apparently these are not things we use in every day life (which, to be fair, is, in my experience, mostly true, as they're maths shortcuts for huge or tiny numbers).

So, anyway, I've got some nits to pick with this book, but it's still the only one I've show more found that is neither ridiculously easy or much too difficult for me. I need to review what I should have learned in high school, but I'm starting here. So far (p. 195) so easy but we'll see....
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p. 248 - finally word problems, and I'm going to get out pencil and paper instead of just using mental math, finally.
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Ok, that section was actually too easy. Then geometry, which was one of my favorite subjects in HS because I had an Alice in Wonderland themed text and a good teacher, so that was easy

Now I'm in statistics, which should be easy, because I do use this stuff regularly. However, it's a very badly written chapter.

It introduces trickier concepts first, then backs up, and doesn't discuss the new to me concept of 'two-way tables' nearly enough except for a caution of 'read carefully' (but then doesn't say how to read them). It messes up the color coding.

And worst of all, in the brief section about sampling, the examples didn't even explore how to make sure one was getting an adequately representative sample... which we all know now is a huge problem (it's not just white males who have heart attacks, folks!).
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Ack! I got a few pp on to read the Box and Whiskers section. The first and only example has 10 data points that it claims to put into quartiles. Ok... we can recognize that data from small samples isn't always going to fit nicely.... But then it says that the two points that are largest, that are in the top quartile, make up 25% of the total! I'd just like to see a student say that 2/10 = 25% at any time in class, even now!

Let's hope that when we move on to scatter plots and probability the author remembered to let an editor or at least a beta reader at the material before publication.
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Ok I'm finally done. Yeah, I could keep picking nits. And there are a few more nice things I could say, too. But, bottom line, if this is the only book of its kind, use it to supplement your assigned text. If you can find a similar book, use that either instead or in addition to this.

I'm not feeling the kind of enrichment that I, personally, expected to. And so I would definitely welcome other suggestions. Do any of you know any middle school or lower level high school 'popular math' books? show less

This book acts as one giant summary of science concepts that middle schoolers will use. This book acts as an informational text in the art form of a student’s notes. The first page acts as a letter to the reader saying that this book was from the smartest kid in class and will help the student pass their class (But will only substitute as the class). The information presented is organized into different color highlighters and is very visually appealing. I can see this book used as a form show more of frontloading for concepts that should already be established with students. I like this book due to the student-friendly approach it was created in. I would most definitely not (wink wink) photocopy some of these pages to hand out to students as resources to keep in their binder/notebooks so they can use as a quick resource. show less

Leaves out every horror of communism and presents it as an acceptable form of government. Post modern take on history. Marxist/collectivist, quasi-anti semitic theme running through the book. It describes the WWII Holocaust in a way that makes it seem like Nazis just persecuted a lot of people and barely mentions jews.