My Pals Are Here! Science International Activity Book 5 (2nd Edition)

Newly revised, the new 2nd edition of My Pals are Here International Science offers an inquiry-based approach to science for grades 1-6 with a focus on global awareness, collaboration, and critical and inventive thinking. The program implements the BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) E5 instructional model. This model has been shown to be one of the most effective strategies in science education today. The 5 E’s in this model are engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. Every lesson is set up in this manner. Engagement makes a connection between past and present learning and leads students to think toward the current topic. MPH stimulates interest at the outset of each unit by showing an engaging picture and offering some thinking questions. Exploration develops concepts through discussion questions and hands-on activities – you’ll find this in the textbook and activity book of MPH. Explanation communicates information and offers opportunities for students to demonstrate their conceptual understanding. Elaboration involves applying concepts in context and extending understanding through real-world application. Evaluation is the fifth E, and provides opportunities for assessment of the student's understanding through the “Quick Checks” sprinkled throughout the chapter readings and the “Test Yourself” at the end of each unit. This evaluation material offers a variety of question formats including labeling, short answer, and higher level thinking questions.

The revised Textbook is now all in one (no more A and B books for one year!), which is a welcome change. Comparing the content, you will notice an updated scope and sequence with fewer topics covered per year, which allows the student to dive deeper into the included research projects. Student textbooks offer colorful photography, illustrations and engaging textual information. If you are familiar with the 1st edition, the graphics are generally smaller and there seems to be a bit less “white space”. Textual information remains clearly and concisely presented with well-integrated graphics and illustrations. Each unit begins with an opener designed to introduce students to the topic of study through a relatable application and questions to consider. Throughout the units are various activities to reinforce learning. These include “Language Connect” activities to encourage understanding of the concepts; “Flashbacks” which review previously learned materials; “Quick Checks” to test understanding of key concepts; “We Care” ideas to encourage responsible global citizen thinking; “Creative Science” art and craft projects and hands-on experiments; “Activity Book Link” directing students to the related worksheets in the Activity book; “Research Projects” (internet recommended) and Explore activities that promote critical thinking and communication through discussion. Each unit ends with summaries, self-test questions, a science glossary specific to that unit and a “Science Today” reading that introduces current scientific developments related to that unit concept.

The Activity Book contains the Student Worksheets, Creative Science activities, Review Questions, and the end of the year review (called Revision Exercise). It’s worth mentioning that many activities include items that are easily accessible, while others may require items that are more specialized. You may have to skip certain activities or substitute accordingly. Each activity is easy to follow and lists the aim or objective of the activity, materials needed, procedures, observations, questions, and conclusions. These books are the only consumable portion of the curriculum, so these are the only part of the program you would need to replace for multiple students. The Activity Book is illustrated with black and white illustrations.

The Teacher Guide begins with an overview of the science process skills, BSCS E5 model, the 21st century skills for success, and higher order thinking skills. Following is an overview of the teaching plan with an “at a glance” recommendation for number of lessons and time per lesson, as well as learning objectives, suggested resources, and vocabulary focus. Detailed lesson plans are included, and separate the lessons into the E5 instructional model and include step-by-step instructions for the lessons. Online resources are available and include: a Power Point presentation, and editable questions and answers for each unit. You will receive an email in 48-72 hours with information to access the online resources. Recommended web links are included to engage the student in the lessons. Differentiated learning activities are found here, as well as the answers to the Textbook and Activity Book questions. While many of the activities are group focused, homeschooling families should easily be able to modify for one or two students. If you are familiar with the 1st edition, you will notice the 2nd edition no longer includes the student pages. In this writer’s perspective, this makes the Teacher Guide more succinct and easier to follow, although some may prefer having the student readings in front of them.

Although this series has been revised, the curriculum is still written with metric measurement (no English units) and C° rather than F°. Some of the language used may also seem unfamiliar since the publisher does use European spellings for words like 'analyse' and groundnut (peanut). Overall, the curriculum is easier to use, more comprehensive, and more engaging for elementary students. There is currently no correlation to U.S. standards for this curriculum; however, it has performed well in science testing in the international arena. Please see individual grades for more specifics. ~ Deanne/Donna

Because of multiple requests, we have now picked up Singapore Math's science curriculum, My Pals Are Here Science. Each grade level consists of two parts, an A and a B set. Rather than chopping up the different branches of science into different grade levels and books, a thematic approach is taken, where concepts from different areas of science, including life science, physical science, chemistry and physical science are all linked together under the theme. This approach is meant to help children think about the relationships between different science concepts to lead to a better, more complete understanding of our world. One or more themes are presented in each text, with different science topics featured within each theme unit. The texts themselves are designed to be highly engaging, and feature lines of informative, factual text at an age-appropriate level, surrounded by an abundance of great full-color, well-labeled photos, fun drawings, and diagrams. The text is sprinkled throughout with little "Bits 'n Bites," which feature unique and interesting facts and "Group & Share" questions designed for discussion. Each chapter wraps up with a series of objectives that have been learned, as well as a list of related websites or activities to check out to extend the chapter. The corresponding workbook contains activities directly related to the text pages, with the topic being studied clearly printed at the top of the pages. The worksheets test student's knowledge of information from the text as well as their critical thinking skills, are intended to guide the student through each concept through a wide variety of activities such as classification, matching, labeling, listing, answering thinking questions, filling in graphic organizers, fill-in-the-blanks sentences, crossword puzzles, true/false questions, and many more. The activity book takes the concept a bit further than straight recollection and features pencil-and-paper as well as more hands-on activities that challenge the student to use their critical thinking skills and understanding of the scientific concepts to study the relationships between things. The use of graphic organizers as worksheets, more open-ended thinking questions, and observation are all used more frequently here than in the workbook. The teacher's edition for the activity book includes all the activities in the student book, with the answers in red. I haven't seen the teacher's edition of the textbook, but according to Singapore Math's website, the teacher's edition of the text contains the student text with teaching hints and tips. I would guess that if you feel fairly confident teaching science at this level and with these topics, that it may not be necessary. There is no teaching component to the workbook, although a separate answer sheet is included. Altogether, this looks like a very solid, complete, enjoyable program for elementary grades, and one that even science-haters may come to regard as fun.

Test books are also available for MPH science. Test books contain chapter summaries for review, tests, continual assessments, and semestral assessments. Five to eight tests are included in each test book, with two continual assessments and a couple semestral assessments scattered throughout for more testing. Test questions vary in format and include multiple-choice, short-answer, true/false, and matching. Higher-order thinking questions are marked with an asterisk. Answers to all tests are found at the end of each book. The tests are not reproducible, so you will need a test book for each child.

Note: This is not an Americanized edition, and although this is really not an issue through most of the books, a few places, foods, and animals from the Singapore regions may be occasionally mentioned, and several spellings are different, but these "variations" are few and far between - and hey, it's science - being introduced to these items might add a cool dimension. - Jess

Items listed in this section tend to be complete science programs with a teacher and student component, requiring few supplements besides science supplies.