Review in Progress
John L. Hubisz, Ph.D., Hubisz@unity.ncsu.edu
last updated 8/22/02

Prentice Hall Science Explorer Grade 6 Texas Edition (Advance Copy: For Review Purposes only) ISBN 0-13-053478-1 (2002) xxii + 645 pages

There are three Program Authors and 11 Book Authors. There are 13 Tufts University Program Reviewers, a Reading Consultant, an Interdisciplinary Consultant, two Safety Consultants, 39 Content Reviewers, 14 Texas Consultants, 39 Teacher Reviewers, and 23 Activity Field Testers.

There are four Units containing 12 Chapters: Properties of Physical Systems, Structure and Function in Living Systems, Matter and Energy in the Environment, and Earth and Space Systems – Structure and Function.
The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Science (TEKS) are reproduced with references to where these topics are mentioned.

I am reviewing this book from the point of view of a physicist interested in getting across to Middle Schoolers the basic principles of science in a logical and coherent way that is at an appropriate reading level for these students. I am against the mixing up of the sciences. Each discipline (biology, chemistry, geology, and physics) has its own approach and techniques to answering questions about nature. This is their strength when they work with scientists from other disciplines on interdisciplinary and environmental problems. Mixing them up produces mush. To study environmental science, oceanography, meteorology, engineering, or any hyphenated science without getting a grounding in the basic disciplines is a serious error. Courses then tend to be taught as memorization courses and not as science courses with their emphasis on experimental work and all that goes with the scientific approach. Definitions are given before working with the concept thereby short-circuiting what physics education researchers have learned is the most appropriate approach to learning and encouraging memorization rather than true learning.

I have a good idea of the problems facing the publishers. They are responding to the requests of hundreds of people, generally ignorant of science, to put in certain topics or meet some imaginary politically correct criterion that is of no relevance to science. This leads to a textbook weighing almost five pounds filled with irrelevant material that distracts the reader from what is science and what is important.

I have read all three books in this series for the Middle School grades. When I use the phrase “waste of time,” I mean that while the material may be interesting, it is not science and should not be included as part of the text of the course. A teacher might present some of this material as an application of a scientific principle or it might be included in a social studies course. Realize that technology is not science. Do not confuse them!

Pages 2-9 waste time on the 1900 Galveston hurricane, wind research, and reducing hurricane damage. Already the text is becoming too busy with extraneous information. A few suggestions right up front to reduce this busyness would be to eliminate all the “Checkpoint” questions as worthless. Then eliminate all the “Guide for Reading” sections in the margins. As a substitute, an occasional question or problem at the back of the chapter that gets at encouraging the same practice would be good. The notion of a journal is introduced without any explanation. See my “Essay on the Laboratory Notebook” for a description of what “maintaining a laboratory notebook” means.

“What is Science?” is the title of the Introduction. Page 10 shows a student holding on to a thermometer to make a measurement. This would be very difficult to maintain if the objective is to monitor conditions in the fish tank. It would be better to make some kind of rig to attach the thermometer to ensure taking measurements at the same place and under the same conditions. On page 11, it would be better to state that scientists try to design an experiment that tests only one variable at a time, but this is very difficult.