Curriculum Updates

Most recent update to this page:  7/1/23

I’ve just started working on a new book called “Discovering Motion.”

Yes, I’ve told some of you I’d never write a book on physics. However, I was just coerced into agreeing to do a unit on physics for a group of middle and high schoolers (2023-24) that is not math intensive but very hands-on. I’ve been looking around for curricula and… you can hear this one coming… can’t find anything I really get excited about using. Some have far too much math, some are too basic, some are too boring, etc. I went back to look at the four free physics labs I have posted on my free downloads, and hey, those look pretty good. I did also find a good book of experiments about force and motion, but it lacks good student readings. So… the fingerprint guys are being given a time portal machine so they can spy in on the likes of Archimedes, Galileo and Newton. It will cover topics like center of mass, pendulums, levers and simple machines, mass, interia, velocity, gravity, acceleration, Newton’s Laws, etc.  Not to be used as a substitute for an academic high school physics class, but suitable for high school credit for those not headed for a science career. Also great for middle school and for gifted upper elementary and middle school. // I hope to have the book done by the end of 2023 so I can field test it in the spring of 2024. It should be in my store by about March-April of 2024.  (This is all “Lord willing,” of course. As we have all learned in the past few years, sometimes life doesn’t go the way we plan.)

These curricula are now in their Second Edition:  “The Brain,” “Carbon Chemistry,” and “Cells”

If you purchased these books in the past and would like to receive the update in digital version, request by emailing me: ejm.basementworkshop@gmail.com

 

“Mapping the World” and “Mapping the Body” on USB flash drives

These are now available on a USB flash drive so you don’t have to access the internet to get the video lessons.   Some of the features of the “Mapping the Body” course are online and can’t be transferred to the flash drive, such as the interactive online quizzes, or the online labs.  The USB option is best for people who have sporadic Internet access or who live in areas with no Internet access.  If you get the USB option and then decide you need online access, you can email me and let me know.

 

“The Elements” is now the 5th edition

The changes made to this newest edition were to update all the Periodic Tables to include all the names of the elements up through 118, to remove suggested links to websites that no longer exist, to include some sample pages from my new coloring book, and to add a few activities, and to make some other minor tweaks.

 

Errata:  Rocks and Dirt, older editions (before 2020)

The missing words at the bottom of page 8 are:  “the elements titanium and iron mixed into the Al2O3.)”

The answer key for 2.4 should read as follows:
ACROSS:
2) gypsum 3) magnetite 8) malachite 9) feldspar 10) topaz 11) talc 15) pitchblende 17) fluorite 18) bauxite
19) apatite 20) pyrite 22) ulexite 23) sphalerite
DOWN:
1) diamond 2) galena 4) graphite 5) barite 6) beryl 7) hematite 12) cinnabar 13) calcite 14) corundum
16) halite 18) biotite 21) quartz

The download and the printed booklets were updated on Oct. 1, 2018.