What sets SCI's programs apart from other physical science curricula?

 

How does the 9th edition of IPS stand up to your current physical science program? 

Compare for yourself!

 

Feature	Introductory Physical Science (IPS)	Your Current Textbook?
Inquiry-based (non-recipe) labs
Instructional path driven by students' lab results
Questions to aid reading comprehension
Problems based on real data
Creative essay activities
Formative assessment questions
In-depth questions for review, application, and extension
Coherent story line, rather than isolated units
Teaching tips, lab prep and safety tips, sample data and analysis, written assessments, lab tests
Diagnostic interpretations of incorrect assessment responses (available in Diagnostic Analysis Software)
Piloted in schools prior to publication

 

The content of our programs is scientifically accurate - Students will not have to "unlearn" anything they learn in IPS or FM&E.

 

IPS and FM&E have a clear set of objectives - The goals of the courses are understanding basic science and developing laboratory skills, reasoning skills (e.g., the application of knowledge to new situations), and communication skills in the context of science.

 

Both courses have a clear story line - Each course follows a well-defined path that demonstrates the excitement of inquiry as the means of acquiring scientific knowledge. Guided reasoning, based on experimental results, leads to the generalizations that form the coherent story lines.

 

IPS and FM&E start where the students are - The courses rely on the fact that all students have had some experience with matter and forces in their daily lives. All new ideas are based on concrete student experiences in the laboratory and all new terms are introduced only after the need for them has been established.

 

The format of the textbooks is carefully designed to facilitate learning - Rather than being separate activities or "hangers-on" at the ends of chapters, laboratory experiments are integrated into the main body of each text. Photos and illustrations form an integral part of each textbook; they are not simply peripheral "bells and whistles." The textbooks are not cluttered and are free of distracting sidebars.