Review: Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set

This summer my daughter and I were going back and forth about what science she was going to do this year.  She had already done Biology and Chemistry and felt that she didn't need to do any further science. I, being the mom that I am, didn't agree and was throwing different suggestions out to her.  When I saw that we had the chance to review the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set by Apologia Educational Ministries I was hopeful that THIS would be the science that caught her attention. The student should have completed Biology before moving on to Marine Biology and she had, so we were good on that front.  I have to admit she wasn't so thrilled about having to start in the summer.  She's always had a fascination for the things of the sea since she was little.  I was hopeful that her interest in the subject matter would trump her desire to not do any school during the summer.  She looked around the website and decided that this would be "ok" to work on this year. My daughter is currently in the "stage" where nothing school related excites her. At least that is what she tells me and she wouldn't want me to see that she might be enjoying one of her school subjects.  If she doesn't complain daily while doing it then I know she's enjoying it.  I was hopeful that she would get started with the Marine Biology and the joy she had studying it when she was younger would return.

I've always loved when new books arrived and my kids used to when they were younger.  The day the box arrived I was so excited to look and see what we got.  As I opened the box the beautiful covers jumped right out at me.


This is a scene that most people would love to see in person.  For some reason every time I see the books on the table I smile because of the beauty and peace that the picture brings to me. I looked through the box and was very pleased to find the textbook, student notebook, test booklet, the solution and test booklet as well as the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Audio CD. I have to admit that I might have been the most excited about the cd because I thought it would be helpful to my daughter to listen to the cd while reading along in her book   I sat down and immediately starting flipping through the student notebook. I LOVE that they have put this notebook together, so that everything you need for the class is pretty much in one place.  It might sound crazy to some, but I think my favorite part might be the daily schedule that is listed towards the front of the book. I love it because it's set up by weeks, 34, with a five day a week schedule. Everything is listed that my daughter needs to do: what pages to read, which questions to answer, if there is an experiment and what to do to prepare for the tests.  This is a super easy way to keep her organized and we are all on the same page! 

Another item I haven't really seen in some of the notebooks we've used is pages designed for note taking.  The older the kids get the more they need to learn the skill of taking notes.  This is set up with enough pages for them to take notes throughout the entire module.  

There are several pages of On Your Own questions that they work on while reading the text.  The answers are listed in the student text for the student to check their own work.  There are also study guide questions to be completed at the end of the module and an optional summary. I really liked the optional summary because it was a fill-in-the blank activity that really focused on the vocabulary and knowing what the words meant that were in the chapter.  My daughter actually felt that between the study guide, optional summary and then the test that there was a lot of work. We decided that we would alternate the optional summary and the test every other module.  That way she is still taking the tests, but gets the benefits that I think you get from the optional summary. She did point out it said "optional", so I felt this was a good compromise.  The tests are all packaged together in their own book which is nice. You always know where they are and you can keep them all together if you need them in the future. Basically all your students work is either in the notebook or test book, so it's easily kept up with. That is something my daughter needs because she will lose papers if they aren't all together.  Here are some example pages as we started working through the first few modules.

   

This is the first page of the on your own questions for module 2.  You can see that beside each question is the number for the sections as you go about your reading.  There were usually 2 or 3 of these, I believe, each time she read.  Below is what the answer key looks like in the student book.  

This is the first page of the study guide in module 2 as well as a sample of the answers.  

Below is the first page of the test for module 3. As you can see there are definitions to complete as well as comprehension type questions.  Most of the tests are about a dozen questions, so enough to test the students knowledge without overwhelming them.  

I noticed while she was working through the very first module she would ask me different things to see if I knew them.  She was sharing quite a bit of information that I wasn't sure I knew or had forgotten. I could tell that she was already hooked just within the first chapter.  Here is what she will be learning this year in Marine Biology: Module 1-The Oceans of our Planet Module 2-Life in the Sea Module 3-The First Four Kingdoms Module 4-Marine Invertebrates I Module 5-Marine Invertebrates II Module 6-Marine Vertebrates I Module 7-Marine Vertebrates II Module 8-Marine Ecology Module 9-The Intertidal Zone Module 10-Estuary Communities Module 11-Coral Reefs Module 12-Continental Shelf Communities Module 13-The Epipelagic Zone Module 14-The Deep Ocean Module 15-Ocean Resources Module 16-Effects of Humans on the Sea I think she and I both are excited about the Estuary Communities, Coral Reefs, Ocean Resources and Effects of Humans on the Sea! Each module should take about two weeks to complete if you are working at a pace of about an hour five days a week.  If you like to do your schedule a little different then it would take a little longer.  I think we'll be done at the end of the year, but might run into our summer just a bit. We started out a little slower than the planned five days a week because it was summer.  As school started we moved into the five day schedule.  Soon we will move down to a four day schedule because Brianna does Gavel Club and Drama on Wednesdays.  I usually have them do three of their subjects on that day and I feel that it would be pushing it to have the Marine Biology as one, so she'll work on it the other four days a week. Even though the suggested schedule is in the book Apologia always recommends that you go at your pace.  They want the student to be learning and to love learning, so they always encourage you to work at the pace that is best for your family. Also included in the textbook is an additional website.  If you are having struggles with one of the modules or just want additional information you can go the the book extras website and get that information there.   We tried out the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Audio CD and it took me a few minutes to figure out how to work in on my computer.  I couldn't figure out how to select the module I wanted and I knew there had to be a way. I clicked around on the icon that was on the screen and quickly figured out how to move around the modules.  We listened to Module 3 and what stood out to me was that everything was read.  The modules have what I would call an introduction, there is also something called dive in, there are your different sections, vocabulary words, on your own questions, example figures and experiments. It was very easy to follow along with the audio and in fact the audio could stand alone. There was nothing skipped when we followed along with the audio. I liked that even the questions were read to you. I also thought it was great that they included the vocabulary words. I think those are easily skipped when a student is reading because it's a one line outside of the material they are reading. The audio cd makes sure that your students are hearing the definitions of those vocabulary words.  If you needed to work in the car one day you could easily listen and answer your questions all with the audio.  I wasn't sure the audio version would be something that I liked because I've found my mind will wonder if I'm not reading the material.  Several things jumped out to me while listening.  One was that Cyanobacteria can change the oceans color through overpopulation.  This is called a red tide. I remember we saw this once while living in California.  This red tide can be harmful to other organisms because the molecules produced are poisonous or harmful to other species.  Even though we had experienced seeing a red tide years ago I'm not sure I even realized it could be a bad thing.  If you have a child that struggles with reading or maybe gets overwhelmed the audio is perfect. My oldest got very overwhelmed when there were too many pages for him to read.  I don't recall there being many of these audio cd's around that he could have used.  I think it would have been perfect for him. My daughter doesn't have any struggles with her reading, but sometimes I've found if she's having a rough day or week if she follows while I'm reading it seems to help her "get it" a little sooner. I think all families would benefit from having the audio cd.  Each of our children is different and some days it could be helpful to just listen rather than do the usual reading.  

Here is an experiment that we did.  There were two pages to walk you through the directions for the experiment as well as information about what was happening.  

Here was our egg soaking in vinegar for the first 24 hours. 

I forgot to take a picture when we took it out and rinsed it. Below is a picture of the egg sitting in Karo Syrup for the second 24 hours. It's turned almost a beige color with a rubbery texture.

Here is a picture as we took the egg out of the syrup mixture.  

Here is one a few hours before we took it out of the distilled water. 

It was amazing the changes the egg went through. Sadly, my youngest wanted to touch it and dropped it on the counter :( We didn't get final measurements, but I think we'll do this again because it was so cool!

If your interested in more information about the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Advantage Set or the Marine Biology 2nd Edition Audio CD by Apologia Educational Ministries check them out on their social media pages:  Facebook Instagram  Twitter Pinterest
You can also check out this video to get more information about the program.