Exploring Creation with General Science Student Notebook 3rd Edition

This companion notebook is designed to be used with Apologia’s Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition, textbook. The student notebook provides an organized, complete lesson plan for the year, which lets students check off their progress as they work their way through. It has places for their notes as they’re reading, lab charts, and tables to record their scientific findings.

This notebook pairs perfectly with the Exploring Creation with General Science, 3rd Edition textbook, providing easy-to-understand graphics where students fill in the blank spaces as they read. Students learn how to take information from a text, identify key points, and critically think through what they are learning.

Teaching Your Student Solid Note-Taking Skills

Note-taking is a learned skill. While it might seem like there should be “answers” to questions and prompts found in the student notebook, we do not provide specific answers on purpose. The best way to take notes is the way that works for the student. That’s why the Student Notebook introduces the student to several methods for taking notes. At the beginning of each module in their Student Notebooks, students are encouraged to take mindful notes using techniques that expand as the school year progresses.

The section in the Student Notebook where notes are recorded was created to give students prompts or questions to lead them to the important information they will read in the text. Answering these prompts will help them take effective notes. The notes a student takes are personal to them and their answers may be different from another student’s answers, but they can be sure to find the information on the pages they’re instructed to read.
Although there is no one right way to take good notes, after trying the techniques in this notebook students should find the way that works best for them. Then they’ll have a much better handle on all the interesting and sometimes amazing things they will learn in general science this year.

Additionally, we purposely designed this course so that the first 2 exams are open book – meaning that students can use their textbook and notebooks when answering questions. We encourage them to evaluate their note taking efforts after each exam. Were their notes helpful in the exam? If yes, they are capturing important information. If no, they need to learn to pull more information out of the textbook. Don’t worry, we help them there too. Using colored text and prompts to steer them in the right direction, we essentially walk your student through the note-taking experience.