I also saw the blog about the propellers. Is it still okay to send you money and buy the propellers from you?

Thank you,
Deni

I can understand about not going into enough depth… that’s one of the reasons we started eScience with just Physics and dove as far into each as we could! A lot of families dovetail the eScience program (which is heavy on the experiments) with their favorite science textbook – even the one you used in college would work… the principles aren’t that different, just in the delivery of the content. Here’s a list of the popular texts that some families are using along with eScience.

The science texts we post to the site are available for you download as a part of your enrollment (there’s no additional charge). The 9-12th grade textbooks that the K-12 enrollment students have access to are mostly written for high school and college level students. However, I can recommend different texts depending on your kid’s ages and reading levels.

I’m currently evaluating a set of science texts, as there’s a major jump in our eScience program text downloads between the lower and upper levels, and I want to add a middle level for grades 5-8 (but realistically won’t be completed and up for a while yet). But I’ve peeked through a few, and thought you might want to know what I’ve been looking at.

Here are additional texts you might want to pick up to supplement the reading material if you kids are craving more than we have on eScience:

For Electricity and Electronics, these are my top three picks for your kids’ age range:
• Getting Started in Electronics by Forrest Mims III – good to start with

• MAKE: Electronics by Charles Pratt – excellent second book into electronics

• Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz – the third one is more for high school, but they’ll reference it forever if they’re into electronics at all

For Chemistry, here’s a few that look the most promising:
• Here’s a really awesome (free) online chemistry textbook, but your kids have to really want to read screenfuls of text…

• For AP Level Chemistry: The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. (Keep in mind the experiments in this text are NOT the ones we’re covering in Unit 15 – they are above and beyond Unit 15.)

• Hands-On Chemistry Activities with Real-Life Applications

• Chemistry for Dummies

• Chemistry Concepts and Problems

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any further questions.

Happy experimenting,
Aurora

Anyway, let me know what you think. Would using the high school level work? If you are working on a junior high level, do you think it will really be done by fall? What would be the cost for it? Also, what texts do you recommend that I could look at?

Thanks,
Marianne

You’re right – the really toxic chemicals aren’t able to be shipped in the same container, and there’s often additional charges to ship hazardous stuff like NaOH and HCl. However, we’ve got videos on how to make both of those using the chemicals already inside the set. You will need to get denatured alcohol from the drug store (it’s much cheaper that way).

Do NOT buy Sulfuric Acid from an auto parts store, as the container you’re given has way more than you’ll ever use, and pouring it is impossible to do without splashing (and in this case, it will also eat clear through your skin). It’s really nasty stuff to work with, so we suggest getting it already in its own container from a science supply store. There are links on Shopping List Unit 15 for where to get each additional chemical, how to store them, etc. You’ll need to learn how to safely store each one (some chemicals should not even be near each other).

I would recommend skipping the advanced ones now and simply picking up the alcohol at the store for your burner. You’ll have plenty to do without the nasty ones, and after your kids demonstrate safe chemical handling, you can feel more comfortable getting the more dangerous ones. Does that help?

One of the reviews said this: “As regards not being to get the Sodium Hydroxide, you can get it from Unitednuclear.com, and Homesciencetools.com sells both Hydrochloric acid and Sodium hydroxide. Both sites sell other chemicals too, so you won’t have a problem getting the necessary chemicals. Also, many hardware stores sell Hydrochloric acid (they call it Muriatic acid), as well as Sulfuric acid (battery acid). So, getting the necessary chemicals is not as hard as it may seem.”

Do you have any insight on these companies? Or do you have a recommended source? If not, maybe this will be a good resource for you to recommend to your customers. I am going to check them out.
Thanks again.

Kim