Planet Earth: Land, Water, Sky

Planet Earth
Why is it essential to include a study of earth science? Earth scientists–for example, meteorologists, seismologists, and geologists–assist people in coping with the volatility of our planet. Their careers and their specific knowledge help us acquire and allocate resources that sustain and advance civilization. Planet Earth: Land, Water, Sky is a new earth science text for middle school. Mastery-based, Planet Earth instructs students to study and prepare, so they learn and retain content long after the Cram-Pass-Forget cycle of other curriculums. Planet Earth begins with a study of the solar system and includes a thorough introduction to weather systems. Minerals, plate tectonics, volcanoes, and earthquakes are covered, as well as landforms and a bit of the earth's history.

The Planet Earth bundle includes the Digital Resources pack with a quiz bank and keys, weekly review guides, semester exams, an experiment manual, recommendations for teaching, and more. These resources are an important part of Planet Earth's distinctive mastery-learning approach, which aims to help students avoid a cram-pass-forget cycle. More details about the Digital Resources pack can be found below. 

The Planet Earth Digital Resources pack is a valuable addition to the Planet Earth curricula, providing a range of resources that includes a quiz bank and keys, weekly review guides, semester exams, an experiment manual, and recommendations for teaching. These resources play a key role in Planet Earth's distinctive mastery-learning approach, which helps students avoid the ineffective cram-pass-forget cycle. Families who integrate quizzes and formal reviews into their study method will find these Digital Resources to be an invaluable aid, as will families who wish to conduct experiments.

The Digital Resources are available via download and contain materials to support Planet Earth. All files are in Microsoft Word .doc format except for answer keys, which are in PDF format. To gain access to your purchased documents, simply create an account and contact the publisher. You can then download your documents by going to the My Library page, which can be found under your Account page.

The publisher considers the Digital Resources essential for implementing the mastery-learning paradigm central to their educational strategy. Weekly cumulative assessments form a key component of this paradigm, making it possible for students to maintain their understanding of key concepts from previous chapters while also learning new material. The Digital Resources also contains the Weekly Review Guide, which is a vital tool for student success. Parents can use this guide to help their children review important material from past instruction, which will be tested in upcoming assessments. Additionally, the resources provide instructions and rubrics for teaching the course, along with a sample schedule and lesson list. The Digital Resources consist of documents only, and student resources are re-printable. 

Contents include:

• Course Overview/Recommendations for Teaching – Describes the details of teaching the course, including suggestions for pacing, organization, assessments, grading, and more.
• Quiz Bank – Quizzes in Microsoft Word format intended for weekly administration. All are mastery-oriented, rehearsing some material and skills from previous chapters in an organized fashion, according to the Weekly Review Guides. Each quiz consists of one page with typically 3-4 questions and can be completed in just 15-20 minutes.
• Quiz Keys – PDF files of solutions to the computational sections of each quiz.
• Semester Exams – Fall and Spring semester exams in .doc format.
• All Answer Keys – All answers to chapter exercises, quizzes, and semester exams in one document.
• Experiment Manual - there is no separate book to purchase for experiments. Including the eight experiments makes this bundle a cost-efficient option. Lab equipment for the experiments can be found at school lab supply vendors. Printable hi-resolution topographic maps are included for conducting some experiments. Print them on a standard printer, or get them printed up at a print shop in the size of a large map for greater usability!
• Weekly Review Guides – 27 Microsoft Word formatted files to copy and distribute to students. This is a critical tool for enabling student success in a mastery education context. Each guide includes student review tasks and four review computations with answer key.
• Lesson List and Sample Calendar – A list of lessons (one per day) describing what to do each day (pages to read, exercises to do, experiment and assessment dates).