Another addition to the "Painless" series, this book does a great job of explaining the concepts of earth science. Earth science is presented in easy-to-understand terminology that will help students understand. Chapters cover the topics of earth structure, atmosphere, weather and climate, hydrosphere, lithosphere, weathering, erosion and deposition, earthquakes and volcanoes, plate tectonics, earth's history, and earth in space.
Every chapter includes textual information that has been written to the student, diagrams, illustrations, 'brain ticklers' which review material from the previous section, boxes with vocabulary and important facts, and a summary of the chapter in bulleted format. You even have the option of downloading a free app for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android, which includes quizzes and games. The quizzes test over material taken directly from the book, but the games are simply for fun not content related.
Use this 300+ page book as a self-study course in the middle school grades, or as a course summary, review, or introduction for Earth Science. You could also use this as a supplement to your existing curriculum, to add simpler explanations and fun review. ~ Donna