You successfully homeschooled eight years of grade school science and maybe a year or two of high school—pat yourself on the back, because you deserve it. But suddenly you’re staring high school chemistry in the face and feeling like the firm homeschool ground you were standing on has turned to quicksand. Not to worry—Apologia Ministries’ Exploring Creation with Chemistry course can set you back on stable ground.

Exploring Creation with Chemistry, 3^rd Edition, from Apologia Educational Ministries is a complete college-prep chemistry course written by Kristy Plourde, M.S., for high school students. It introduces the student to the concepts of chemistry from the basic to the complex. After completing Apologia Chemistry, your student will be fully prepared for university science classes and will appreciate the complexity of natural science, the beautiful intricacy of creation, and the wisdom of the Creator.

The Advantage Set includes the Exploring Creation with Chemistry textbook, a consumable student notebook, and a tests and solutions manual. It also gives the student full access to a course website with links for advanced study and further help, which totally gets Mom and Dad off the hook—whew!

Because Apologia’s chemistry program is a lab course that can satisfy a high school science lab requirement, the textbook includes supporting experiments within each of the modules. While the experiments can all be completed with material found at home, some are more easily performed with specialized equipment available through Apologia, such as beakers, test tubes, and a burner. It’s up to you and your state’s requirements how in depth you go with experiments, but if you do them all, the lab kit will help. A separate MicroChem Kit is also available and offers 17 more experiments—that add-on is not generally necessary for earning full lab credit for the course, but it will help science-minded students dig deeper.

Are you still panicking about teaching high school chemistry? Good news! Exploring Creation with Chemistry is designed for the high school student to study independently. If your student has mastered algebra, he can get through chemistry without you. That right there is a homeschool-parent win! Have a cookie.

To help your student along the path of independent learning—an exciting and worthwhile life skill—the Exploring Creation with Chemistry Student Notebook breaks the course’s 16 modules up into manageable daily tasks. By averaging an hour a day, the student can work independently through each module in two weeks and the entire program in 32 weeks. That schedule leaves four weeks (out of the typical 36-week school year) for mastering difficult topics, catching up on experiments, studying for exams, remaining flexible, or showering Mom and Dad with cookies. I recommend the cookies.

The student notebook also encourages the student to take notes and offers guidance on how that is done on a scientific level. It also acts as a consumable workbook for the “On Your Own” problems, the “Study Guide” review work, and the “Extra Practice Problems.” There are corresponding lap report forms as well, which are ideal for states requiring proof that high school lab requirements were met.

The third edition of the notebook includes instruction for creating and interpreting graphs, a necessary skill for sharing data in the scientific world. Finally, the notebook serves as a great review resource for at-home testing or if your student is taking the course for CLEP credit.

The 16 modules in the text and corresponding notebook will give your student an in-depth understanding of chemistry at a manageable, but challenging pace. The first module thoroughly discusses the scientific method, as well as units and measurement. The next four modules focus on molecules and atoms, including their structure, polyatomic ions, and molecular geometry. Modules six and seven address chemical reactions. Number eight is stoichiometry, and nine is acid-base chemistry. Next are solutions, the gas phase, and a couple modules exploring thermodynamics. After kinetics and chemical equilibrium, the course wraps up with reduction-oxidation reactions in module 16.

A glossary and appendices finish the book off with information about tables, laws, and equations, extra practice problems (same as in the student notebook), and a complete list of lab supplies, including a very intimidating warning to not kill yourself by using an electrical outlet instead of a 9-volt battery. I hate when that happens.

Included in each module are sections entitled “On Your Own.” They are filled with questions and practice problems (repeated in the student notebook) to help solidify information in the student’s head. Also included are thorough examples throughout each module. Answers to all problems are posted at the end of each section, so we parents don’t have to stretch our brains out of our comfort zones. Thumbs up!

Apologia Ministries publishes Christian material that seeks to give glory to God by delving into His Creation, and the Exploring Creation with Chemistry textbook is no exception. Each module in the text contains “Think About This” sections which reveal how science supports Scripture and encourage students to think outside of the normal worldview—for example, one such section explains that Scripture mentioned the weight of air before Aristotle discovered this concept and supported the Bible through his discovery.

“Salt and Light” sections introduce renowned scientists who were highly respected in their fields and gave glory to God in their scientific careers, men like Johannes Baptista van Helmont, whose faith inspired him to study science and who eventually gave the scientific world the term gas. “Science and Creation” sections share insight that supports Creation and shed light on evolution’s failings from a scientific perspective, such as module 11’s explanation of Darwin’s false extrapolations.

While the modules in the chemistry textbook are packed with information, your student’s eyes will not bug out with visual information overload. The modules are laid out in a visibly appealing manner which also helps reinforce information as it is learned. Important definitions, formulas, molecular diagrams, and other important and potentially complex information is set apart in tables, enlarged letters, or bold print.

A separate tests and solutions manual provides answers to the review and practice problems from the text and student notebook and answers to the tests within the test manual itself. It also provides more in-depth help on experiment calculations. There is a test for each module as well as four quarterly tests. The quarterlies can be given each quarter, two after each semester as semester exams, or all at once as a final exam to prepare your student for the rigors of college testing. The choice is yours.

This brings us to the question of grades. Cue panic music. The student notebook contains a very comprehensive grading rubric which takes the struggle out of the process. End panic music.

While Apologia high school materials are intended for homeschoolers to use independently, the course is also ideal for use in a co-op setting. Students can either gather for lectures, lab work, or both.

Our 18-year-old daughter used the course independently along with other Apologia material to study for her Natural Sciences CLEP exam to satisfy her core science credits for her bachelor’s degree. Others in our family are reading it “just for fun,” because who doesn’t love memorizing the periodic table! Put your hand down.

The cost of the Advantage Set is $115. I would prefer that the extra experiments were included in the textbook instead of requiring an additional purchase. Still, it does make the program a little less intimidating for those of us who feel the need to do everything in a text, and the course is complete without the extras.

If you choose to use the consumable student notebook, you will need one for each student. The test and solution manual comes with a packet of detachable tests. The tests can be copied or additional test packets can be ordered for extra students without re-purchasing the entire solution manual, making the set more affordable for large families. Thank you, Apologia!

Our family enjoys Apologia’s conversational style, familiar to students raised on Charlotte Mason-style living books. We also appreciate the seamless addition of Scripture and Creation information in Exploring Creation with Chemistry; it better prepares us to give solid scientific answers to support our Biblical beliefs without compromising our faith or scientific integrity. Ultimately, there is no better reason to study chemistry, and this is where Apologia excels. Overall, we appreciate how well Apologia’s award-winning chemistry program plucks panicked parents out of the quicksand and sets them on solid Biblical and scientific ground.

UPDATE: Marissa passed her six-credit natural sciences CLEP examination with flying colors. She said the chemistry section was a breeze, thanks to Apologia Chemistry!

-Product review by Christy Bagasao, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July 2017