In this Form 3-4 study guide, students will learn about the universal laws of science, including those for liquids and gases, matter and energy, and motion and waves.

Spine Text: This study guide accompanies the living book Secrets of the Universe by Paul Fleisher which is super expensive these days, so thankfully you can find beautiful reprints of the various sections by LivingBookPress.com. You can find them on Amazon as well:

Objects in Motion: Principles of Classical Mechanics
Matter and Energy: Principles of Matter and Thermodynamics
Liquids and Gases: Principles of Fluid Mechanics
Waves: Principles of Light, Electricity, and Magnetism

This study guide denotes page numbers for the full copy of Secrets of the Universe (1987) as well as four of the series reprints from Lerner Publishing (2001 and 2008) and Living Book Press (2019) as listed above. (Relativity and Quantum Mechanics: Principles of Modern Physics is not required.)

The latest version, available from LivingBookPress.com, is recommended if you don’t already own these. The publisher has included the beautiful original drawings (from the 1987 version), and the original author has updated the text in a few areas. However, they are primarily literary updates, so if you own one of the older copies, you should not worry that the science is out of date.

One last note about the version. At one point, it became very difficult to find a physical copy of the books for this guide, so I purchased a school license from Lerner Publishing for the four titles needed. As they have now been republished, it’s unnecessary to buy the digital book. However, I have left the option available below for people who use my guides from countries where shipping is costly. If you wish to purchase it, you will have access to the eBook indefinitely, but you should be aware that I have not found any way to print it, so it will need to be read on a device. To download it to a kindle, click the cloud button with a downward button. That brings you to an online pdf, which you can download to a computer. Then email the file to your Kindle’s email address. By typing “Convert” in the subject line, the file is converted to the Kindle format. I have been told that the transferred file looks great on the Kindle paperwhite.

214 pages, 22 chapters (168 pages, 18 chapters assigned)
Reading Level: 7 grade and up
Prerequisites: none
Please Note. The study guide includes religious content. If you require a secular version, make that selection below. For more information, please see this page.

Author Bio:

Paul Fleisher (1948) has won numerous awards and honors for his excellence in teaching and writing. He taught science for many years in the Program for the Gifted in Virginia, which allowed him much scope for developing innovative curriculum. He is gifted himself with the ability to take a subject and open it up, allowing others to discover the fascinations and wonder within. He has written books that cover a wide range of interests: diverse science topics, nuclear arms, violin making and many more.

Mr. Fleisher’s books of tanglers and cooperative games involve a collective effort of deductive reasoning and/or math skills to solve puzzles and problems while working as a team. Indeed, unity and peace have been a theme for his life as he has done much work with peace education and international relations as well as being a musician in a community ensemble of Gamelan, which is the traditional music of Indonesia. (source)

Other Necessary Items to Complement This Course

Supply List

Schedule:

This study guide includes 33 lessons, each requiring approximately 30-40 minutes. You can either schedule it:

Three times a week for 11 weeks allowing for exams during the 12th week, or
Once a week for an entire year, allowing time for exams at the end of each term, and including other science subjects on the other days of the week.

This guide uses the following tools and prompts: