Community reviews for Journey Into the Deep

As a teaching tool Journey Into the Deep is helpful as it offers great content information about the ocean. It would best be used as a teacher-directed tool as there is a lot of vocabulary that students will not know. There is a lot of content and it would have been helpful be there were videos interspersed with the written content. It would have also been helpful to introduce the vocabulary at the start of each section so it could have been pre-taught to students. It also would have been helpful to have some Check In or reflection questions at the end of each section so students could have reviewed the key poinst for that level of the ocean. I did find the glossary helpful as well as the source notes and bibliography. The discussion questions were great at the end, but if would have been more helpful if they at the end of each section. The one addition to the app that would have been helpful would have been the inclusion of some suggested activities.

The book/app is filled with well written descriptions that make you feel you are a part of the action. There are a few embedded videos though I wish there were more. Kids seem to be more captivated by video though the images are captivating as well. One of the videos shows a submersible capturing a sea cucumber. Another watches the way sea creatures move. There are also a few animations throughout. Navigation is easy and students quickly adjusted to it. Some icons take you back to the beginning of the chapter, others take you to the beginning of the book, and others show you more details about the current picture or topic. Low readers probably would enjoy the pictures but the text is written for a higher level. It is a good non-fiction read.The end of the book includes a comprehensive glossary, source notes, a selected bibliography, and live links to websites where students could learn more.Overall it is a beautifully done product with excellent research included. Students who are interested in this topic and needed accurate and detailed information would enjoy it. Teachers could use the discussion questions to help stimulate debate on various topics. All students might not spend lots of time with the book and after viewing it once may not revisit it. But for those with a love for science and/or the mysteries of the deep, they would find a great source of information. It would be a good resource to have in the classroom.