The Student Notebook is highly recommended since it was intentionally designed to correlate with the textbook instructions. 

Because middle school is the time that most students are formally introduced to notetaking, we’ve developed the 3rd Edition to interact with the student and teach them how to take proper notes. We do this in multiple ways such as the use of specially designed icons to let the student know when things are specifically required, interactive graphics in the student’s notebook, as well as colored fonts to make important data stand out.