I have to tell you I teach 7th grade Life Science, and those topics you mentioned are way out there.
My wife talked to the person in charge of curriculum today. She was told that these were not the science books purchased for that grade and that she had NO idea that the teacher was using something different. We now have the correct science books and that just gives us more ammunition tomorrow to get this change made. I think that the teacher is going to be in for a rude awakening tomorrow. Our 5th and 6th graders' teachers both reported to my wife that the school director had come in today to ask some odd questions about what science textbooks they were using and asked for a copy for him to review. Apparently, the few details I gave him in our brief conversation was enough to get him moving on the issue.