Book Description

At the seashore . . .

High tide rushes in to fill a sandy basin with water. At first glance, it may seem like an ordinary puddle. But look again. Do you spy the ochre sea star or the tentacles of the giant green anemones? Look even closer. Now can you see the hermit crabs and turban snails, the barnacles and periwinkles?

In lyrical prose, Barbara Brenner reveals the fascinating happenings in one small place. She explains the recurring formation of tide pools and the remarkable interdependence of their creatures. Tom Leonard’s brilliant illustrations take you underwater to a secret world. His detailed, lifelike depictions of sculpins and mussels, algae and seaweed, show the splendor that dwells in the most unexpected places.

So stop. Observe. Explore your natural world. If you look closely enough, you will surely find . . . one small place that is home for many things.

Book Description

Discover the origins of life on earth -- from the first bacteria through the age of giant dinosaurs to the coming of humans.

For 4,600 million years, there has been some form of life on Earth. At first, the Earth was a mass of raging fires and volcanoes, so early forms of life began in the seas. Prehistoric Life tells the story of these and the succeeding life forms -- everything from microscopic organisms to early humans. We know about the great diversity of early life through the fossil finds from many different countries. Prehistoric Life describes how these fossils fit together into a giant jigsaw puzzle. Using reconstructions and authentic models, such fascinating creatures from Earth's prehistory as the great dinosaurs, the ferocious saber-toothed tiger, and the giant woolly mammoth, are brought vividly to life. Written by William Lindsay, an experienced paleontologist and author of many best-selling books for children on dinosaurs, Eyewitness Prehistoric Life is an exciting introduction to what life was like many millions of years ago. ... Read more

Book Description

This exciting new book explains the basic concept of the life cycle. Using fascinating examples, the book explores both plant and animal life from seed oregg through birth, growth, reproduction, and death. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

great science book
This entire series of books on animals, their habitats, life cycles, etc. are wonderful! I own 13 of them now. I use these with my first graders during our animal unit. Each book has fantastic pictures and drawings. The information is presented very well but also simply enough that primary aged students can grasp the concepts and find it fascinating. The books also enable themselves to be read in pieces if you want to skip something or focus on a certain area. I highly recommend books by Bobbie Kalman! ... Read more

Book Description

A teaspoon of sea water can hold a soupy serving of a million zooplankton! These tiny animals often look like weird life forms from outer space or larger animals such as jellyfish.

In this newest volume (another volume: Sea Soup: Phytoplankton was published in December 1999), Mary Cerullos text answers intriguing questions about these tiny animals that have shaped our world, while Bill Curtsingers extraordinary photomicroscopy serves up tantalizing images of this sea soup. Many of the photos for these books were taken at Maines Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science and the Darling Marine Center, using an Axiophot 2 research microscope donated by Carl Zeiss, Inc.

This book has an accompanying teacher's guide: Sea Soup Teachers Guide: Discovering the Watery World of Phytoplankton and Zooplankton ... Read more

Reviews (1)

REALLY GOOD!
We use this book in 8th grade and it really helped me get through Biology! The book plainly states all the ideas and clearly too! ... Read more

Book Description

Janice VanCleave’s A+ Projects in Biology Are you having a hard time coming up with a good idea for the science fair? Do you want to earn extra credit in your biology class? Or do you just want to know how the world really works? Janice VanCleave’s A+ Projects in Biology can help you, and the best part is it won’t involve any complicated or expensive equipment. This step-by-step guide explores 30 different topics and offers dozens of experiment ideas. The book also includes charts, diagrams, and illustrations. Here are just a few of the topics you’ll be investigating: • Seed germination • Chromatography • Food preservatives • Cellular respiration • Operant conditioning You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to turn your own ideas into winning science fair projects. Also available: Janice VanCleave’s A+ Projects in Chemistry ... Read more

Reviews (1)

great reference!
recently i had to do a major science project; one that i had to turn in or else i wouldn't get a passing grade in the class. my teacher happened to have that book, and just by flipping through the book a couple of times, i knew what my project was going to be on. it gave me suggestions on how and why and what happened. it's a great book, and if n-e-1 needs a project, this is the book! ... Read more

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the rip off book
This book was 25.00 aproximately and looked like a 5 dollar book.It had few pages and was not enough information for a high school student to write a report on for her career choice.The postage was about the value of this book. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

What Kind of Beast ?
The great question of all time is, "Who is man and when did he come from?"I think this book gives a fair portrait of what evolution is about.It tells kids point blank that man and ape have more in common than co-existing on the planet.This book teaches children that their great, great, great, great... (keep going...great, great grandmothers were not human.It even invited them to examine themselves in a mirror and realize the "beast"they really are.I read this book with my children ages 9 and 11, to show them what evolution teaches.My family is Christian and we believe that in the begining God created the heavens and the earth... and that God formed man, and created man as a special creation and from the first man and first woman all men and women came into life.This is very different than what evolution teaches.I found it interesting that the writers do mention the Christian religion more than once, often apologetically.Comments like, the Bible "has guided millions of people toward being better human beings and living better lives", served to validate the value of the Christian religion in history, and the core values of the faith.Saying that the bible has served to make us "better human beings" and helping mankind in "caring for one another and for our earth" really kinda tell it like it is; but then, the general overtone of even mentioning Christianity on the pages was to show how it is an old, outdated concept.This book, even if you only read the title, is a great example of what children today are being taught by proponents of evolution, and what is shaping the growing minds and hearts of young people today.

activities and examinations to supplement evolution studies
With the right amount of parent involvement this is probably good for starting at preschool age and going up to about 14, the older kids working more on their own. This is definitely an activity book more than an informational book. They do bring up the "evolution controversy" and they go a step further than the Silverstein's Evolution Book in trying to make it compatible with those who might have more exposure to creation, with statements like "Most of us need science and faith in our lives to care for one another and for our earth." or commenting that the bible "has guided millions of people toward being better human beings and living better lives" this is my least favorite thing about the book. In order to lessen the ruffling of Christian feathers, by specifically mentioning the bible and how it makes them better human beings, they took a little poke at all those people who do not follow the bible, because they either believe the teachings of another religion or because they do not believe at all. I don't really feel a "science" book should be reassuring people that they can be true to their faith and still accept certain scientific principles. Leaders of their faith should do so if they choose to, or people with those worries can look for books under religion and spirituality to deal with such concerns.

Fun and Fascinating
I thought this book presented the subject of evolution in an even-handed, thought provoking and entertaining fashion.By pointing out our "beastly vestiges," (tailbones, goose bumps, canines) the authorillustrates the principles of evolution in a way that involves the readerand promotes further questioning.I also like the fact that the author didnot ignore differing viewpoints such as creationism. ... Read more

Book Description

This handsomely illustrated picture book simply and clearly chronicles the story of life from its beginnings to the arrival of humans. Focusing on familiar life forms - protozoa, plants, fish, dinosaurs, early mammals, and humans - it incorporates recent findings and imparts a feel for the duration of each time period in the history of earth. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great story, but could be more accurate
The author presents the great story of the history of life, a story that certainly needs telling. Overall the book is a good addition to juvenile literature on the subject, and it deserves a place in the classroom. I would use it, provided I could correct the obsolete terminology and misleading ideas that appear in several places. Few scientists give credibility to the idea that living cells could have arrived on a comet or meteor, although it is more feasible that some molecular building blocks of life came that route. The Archean Eon is not named, but its events are combined with the Proterozoic. The author uses the old name "blue-green algae" instead of cyanobacteria. I take issue with the statement "Winter and summer as we know them today did not yet exist". The tilt of the Earth's axis did exist, even if the wobble changed the angle. The author implies that many changes in life happened very suddenly. I think this gives children a false impression. The description of the first fish implies that fish with jaws appeared as soon as jawless fish. The book states "The first plants sprouted, and the first beetles, bugs, and butterflies hatched." The fossil record shows the first land arthropods were wingless. Butterfly fossils don't appear until around the time the flowering plants evolve. The sail-backed amniotes are described as reptiles - not the worse sin, but these animals were on another line of descent, the one that lead to mammals. The Paleozoic extinction is shown as a sudden event, when it likely was more gradual and had multiple causes. If fungi took over the planet at the end of this extinction, the fossil record doesn't show it. Flying reptiles are described incorrectly as dinosaurs. Text accompaning an illustration of a Plesiosaur-like reptile, which is not a dinosaur, talks about dinosaur fossils. In the Cenozoic section, the implication is that egg-laying mammals evolved for the first time, when paleonologists think that Mesozoic mammals and their ancestors were egg-laying. A grammatical note - the names of genera should be in italics.

I liked the inclusion of the idea that humans are still evolving and that life will continue to change.

Children should know the history of life on Earth. They deserve accurate information. This book would be a better contribution if the author had verified the information she gives. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great book
I found this book easy to understand at age 9 and it was a great learning experiance. It teaches about DNA, RNA, and chromosomes in an easy to understand way. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description