Book Description

This practical guidebook demonstrates how you can carry the vision of the Standards - for teaching, professional development, assessment, content, program, and system - into the real world of the classroom and school.Pathways is also a tool for you to use in collaborating with administrators, school boards, and other stakeholders in science education.Filled with specific suggestions and clear examples that guide teachers in implementing each of the Standards, Pathways is a valuable resource for everyone involved in science education. ... Read more

Book Description

- Provides a basic introduction to the topics covered in a beginning astronomy course, with an emphasis on problem-solving methods ordinarily taught “on the fly” or in ad-hoc tutorials - Closes the gap in student literature by providing a focused, comprehensive presentation of basic astronomical problem-solving techniques- Readers learn by example with the help of more than 200 detailed problems and step-by-step solutions, supplemented with over 100 detailed charts and graphs - Designed to accompany all leading 100-level astronomy textbooks, or to be used as a stand-alone guide for amateur stargazers ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Good supplement for Introductory Astronomy
This book is an excellent text to compliment any introductory astronomy text. The review material is concise and well written, and the questions follow the same format and reasoning found in many textbooks. A good buy.

As easy as ABC
All the explanations and solved problems in this book are too simple. I think I made a mistake buying this "tome".... ... Read more

Book Description

For hands-on activities involving the sun, moon, planets and stars that connect science with real life, choose Exploring Space. This book, designed with good science and easy teaching in mind, covers these concepts:
Earth is part of a solar system in the Milky Way galaxy.
stars are huge balls of hot, glowing gases.
our sun is a star
groups of stars seen together are called constellations
each planet in our solar system has unique characteristics.
the Earth has one satellite called the moon.
the Earth's movements through space cause day and night and the seasons.
Scientists study space in many ways.

Activities help children practice skills in: observation, analysis, communication, making comparisons, prediction, critical thinking, and recording. Areas of study address major themes such as: change, structure, function, diversity, and cause and effect.

Samples of the hands-on learning experiences:
cut out the planets and put them in order
explore eclipses, day & night, and seasons using a globe and a lamp
make a phases-of-the-moon wheel
make a star box to show constellations
observe the moon for a moon and fill in a moon calendar

Contains many reproducible, ready-to-go resources, such as record sheets, logbook forms, minibooks, and picture cards. Illustrated throughout with fun, helpful line art. All 80 pages perforated for easy removal. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Wow - what a disapointment
I'm a college student transferring into another school - I've been through 2.5 years of college math and I needed to brush up on some of the stuff I hadn't used since high school so that I could take the SAT II Math IIC, a requirement for some of the schools I'm trying to go to. College math credits are apparently no match for requirements set forth by admissions boards.

While browsing the book, I saw no less than 10 major errors in the explanitory parts of the book - now, it's one thing to make a mistake on a review question, but when there are HUGE errors in the parts of the book dedicated to trying to help you learn something, there's a problem. Luckily they didn't affect me much, since I know all of the material in the book, but I feel sorry for anyone else who isn't quite on solid ground with this material. For example, there is a part of the book detailing Statistics and Probablility. After adding up 20 fictional test scores, you are then told how to find the Arithmetic Mean, Mode, Median, and Range - too bad they made an error on the most simple part of the whole problem: Adding up the test scores. Their answer was 84 LESS than when you get by simply plugging the numbers in a calculator and hitting enter. This is a no-brainer here, something that "Hardvard Students" should not mess up. My mother never went to college and she knows how to add better than that.

That brings me to my next point. They make it a point to say it was written by _*OMG HARVARD STUDENTS!!*_ - to sell more books - although I'm betting the students were busy getting drunk until the week before their deadline and they made tons of errors just trying to get the book out on time... This isn't worth the money you'll pay for it.

Conclusion: Solid in theory, but disapointingly lacking in the details. ... Read more

Book Description

WELCOME TO THE FARTHEST FRONTIERS OF KNOWLEDGE....

Present-day science, as Carl Sagan observed, is more like science fiction than most science fiction. Where does the dividing line lie today?

Charles Sheffield, an internationally respected scientist and an equally renowned science fiction writer, whom The Washington Post and others have compared to Arthur C. Clarke, surveys with an expert eye the current state of physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, computers, and other fields, and brings the reader up to date on just how strange the universe is turning out to be.

When exploring strange territory, a knowledgeable guide is a necessity. Fortunately, Dr. Sheffield is eminently qualified to explain the nature of the new mysteries which science is just beginning to explore. The readers will be in good hands as they are taken on an expertly guided tour of the

BORDERLANDS OF SCIENCE ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Good Introduction to the Major Areas of Modern Science
There are two primary audiences for this work. The first is anybody interested in understanding a wide variety of scientific topics. Though not as thorough and wide ranging as Isaac Asimov's science guides, Sheffield writes with the same clarity and and his own style of wit. Even somebody who regularly reads popular science magazines may find some new insight here.

Sheffield delves into the origins of life, subnuclear and quantum physics, possible mechanisms for space travel, physical descriptions of the solar system, superconductivity, viruses and prions, and a lot more including a whole section on "scientific heresies".

The second audience are those interested in writing science fiction, specifically the sort of hard science fiction Sheffield wrote. To suggest story ideas, Sheffield explores some of the borders of modern science where conventional theory gives way to speculation. Along the way, he points out some common traps to avoid when handling topics like near lightspeed travel and suggests specific fiction titles as examples of how a concept has been dealt with. He does not offer any advice on the literary aspects of science fiction or in marketing it. His sole interest is in helping you get your real science right and make your imaginary science plausible.

While the book doesn't have a whole lot about the thought processes of scientists, Sheffield does cover the historical and contemporary objections to some scientific theories, the prejudices that sometimes blind good scientists, and some of the amazing minds that have roamed across several disciplines.

Admirers of Sheffield's fiction will also probably like the asides about its scientific inspiration.

My only objection to the book is that I wish some sections would have had more detail.

The book includes a useful bibliography of fact and fiction titles for further research and an index.

Not bad, not the most accurate subtitle
This book doesn't teach you to think like a scientst, nor how to write science fiction, but this subtitle may be the fault of the jacket writer and not the author.

This book is a readable summary of a number of areas of science: physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, etc., with an emphasis on topics most likely to concern a science fiction writer. The solar system and space flight both get long chapters to themselves, for example. Chaos theory gets a big chapter too -- bigger than it deserves probably -- but is interesting enough.

This book is a handy starting place for an sf writer, but doesn't really go into enough detail to do more than spark a story. The bibliography is therefore unfortunately thin (but at least there is one!).

I noted a significant number of small errors or conceptual problems in the areas of physics and astronomy (I'm a PhD astronomer). For instance, Sheffield repeats Clarke's erroneous point (from 2010) that if Jupiter were just "a bit bigger" it would support its own fusion reactions and be a star. Yes, if it were some 82 times bigger (more massive) according to current theory. That's nearly like saying if the earth were a bit bigger it would be like Jupiter (which is some 300 earth masses). He also notes that distant galaxies look "little different" from nearby ones, aside from brightness and redshift -- this is certainly not true for the higher redshift (say z > 2) galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field for instance, which are smaller and highly irregular indicating evolutionary effects. Sheffield is hard on the Big Bang without good justification (although I grant this could be a good area for story fodder), and gives a rather questionable amount of space to some very discredited alternatives. He does mention one of the more obvious scientific problems with The Sparrow (which is a good book and worth reading anyway) so if he can point it out I can point out a few of his.

I noticed that I stopping seeing problems when the topics moved into chemistry and biology, in which I am well read but no expert. That's a good sign. Sheffield has compiled a wide array of information at a pretty good level of understanding. If it really took a PhD in a particular subject to write hard sf in that subject, we'd be missing some great stories.

This book is an excellent addition to the shelf of a science fiction writer.

An interesting book, but writers will need more
Charles Sheffield is one of the hardest "hard SF" writers, and seems to know the material inside and out. As such, he has a great sense for how speculative your speculation can be and still carry the reader. This book is an overview of how to use science in SF, but it isn't a complete reference. It's interesting for readers who wish to be better informed, and is certainly a good starting point for writers. But most writers will need further reference if they expect to go into any detail in their stories.

If you are writing a short story where the science is just part of the background, this will do a great job helping you avoid physical impossibilities in your plot. It's also more than enough detail for most screenwriters, not that that's saying much. But even the most non-technical SF novel is going to require a lot more research.

Borderlands of Science
Borderlands of Science carries the subtitle "How to Think Like a Scientist and Write Science Fiction." This is as apt a title as I've seen in quite a while. This book contains everything the science fiction writer or reader could ever hope to want to know, including: black holes, chaos, cyborgs, cold fusion, Fullerenes, general and special relativity, quantum teleportation, superconductors, RNA and the origin of life, an exploration of the planets, ion rockets, Ram Augmented Interstellar Rockets, and wormholes, just to name a few. Sheffield warns the reader that by the time they read it, the book will be out of date, that science is changing so fast that no one can know which parts of the book will be out of date when, until it happens. For the writer, reader, or scientist who wants a comprehensive overview of science and technology as pertains to science fiction and speculative fiction writing, this book is invaluable. For curious minds who just want to know more about their universe, this book is an eye opener. An ambitious and excellently put-together tome.

Pretty Darn Good...
God, I hate most of what passes for science fiction these days! As a fan of hard science fiction, I find most of the "stuff" published to be unscientific eyewash. Which is why I like most of Sheffield's work. An excellent scientist and a good communicator, he really excelles at those sort of exposition. If you're a writer looking to spice up your work with some real science, this is the book you need! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

High-level social and educational issues
Free-Choice Science Education: How We Learn Science Outside Of School is a seminal, college-level collection of discussions on the extent and scope of science learning in America, with particular attention to learning outside the traditional educational system. Under the able editorship of John Falk, essays by different individual authors discuss the absorption of scientific information from such sources as early childhood TV viewing, the value of infrastructure in free-choice science learning, and much more. High-level social and educational issues are thoroughly explored in this intriguing, insightful, thought provoking title. ... Read more

Book Description

Whether youre a teacher new to science or a veteran teacher of science, heres a powerful new tool for teaching the subject through language literacy. ... Read more

Book Description

Presents Nuclear Energy, a subject that is often considered off limits to the general reader, in a way that is solid and rigorous, and yet accessible to anyone able to use introductory algebra occasionally.

It answers the questions often left hanging in popular or argumentative books on this subject, without losing the reader in detail and unnecessary mathematical formalism. A practical and tangible contribution to the understanding of a vital piece of science.

Though designed and used for twenty years as part of the author's course for high school students, it's also for all the grown-ups who never got it in their schooling.

Begins at ground zero for the main subject.There are tangible examples, solved problems, and 45 illustrations.

This second in the "serious but not ponderous" series follows the award winning ("Outstanding Academic Title" by CHOICE magazine year 2000) book about Relativity, also written by Presidential Award Winning teacher, Walter Scheider. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Informative but Disappointing
The author starts off in the Preface with the words "Matter is not converted into energy." What crock. Without going too much into the realm of fundamental particles, YES IT DOES. When relativistic conditions (i.e., objects travelling close to the speed of light, etc.) are involved, there is a great probability of change in the atomic mass of the reactants (unstable uranium isotope w/ extra neutrons, etc.). One of the most basic concepts in all of nuclear physics is the type of decay involved -- gamma decay being the highest-energy transfer exchange. As he should very well know, all elements have a natural tendency to decay, and not all elements have alpha decay (two protons & neutrons break off); some emit a photon, a form of energy and therefore massless. The mass of the element therefore decreases with the decay. By the same token, as an object like, say a proton of hydrogen or what not, is accelerated and hurtles to speeds close to that of light, there will be a significant increase in mass (this has been proven experimentally). Enough said. Perhaps what he should have said instead is that matter cannot be arbitrarily converted into energy; this much is true. Otherwise, in a nuke explosion, where energy in the form of X-rays (gamma radiation) result from an unstable chain reaction, there will be missing mass. This is what drives people like Stephen Hawking to search for stuff like dark matter. The equation E=mc^2 was originally supposed to help explain the kinks in Newton's 2nd Law of Motion when approaching the speed of light. A consequence is that E=mc^2 ends up explaining the equivalent rest energy of an object when not in motion. Another consequence is that mass and energy are indeed interchangeable -- but ONLY at velocities that are nearly ridiculous to obtain, the speed of light. This is the turf of nuclear/plasma physics and does not need much more explaining. Once you dig into it, nuclear physics is not any more difficult to grasp fundamentally as long as you understand the basics, such as radiocative decay... certainly not so much as solid-state physics. Other than this one hot point, there isn't much else to say. I don't know what the heck the author was trying to accomplish, other than introduce the basics of nuclear physics, energy and all else. There wasn't a clear agenda nor an intended audience (high school kids? college students? laymen? who??). And the blow-by-blow description of the Three-Mile Island incident, while informative, was out of place. The author tries to cover too much in too little, and make everything look easy (which it is not) to the layreader. If the book was meant to show what nuclear energy is supposed to be and what its uses are, it does a lackluster job. I agree that nuclear physics can be shown in an easier format, and it already has been done in other books. The more technical aspects of nuclear engineering, however, will still be difficult to grasp, even for some physicists no matter what. I would recommend a much better book by Charpak and Georges, "Megawatts and Megatons: A Turning Point in the Nuclear Age?" It is a comprehensive and illustrative work on the basics and effects of nuclear energy, as well as the political intrigues that surround its applications in war and peacetime. To a large degree, the authors are fairly neutral and have no theoretical axe to grind, unlike this one. In closing, it must be said that understanding the concepts of nuclear energy is indeed important; in that vein, the various political and social complexities surrounding its applications must also be made clear, and that is a harder task to achieve. ... Read more

Book Description

This practical research-based resource for science educators and curriculum planners provides a comprehensive guide to designing investigation-based learning activities for both primary and secondary school students.Based on the renowned work of the NSF-funded SEPUP (Science Education for Public Understanding Program), the authors offer invaluable information on how to move from the conception of materials to actual classroom use, stressing the collaborative nature of the process and demonstrating how to improve student performance.Also included are ways to assess student performance, information on developing funding for curriculum projects, and many examples of successful instructional design and classroom work. ... Read more

Book Description

If trudging through your textbook to study and complete homework assignments has become a frustrating grind, then get ready for a smooth ride to higher test scores and outstanding grades with The Princeton Review's High School Biology Review.

We tell it to you straight, thoroughly explaining the important topics you'll need to understand to prepare for quizzes and tests, complete homework assignments effectively, and earn higher grades.We've carefully examined biology textbooks just like yours to make sure that this book includes all the material essential to a thorough review.In this guide, we cover:

*The Chemistry of Life
*Life Functions
*Biodiverisity
*The Cell
*Reproduction
*Ecology
*Cellular Respiration
*Genetics
*Laboratory Skills
*Photosynthesis
*Modern Genetics
*Plants
*Evolution

And since practicing your test-taking skills is just as important to getting good grades as knowing the material, we include two practice exams that feature the types of questions and problems that appear on in-class tests. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the most popular GEMS guides, students, grades 5-9, combine fun and intense enjoyment with an exploration of important concepts in chemistry and physics through imaginative experiments with soap bubbles. Investigations include: devising bubble-blowing instruments; employing the Bernoulli principle to keep bubbles aloft; creating bubbles that last for days; and using color patterns to predict when bubbles will pop. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Great Way To Get Money for College
This book is a great way to find scholarships and competitions to earn money for college. I have made use of this great resourse many times and many more to come. I recommend it if you are planning to go to grad school. I know I am. ... Read more

Book Description

A brief booklet that explains in accessible language what readers need to understand about The Human Genome Project (HGP). This reference tool presents the background, findings, scientific and medical applications, social and ethical implications, and helps readers understand timely issues concerning The Human Genome Project. This brief 32 page booklet is a useful supplement to core books in Intro Biology (non-majors/majors), General Biology (majors), Genetics, Human Genetics (non-majors), Human Biology, Intro Biochemistry, and Intro Cell and Molecular Biology. It also includes relevant web resources and exercises for readers.For college instructors and students. ... Read more

Book Description

The call for science curriculum reform has been made over and over again for much of the twentieth century. Arguments have been made that the content of the curriculum is not appropriate for meeting the individual and social needs of people living in the modern world; that the curriculum has become overstuffed with topics and does not serve students especially well; and above all, that the curriculum does not generate the student learning it is expected to produce.

The latest publication from the AAAS's Project 2061--an initiative dedicated to reforming science education in America--Designs for Science Literacy presupposes that curriculum reform must be considerably more extensive and fundamental than the tinkering with individual courses and subjects that has been going on for decades. Designs deals with the critical issues involved in assembling sound instructional materials into a new, coherent K-12 whole. While upholding ambitious learning goals nationwide, Designs aims to encourage diverse curricula suited to the needs of individual schools, communities, and students. The book pays special attention to the need to link science-oriented studies to the arts and humanities. In all cases, Designs encourages a deliberative, goals-based approach to curriculum reform.

If fundamental curriculum reform is ever to occur, a new process for creating alternatives will have to be developed. Designs for Science Literacy provides the groundwork for such a process. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

the second worst textbook out there
the only thing that makes this book shine is that it isnt as incomplete as my professor's own personal book... its almost as if any teacher that requires these materials secretly wishes the students to fail miserably... written at the third grade level with plenty of, "Isn't physics nifty!" and no actualy help in the computational realm... for a class that is supposed to have advanced calculus as a prereq, the math is presented in an oversimplified matter making the only way to learn the material to struggle through the problems to discover something that could have been explained in place of one of the many cartoons that litter this exscuse for scholorly material...

Not the Best Physics Textbook
I have used several physics textbooks both as a high school and college student. This is one of the worst textbooks I have used however. It is very inconsistent. Some chapters are overly simple and progress too slowly. Others are short, difficult and lack sufficient examples and explanations. The book rarely explains the origins of a formula enough to get a good understanding of its use. Furthermore, there are frequent misprints throughout the text. Unfortunately, most of the people who purchase this book have no choice because it is required for a class. ... Read more