Reviewed by Lori Cirucci
Science Teacher
This is the third book in a series geared for grades 5 through 12. It contains a wide variety of resources to help teachers introduce interesting and challenging activities. It would be great for preservice teachers to teach/learn from, for new teachers to read and extract important pedagogical information from, and for seasoned teachers to update their curricula and incorporate more inquiry-based material.
The book starts with a brief acknowledgment, an eight-page introduction, a chart detailing the science education topics covered, and safety guidelines. The learning activities are broken into three main sections. The first introduces the book’s pedagogical questions, instructional approaches, and underlying assumptions about teaching and learning. The second section focuses on reading and student construction of meaning. Fun, inquiry-based activities that allow readers to explore language are contained in this section. Section three is designed to reintroduce and provide models of the 5E style of teaching.
Each discrepant event in the book has the following components—title, expected outcome, science concepts, science education concepts, materials, points to ponder, procedure, debriefing, extensions, Internet connections, answers to questions in the procedure, and a debriefing section. All of the discrepant events use readily available, inexpensive materials to engage students. Quotes are used to help teachers and students. A procedure is given for teachers to follow with students, and safety notes are also written next to any potential teacher demonstrations. Lots of ways that the teacher can instruct students are explained, and a debriefing is given regarding working with teachers. A separate section outlines how to work with students and additional books to help teachers who are more interested in that topic. The extensions listed are great additions, as are the Internet connections.
Review posted on 6/6/2011
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