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Extreme Science: From Nano to Galactic


By: M. Gail Jones, Amy R. Taylor, and Michael R. Falvo
$23.96 - Member Price  
$29.95 - Nonmember Price

$31.15 - Member Price  
$38.94 - Nonmember Price
Details

Type of Product:NSTA Press Book (also see downloadable PDF version of this book)
Average Rating:
 based on 1 review
Publication Date:4/1/2009
Pages:356
Stock Number:PB237X
ISBN:978-1-93353-130-4
Grade Level:Middle School, High School
Read Inside:Read a sample chapter: Billions of Us: Scale and Population
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Our reviewers—top-flight teachers and other outstanding science educators—have determined that this resource is among the best available supplements for science teaching.
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Description

Whether we are imagining microbes or mammoths, dinosaurs or diatoms, molecules or stars, people of all ages are fascinated with the very large and the very small. New technologies have enabled scientists to investigate extremes of science previously unknown. An understanding of scale and scaling effects is of central importance to a scientific understanding of the world.

Help your middle and high school biology, Earth science, chemistry, physics, and mathematics students develop quantitative evaluation with Extreme Science. Authors Gail Jones, Amy Taylor, and Michael Falvo offer a detailed look at types of scale, measurement, powers of ten, estimation and models of scale, surface area to volume relationships, limits to size, and behaviors at different scales.

Scaling conceptions are one of the four recommended unifying themes in the AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy. A knowledge of scaling will serve as a solid framework for students to anchor further learning and allow them to make cross-curricular connections between seemingly disparate topics.

The investigations in this book are designed to help students develop a comprehensive and flexible sense of scale through experiences with the quantitative units and tools of science. Investigations build on our research that has documented how people learn scale. To aid in comprehension, Extreme Science uses the 5Es (engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate) to illustrate each topic. By using this learning method, the activities help students learn to invent scales, develop benchmarks, estimate, and apply body rulers (estimating using fingers, arms, or pacing off distances). In so doing, students will come to understand scale on an intrinsic level and will appreciate that no problem is too big or too little to be scaleable. Comprehending scale at the largest and smallest levels is where a quantitative understanding of the world begins.

Ideas For Use

Additional Info

Science Discipline: (mouse over for full classification)
Analyzing data
Collecting data
Interpreting data
Measuring
Modeling
Predicting
Scientific habits of mind
Using mathematics
Using technology
Intended User Role:Curriculum Supervisor, High-School Educator, Middle-Level Educator, Teacher
Educational Issues:Assessment of students, Classroom management, Curriculum, Educational research, Inquiry learning, Instructional materials, Interdisciplinary, Integrating technology, Teacher content knowledge, Teacher preparation, Teaching strategies

Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1. What Is Scale?
Chapter 2. Types of Scale

Measurement
Chapter 3. Oops! I Did It Again: Errors in Measurement

Powers of Ten
Chapter 4. Sort It Out
Chapter 5. It’s Not All Relative: Relative versus Absolute
Chapter 6. The Scale of the Solar System
Chapter 7. Time Flies

Estimation and Models
Chapter 8. Billions of Us: Scale and Populations
Chapter 9. Scale It!
Chapter 10. Mega Virus
Chapter 11. Your World or Mine? Perspectives
Chapter 12. Eye in the Sky: GIS and Scale
Chapter 13. Drops to the Ocean: A GIS Study of River Basins
Chapter 14. Zoom, Zoom: Magnification

Surface Area-to-Volume Relationships
Chapter 15. That’s Hot! The Effect of Size on Rate of Heat Loss
Chapter 16. Sweet! Exploring Surface Area of Sugar Molecules

Limits to Size
Chapter 17. Captivating Cubes
Chapter 18. Eggsactly
Chapter 19. Attack of the Giant Bugs

Behaviors and Scale
Chapter 20. Flying Foam: The Scale of Forces
Chapter 21. Stick With It!
Chapter 22. Fractals: Self-Similar at Different Scales
Chapter 23. Screening My Calls: Scale and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
Chapter 24. Stringy Chemistry and States of Matter
Chapter 25. Our Amazing Senses
Chapter 26. Beetlemice Multitudes!!! Power Law and Exponential Scaling


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National Standards Correlation

This resource has 17 correlations with the National Standards.  
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This resource has 17 correlations with the National Standards.  
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  • Science as Inquiry
    • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
      • Use data to construct a reasonable explanation.
      • Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.
      • Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using evidence.
      • Think critically and logically to make the relationships between evidence and explanations.
      • Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
      • Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications. (9-12)
      • Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence. (9-12)
      • Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models. (9-12)
    • Understandings about scientific inquiry
      • Mathematics is important in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
      • Technology used to gather data enhances accuracy and allows scientists to analyze and quantify results of investigations.
      • Scientific explanations emphasize evidence, have logically consistent arguments, and use scientific principles, models, and theories.
      • Scientists usually inquire about how physical, living, or designed systems function. (9-12)
      • Conceptual principles and knowledge guide scientific inquiries. (9-12)
      • In presenting data, graphs are used to convey comparisons or trends. (9-12)
  • Teaching Standards
    • Teachers of science plan an inquiry-based science program for their students.
      • Select teaching and assessment strategies that support the development of student understanding and nurture a community of science learners.
    • Teachers of science guide and facilitate learning. In doing this, teachers
      • Encourage and model the skills of scientific inquiry, as well as the curiosity, openness to new ideas and data, and skepticism that characterize science.
    • Teachers provide students with the time, space, and resources needed to learn science.
      • Create a setting for student work that is flexible and supportive of science inquiry.


Customer Reviews
From Nano to Galactic
  Reviewed by: Dorothy E. Matyskiel (Lake Worth, FL) on June 2, 2009
  Helping the student to apply the use of scale will not only be an effective learning tool for science, but also they will find its use applicable across the disciplines.

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