Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Cross-disciplines

Some people might think that teachers should only teach content within those core classes- appropriate topics generally associated with those core classes. I think that content within all classes are connected in some way. I taught about art when discussing fractal science and geography when talking about biomes. And of course literacy across all disciplines. What are some ways you could incorporate science into some of your disciplines?

Example: Sound waves created when strumming a guitar (standing wave). The study of acoustics can be incorporated into both science and music.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Children's books for science

I love to read aloud. I've been told, I am good at it. I also like to use books as an opener for my lessons. I've used The Hot Zone by Richard Preston to introduce a unit on viruses and how they attack. The detailed description of the characters guts liquifying and spilling onto the floor really gets high school-aged kids attention. I also have used The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman as an introduction to the theory of parallel worlds considered to be a part of quantum mechanics idealized by Hugh Everett in 1957. The idea is a basis for many science fiction stories.
My purpose for this post is find some children's books with scientific content to use as an opener (or closure). They do not have to be chapter books. Any grade level or genre would suffice as long as it had to do with the sciences. If you know of some, please post the titles and/or authors here!