Science Surprises: Exploring the Nature of Science

by Lawrence Flammer

Overview

Secondary Science Teachers: If you're looking for a unit to teach the nature of science (NoS), with lessons for practicing critical and skeptical thinking, this is it. This new text supplement is intended for students in any science class, grades 7-10. It can replace the usual first chapter in most secondary science textbooks with an updated and more accurate treatment of how science works, what it can and cannot do, and why it's so effective for increasing our understanding of the natural world. It particularly addresses the many misconceptions about NoS. It also satisfies virtually all of the new NOS science standards (in NGSS and CCSS). The booklet is part of an intensive introductory unit, using a collection of engaging interactive lessons freely available for download from the author's web site. There is also a Teacher's Guide to help do this most effectively, with the URLs for getting the lessons, unit plans, worksheets and other ancillary materials. If this sounds like something you want for your students, get this textbook, read it, then request the Teacher's Guide from the author, currently at no charge.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940045744980
Publisher:	Lawrence Flammer
Publication date:	03/05/2014
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	723,350
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

With an MS in zoology, the author taught high school biology for 38 years, "retired" in 1997. He also taught earth science, physical science, life science and computer programming. In 1998, he developed a website for the ENSI program (Evolution and Nature of Science Institutes). The website provides classroom-tested interactive lessons on the nature of science and evolution (including geological age dating). These lessons are freely available for download. In addition, there are many teaching tips and other resources for teaching evolution, the nature of science and related topics. The site continues to be very popular, with upwards of 2,000 hits per month, and more than 800 science teachers on the ENSI listserves. Its lessons are used mostly in high school biology classes as well as many middle school life science classes. They are also used in undergraduate classes and increasingly in AP Biology classes. The textbook "Science Surprises" evolved out of a text supplement the author developed for teaching the nature of science in the 1980s. He has also enjoyed mentoring new science teachers, both directly and online (with the eMSS program out of the UC Santa Cruz New Teacher Center). The author has published a few articles on teaching evolution and the nature of science: “The Evolution Solution” in the NABT's "American Biology Teacher" in March, 2006. You can access it easily at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/evo-solution.html . The article details his approach to teaching evolution and NOS that he used successfully for most of his teaching career. "Chromosome Connections: Compelling Clues to Common Ancestry" in the NABT's "American Biology Teacher" in February, 2013, available at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/ABT.ChromConn.2013.pdf . It uses the visible banded features of chromosomes to reveal different lines of compelling evidence of human ancestry. "Patterns in Time" in NSTA's "Science Scope" in February, 2011, available at http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/pat.time.article.pdf . Engaging lessons for developing a personal time sense for deep time, and the patterns of separate emergence for the major classes of vertebrates over tens of millions of years.