Talking Sense in Science
Talking Sense in Science

Author: Douglas P Newton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 1134525524

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Talking Sense in Science is a highly practical guide to getting the most out of primary science lessons through talking with children. This clearly written and straightforward book helps teachers to support understanding by developing their own interaction in the classroom. Each idea is described, illustrated and followed by a short task to develop teaching skills. This book looks at ways of understanding in science, and scientific language as well as how talk can support practical activities. Douglas Newton also addresses the ideas of what to say, when to say it and how to say it, with a view to developing understanding through science conversation. Examples given in the book span the range of primary school science topics, and provide an ideal sourcebook for lesson ideas. Talking Sense in Science is an essential buy for primary teachers who want an accessible way to improve their practice and their pupils' understanding in science. It is also an ideal learning tool for student teachers.

Can Science Make Sense of Life?
Can Science Make Sense of Life?

Author: Sheila Jasanoff

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 1509522743

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Since the discovery of the structure of DNA and the birth of the genetic age, a powerful vocabulary has emerged to express science’s growing command over the matter of life. Armed with knowledge of the code that governs all living things, biology and biotechnology are poised to edit, even rewrite, the texts of life to correct nature’s mistakes. Yet, how far should the capacity to manipulate what life is at the molecular level authorize science to define what life is for? This book looks at flash points in law, politics, ethics, and culture to argue that science’s promises of perfectibility have gone too far. Science may have editorial control over the material elements of life, but it does not supersede the languages of sense-making that have helped define human values across millennia: the meanings of autonomy, integrity, and privacy; the bonds of kinship, family, and society; and the place of humans in nature.

Making Sense of Science
Making Sense of Science

Author: Cornelia Dean

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2017-03-13

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 067497896X

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A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Most of us learn about science from media coverage, and anyone seeking factual information on climate change, vaccine safety, genetically modified foods, or the dangers of peanut allergies has to sift through an avalanche of bogus assertions, misinformation, and carefully packaged spin. Cornelia Dean draws on thirty years of experience as a science reporter at the New York Times to expose the tricks that handicap readers with little background in science. She reveals how activists, business spokespersons, religious leaders, and talk show hosts influence the way science is reported and describes the conflicts of interest that color research. At a time when facts are under daily assault, Making Sense of Science seeks to equip nonscientists with a set of critical tools to evaluate the claims and controversies that shape our lives. “Making Sense of Science explains how to decide who is an expert, how to understand data, what you need to do to read science and figure out whether someone is lying to you... If science leaves you with a headache trying to figure out what’s true, what it all means and who to trust, Dean’s book is a great place to start.” —Casper Star-Tribune “Fascinating... Its mission is to help nonscientists evaluate scientific claims, with much attention paid to studies related to health.” —Seattle Times “This engaging book offers non-scientists the tools to connect with and evaluate science, and for scientists it is a timely call to action for effective communication.” —Times Higher Education

Communicating Science Effectively
Communicating Science Effectively

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-03-08

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0309451051

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Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will be most effective for specific audiences and circumstances are not obvious. Fortunately, there is an expanding science base from diverse disciplines that can support science communicators in making these determinations. Communicating Science Effectively offers a research agenda for science communicators and researchers seeking to apply this research and fill gaps in knowledge about how to communicate effectively about science, focusing in particular on issues that are contentious in the public sphere. To inform this research agenda, this publication identifies important influences â€" psychological, economic, political, social, cultural, and media-related â€" on how science related to such issues is understood, perceived, and used.

Helgoland
Helgoland

Author: Carlo Rovelli

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0593328906

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Named a Best Book of 2021 by the Financial Times and a Best Science Book of 2021 by The Guardian “Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator… This is the place where science comes to life.” ―Neil Gaiman “One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline...[a] momentous book” ―John Banville, The Wall Street Journal A startling new look at quantum theory, from the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, The Order of Time, and Anaximander. One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, he examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg made the crucial breakthrough for the creation of quantum mechanics, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious. As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercely debate the meaning of the theory, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships rather than substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for thinking about the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness. Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better comprehend our place in it.

Talking Sense in Science
Talking Sense in Science

Author: Douglas P Newton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1134525532

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Talking Sense in Science is a highly practical guide to getting the most out of primary science lessons through talking with children. This clearly written and straightforward book helps teachers to support understanding by developing their own interaction in the classroom. Each idea is described, illustrated and followed by a short task to develop teaching skills. This book looks at ways of understanding in science, and scientific language as well as how talk can support practical activities. Douglas Newton also addresses the ideas of what to say, when to say it and how to say it, with a view to developing understanding through science conversation. Examples given in the book span the range of primary school science topics, and provide an ideal sourcebook for lesson ideas. Talking Sense in Science is an essential buy for primary teachers who want an accessible way to improve their practice and their pupils' understanding in science. It is also an ideal learning tool for student teachers.

A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are
A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are

Author: Veronica O'Keane

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0393541932

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How do our brains store—and then conjure up—past experiences to make us who we are? A twinge of sadness, a rush of love, a knot of loss, a whiff of regret. Memories have the power to move us, often when we least expect it, a sign of the complex neural process that continues in the background of our everyday lives. This process shapes us: filtering the world around us, informing our behavior and feeding our imagination. Psychiatrist Veronica O’Keane has spent many years observing how memory and experience are interwoven. In this rich, fascinating exploration, she asks, among other things: Why can memories feel so real? How are our sensations and perceptions connected with them? Why is place so important in memory? Are there such things as “true” and “false” memories? And, above all, what happens when the process of memory is disrupted by mental illness? O’Keane uses the broken memories of psychosis to illuminate the integrated human brain, offering a new way of thinking about our own personal experiences. Drawing on poignant accounts that include her own experiences, as well as what we can learn from insights in literature and fairytales and the latest neuroscientific research, O’Keane reframes our understanding of the extraordinary puzzle that is the human brain and how it changes during its growth from birth to adolescence and old age. By elucidating this process, she exposes the way that the formation of memory in the brain is vital to the creation of our sense of self.

The Varieties of Scientific Experience
The Varieties of Scientific Experience

Author: Carl Sagan

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-11-02

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1101201835

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“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith “A stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being. I miss him so.” —Kurt Vonnegut Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship." Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century.

Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices
Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices

Author: Christina V. Schwarz

Publisher: NSTA Press

Published: 2017-01-31

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1941316956

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When it’s time for a game change, you need a guide to the new rules. Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides a play-by-play understanding of the practices strand of A Framework for K–12 Science Education (Framework) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Written in clear, nontechnical language, this book provides a wealth of real-world examples to show you what’s different about practice-centered teaching and learning at all grade levels. The book addresses three important questions: 1. How will engaging students in science and engineering practices help improve science education? 2. What do the eight practices look like in the classroom? 3. How can educators engage students in practices to bring the NGSS to life? Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices was developed for K–12 science teachers, curriculum developers, teacher educators, and administrators. Many of its authors contributed to the Framework’s initial vision and tested their ideas in actual science classrooms. If you want a fresh game plan to help students work together to generate and revise knowledge—not just receive and repeat information—this book is for you.

How to Feel
How to Feel

Author: Sushma Subramanian

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2021-02-02

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0231553056

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We are out of touch. Many people fear that we are trapped inside our screens, becoming less in tune with our bodies and losing our connection to the physical world. But the sense of touch has been undervalued since long before the days of digital isolation. Because of deeply rooted beliefs that favor the cerebral over the corporeal, touch is maligned as dirty or sentimental, in contrast with supposedly more elevated modes of perceiving the world. How to Feel explores the scientific, physical, emotional, and cultural aspects of touch, reconnecting us to what is arguably our most important sense. Sushma Subramanian introduces readers to the scientists whose groundbreaking research is underscoring the role of touch in our lives. Through vivid individual stories—a man who lost his sense of touch in his late teens, a woman who experiences touch-emotion synesthesia, her own efforts to become less touch averse—Subramanian explains the science of the somatosensory system and our philosophical beliefs about it. She visits labs that are shaping the textures of objects we use every day, from cereal to synthetic fabrics. The book highlights the growing field of haptics, which is trying to incorporate tactile interactions into devices such as phones that touch us back and prosthetic limbs that can feel. How to Feel offers a new appreciation for a vital but misunderstood sense and how we can use it to live more fully.