Educational resource for teachers, parents and kids!

More than 130 activity ideas - growing crystals, launching water rockets, testing a light dimmer, mapping elevations, testing soil - prompt students to make eye-opening discoveries in biology, chemistry, earth science, environmental science, and physics. Each activity ends by citing other related activities in the book. A special "more for less" section provides tips for getting and making scientific materials at bargain prices, and all activities are indexed by skills and subject areas. Grades K-8. Index. Conversion tables. Illustrated. Good Year Books. 306 pages. Third Edition.

Psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, historians - and even scientists themselves - have often tried to decipher the basis for creativity in science. Some have attributed creativity to a special logic, the so-called scientific method, whereas others have pointed to the inspirations of genius or to the inevitable workings of the zeitgeist. Finally, some have viewed scientific breakthroughs as the product of chance, as witnessed in the numerous episodes of serendipity. Too often these four alternative interpretations are seen as mutually exclusive. Yet the central thesis of this book is that the chance, logic, genius, and zeitgeist perspectives can be integrated into a single coherent theory of creativity in science. But for this integration to succeed, change must be elevated to the status of primary cause. Logic, genius and the zeitgeist still have significant roles to play but mainly operate insofar as they enhance, or constrain the operation of a chance combinatorial process.

What happens if you water plants with juice? Where can you find bacteria in your house? Is slug slime as strong as a glue stick? How would your child find the answers to these questions? In The Curious Kid's Science Book, your child will learn to design his or her own science investigations to determine the answers! Children will learn to ask their own scientific questions, discover value in failed experiments, and — most importantly — have a blast with science. The 100+ hands-on activities in the book use household items to playfully teach important science, technology, engineering, and math skills. Each creative activity includes age-appropriate explanations and (when possible) real life applications of the concepts covered. Adding science to your at-home schedule will make a positive impact on your child's learning. Just one experiment a week will help build children's confidence and excitement about the sciences, boost success in the classroom, and give them the tools to design and execute their own science fair projects.

Can two scientists work and live together? Marie and Pierre Curie proved that it was indeed possible to have a happy marriage and do brilliant research together. This collection of seventeen original essays explores the interplay between marriage and scientific work in the lives of two dozen couples in the nineteenth and twentieth century. It is the first book to discuss the professional and personal lives of scientific couples. For much of this period, marriage was the only acceptable way a woman could gain access to the tools, space, and colleagues indispensable to doing science. Yet, collaboration with her husband could also mean the denial of full credit for her work, inability to move to better jobs, and the juggling of domestic and scientific responsibilities. For the husband, collaboration with his skilled, unpaid wife could bring greater achievements than he might have achieved alone, but also meant the suspicion of his professional peers and the necessity of supporting the household. The creative couples described in this volume range from Nobel Prize winners and world-renowned social scientists to obscure field biologists. The essays describe marriages and scientific collaborations that were a joy to both partners, as well as those that proved disastrous. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Marianne Gosztonyi Ainley, Barbara J. Becker, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Mildred Cohn, Janet Bell Garber, Christiane Groeben, Joy Harvey, Susan Hoecker-Drysdale, Pamela M. Henson, Maureen J. Julian, Sylvia W. McGrath, Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, John Stachel, Linda Tucker, and Sylvia Wiegand. They provide unique insights into the nature of cross-gender collaboration and intimacy. This volume will be of enormous interest to contemporary scientists, to historians of science, and to anyone interested in the ways women and men share marriage and work.

An account that analyzes the dynamic reasoning processes implicated in a fundamental problem of creativity in science: how does genuine novelty emerge from existing representations? How do novel scientific concepts arise? In Creating Scientific Concepts, Nancy Nersessian seeks to answer this central but virtually unasked question in the problem of conceptual change. She argues that the popular image of novel concepts and profound insight bursting forth in a blinding flash of inspiration is mistaken. Instead, novel concepts are shown to arise out of the interplay of three factors: an attempt to solve specific problems; the use of conceptual, analytical, and material resources provided by the cognitive-social-cultural context of the problem; and dynamic processes of reasoning that extend ordinary cognition. Focusing on the third factor, Nersessian draws on cognitive science research and historical accounts of scientific practices to show how scientific and ordinary cognition lie on a continuum, and how problem-solving practices in one illuminate practices in the other. Her investigations of scientific practices show conceptual change as deriving from the use of analogies, imagistic representations, and thought experiments, integrated with experimental investigations and mathematical analyses. She presents a view of constructed models as hybrid objects, serving as intermediaries between targets and analogical sources in bootstrapping processes. Extending these results, she argues that these complex cognitive operations and structures are not mere aids to discovery, but that together they constitute a powerful form of reasoning—model-based reasoning—that generates novelty. This new approach to mental modeling and analogy, together with Nersessian's cognitive-historical approach, make Creating Scientific Concepts equally valuable to cognitive science and philosophy of science.

This edited volume presents interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to drama and science in education. Drawing on a solid basis of research, it offers theoretical backgrounds, showcases rich examples, and provides evidence of improved student learning and engagement. The chapters explore various connections between drama and science, including: students’ ability to engage with science through drama; dramatising STEM; mutuality and inter-relativity in drama and science; dramatic play-based outdoor activities; and creating embodied, aesthetic and affective learning experiences. The book illustrates how drama education draws upon contemporary issues and their complexity, intertwining with science education in promoting scientific literacy, creativity, and empathetic understandings needed to interpret and respond to the many challenges of our times. Findings throughout the book demonstrate how lessons learned from drama and science education can remain discrete yet when brought together, contribute to deeper, more engaged and transformative student learning.