In this book, your children will begin exploring the dynamics of flight and animal classification, understanding why the design we see in these incredible creatures points us to our Creator God. Then, get ready for the exciting adventure of learning about birds. Your children will learn how to attract various bird species to your yard and identify them by looking at their special physical characteristics, diverse nests, and interesting domestic practices. They will also learn the anatomy and the glorious design that enables birds to do remarkable things. The text contains actual experiments on the preferences and habits of the birds your children see. These experiments further enrich the learning experience. After becoming amateur ornithologists, your children will explore the world of chiropterology, which is the study of bats. They will be able to intelligently share with others the value of bats in our world while exposing the misconceptions that most people have regarding these docile creatures of the night. Your children will then investigate entomology, the study of insects. They will learn to scientifically classify insects they find in their yard by a simple glance at their wings and other important characteristics. In addition to designing experiments with flies, crickets, darkling moths, and caterpillars, they will also learn how to attract and catch insects for scientific study. When your children complete this study of zoology, they will never view nature in the same way again. Their eyes will be open to the different species that live in their midst, enjoying and understanding nature to the fullest. Vacations will become educational experiences as they notice birds and insects inhabiting the areas they visit. By learning to keep a field journal, they will be able to notice unusual circumstances or sudden increases in bird or insect populations. They will become true scientists as they come to know nature and the fascinating world that God created. Grades K-6.

Agriculture to Zoology: Information Literacy in the Life Sciences sets the stage for purposefully integrating information literacy activities within the subject-specific content of the life sciences. The book is written for librarians and other professionals who teach information literacy skills, especially those in the science disciplines, and most especially the life sciences. It is also intended to be helpful to secondary school teachers, college faculty who teach life science-related subjects, library school students, and others interested in information literacy and science education. Anyone wanting to learn more about the Earth's life sciences, from citizen to scientist, will benefit as well. The book's seven chapters fill a gap with varying perspectives of literacy instruction in the life sciences and include resources identified by academic librarians as important for use in subject-specific research in higher education. Contributors are longtime specialists in the fields of the life sciences, science and information literacy, scientific and electronic communication, assessment, and more, including Arctic and Antarctic information. - Specialized focus on information literacy in the life science disciplines, rather than information literacy in general - Discussion of library instruction, featuring methods, tools, and assignments to engage students in different areas of the life sciences - Chapters on specific life science subjects highlight traditional as well as non-traditional sources

Humankind’s fascination with the animal kingdom began as a matter of survival – differentiating the edible from the toxic, the ferocious from the tractable. Since then, our compulsion to catalogue wildlife has played a key role in growing our understanding of the planet and ourselves, inspiring religious beliefs and evolving scientific theories. The book unveils wild truths and even wilder myths about animals, as perpetuated by zoologists – revealing how much more there is to learn, and unlearn. Animals were among the first subjects ever drawn by humans. Long before Darwin or Watson and Crick, our ancestors studied the visual similarities and differences between the creatures which inhabit the Earth alongside us. Early savants could sense there was an order, a scheme, which unified all life. The schemes they formulated often tell us as much about ourselves as they do about the animals depicted, highlighting obsessions, fears, revelations and hopes. The human quest to classify living beings has left us with a rich artistic legacy in four great stages—the folklore and religiosity of the ancient and Medieval world; the naturalistic cataloging of the Enlightenment; the evolutionary trees and maps of the nineteenth century; and the modern, computer-hued classificatory labyrinth. The aim of this book is to tell the story of our systematization of the beasts. These charts of the zoological world parallel prevailing artistic trends and scientific discoveries, woven together with philosophical threads that run throughout: animal life as parable, a tree, a maze, a terra incognita, a mirror upon ourselves.