Best science for kids books according to redditors

While you likely won't have any issues with learning the content, teaching physics is a very, very different beast than teaching mathematics. There are similarities, for sure. Lots of them. But there are also vast differences.

If you're serious about teaching physics, especially at the AP level, look into these resources:

• Five Easy Lessons: Strategies for Successful Physics Teaching
  
  
• Teaching for Conceptual Understanding in Science. Conceptual understanding in physics is essential. If students can solve complex physics problems mathematically, but can't explain things conceptually, then their true understanding of physics is quite limited.
  
  
• Look into Modeling Instrucution, a research-based method of teaching physics. Frank Noschese's blog has a collection of videos explaining the methodology, and the American Modeling Teachers Association holds workshops in the summer around the US.
  
  
• Teaching Introductory Physics. While Five Easy Lessons is an awesome resource, it's footnote compared to this. It's basically the bible of physics education.
  
  
• Physics! Blog! by Kelly OShea. See her model building posts in particular for what an excellent physics class looks like. It probably looks absolutely nothing like what the physics classes you took looked like. But it's what a 5-star physics class should look like.
  
  Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I have lots more to say on the subject :P

One place to start would be the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) publications regarding the bare minimum scientific literacy that is desired. One of their major education initiatives Project 2061 seems to describe exactly the type of thing you are looking for. They published two books that you can read if you are more interested:

Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy

Science for All Americans


Of course this is an entirely USA-centric view but it should get you started.

The best or most interesting books I've read on the subject are:

• Unconventional Flying Objects by Paul R. Hill. https://www.amazon.com/Unconventional-Flying-Objects-Scientific-Analysis/dp/1571740279/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1505300376&sr=8-2&keywords=unconventional+flying+objects
  
  
• Bad UFOs by Robert Sheaffer https://www.amazon.com/Bad-UFOs-Critical-Thinking-Claims/dp/1519260849/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505300420&sr=1-1&keywords=bad+ufos
  
  
• NARCAP technical reports - http://www.narcap.org/Research/Technical_Reports.html
  
  I think it's always important to be highly skeptical of even the "best" sighting. For example, the Belgian UFO wave is always highlighted as a slam dunk of something flying about in the skies that goes beyond technology we currently have. However, on closer inspection it's not so clear cut at all. That's the great thing about "Bad UFOs" - it makes you question the evidence, seek alternative explanations and keeps you on your skeptical toes. The last thing you want to do is fool yourself.
  

Step 1:
Identify the standards in your coursemap (see NGSS Appendix K) that you have to teach and "bundle" (see Achieve Inc.) them into meaningful unit-sized amounts.

Step 2:
Once you have the standards arranged in front of you for your unit, review them and select the three to four standards that have the greatest explanatory power. That is: the three to four that -- given sufficient attention -- could explain the other ones.

Step 3:
Focusing on those three to four standards, think of a phenomenon -- something that happens in nature -- that students would have to use those three to four standards to make sense of.

Step 4:
Write a "gapless explanation" at a level just beyond the grasp of your students.

Step 5:
Within your gapless explanation, identify they strands that students will need to investigate to come up with their own explanation of the phenomenon.

Step 6:
Plan activities that will help your students get those pieces they will need for their explanations of the phenomenon.

Step 0:
Read this book: Ambitious Science Teaching

I think "13 things that don't make sense" by Michael Brooks is a better read If you're looking for a good list of strange facts about the universe. This book made me want to get back to school and become a physicist.

Although I've never read any UFO-related books myself — skeptical or otherwise — if I was in the market for one, then Robert Sheaffer's Bad UFOs: Critical Thinking About UFO Claims would probably be the first one that I would buy.

I base that recommendation on the excellence of his blog and the quality of the articles he's written for The Skeptic magazine

Having enjoyed the companion video of Donald Prothero's & Timothy Callahan's — UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens: What Science Says, I would also consider buying their book; one of these days.

The various UFO pages of the Magonia Review of Books site might give you some more ideas to look into.

Definitely agree with you; Bill Nye did some great scientific teaching on his show and I like Michael's ideas, too. What I am getting at is it's not enough to just be a fan of a scientist like Neil deGrasse Tyson or Nye (who get a lot of media attention), but to explore the topics further and not just use their more basic teachings only as the end all, be all of scientific processes.

I think some people see these pop scientists as gospel and perhaps don't look into other areas of current (less "entertaining") research. I like to think they open the door for science, but it's up to the individual to develop the critical analysis tools needed to compare and contrast theories. A good book on this is "A Brief Guide to Thinking Like a Scientist." It's a quick read and actually pretty humorous :)

If you have one hour total, then make sure to budget for the students' set up time as well as your own - we can do it ahead of time, but you'd be surprised at how long it takes a group of 30 teenagers to gather & assemble any lab materials, not to mention cleaning them up afterwards! Based on your description, I would budget for 5-15 minutes of time before & after your lab for students to get organized. (Obviously it depends on the complexity of the lab as well)

I would recommend that you take a good couple of labs at the beginning of your term to go over lab expectations/safety/equipment locations/clean up procedures so that you can save time during specific experiment introductions by being able to just focus on warnings applicable to the lab. I've done lab scavenger hunts before to help everyone familiarize themselves with where everything is located in the room.


For actual experiments, there are a number of great resources that I use.

Online:

Steve Spangler Science

> this guy is amazing, and you can find a video of almost every experiment he does on youtube. He also gives a list of required supplies and has other videos called "Sick Science" that are much more straightforward in their presentation

PBS Kids ZOOMScience

> these activities can sometimes be "young" for high school students, but there are a few really great ideas that are easy and quick to replicate in class.

Genome BC


> this is a site from British Columbia (my local curriculum) that has an awesome selection of genetics-related activities for grade 9-12. They are sorted by learning outcome & Grade, so I would try to find those outcomes that are most similar to what you're trying to get out of the experiments!

Let's Talk Science
> I haven't used this site too much, but it has a host of different hands-on activity links that you can download. They are categorized by topic and are available for multiple grade levels


Print:

Invitations to Science Inquiry by Tik Liem
> this is an AWESOME resource. There are more than 400 different activities for high school students compiled into one uber awesome book. It's hard to find, but I managed to find a .pdf online a while ago, so that might be your best bet if you can't find it in print.

Your department "library"
> many schools have collections of science books in their department office. If you don't have a department office, then ask the other teachers in your school if they've built up a library of their own - chances are, they'll have a couple of great print resources that they'll share with you.

Other:

Your colleagues.
> I cannot express the importance of this one! Ask every other science teacher you can and you'll be rewarded with a plethora of information, tips, and points about specific activities. Someone's experience is often a better resource than a text or website will ever be.

That's what I can come up with off the top of my head. It sounds like you might have the opportunity to do a couple of larger-scale labs split up over multiple classes as well - this can be a great tactic for tackling bigger ideas as it gives students a chance to synthesize some of the material in between classes.

Oh, and DEMO DEMO DEMO. If you're ever doing an experiment where a specific set-up or multiple steps are required, SHOW THEM HOW TO DO IT. I made this mistake when I first started teaching and the amount of time that was wasted because students couldn't get even get their labs started was ludicrous. I'll sometimes even have a demo up at the front for them to refer to depending on the scenario (e.x. constructing electrical circuits).

Hope that helps!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - on reading and education as the door to escaping poverty. Might be a little young for them.

The Grapes of Wrath - on the humanity and the inhumanity humans and industry are capable of in harsh times. Might be a little long/dry/boring.

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Basically any science fiction novel by Greg Bear, because they are probably mind-blowing in vision to a teenager who hasn't had exposure to ideas of such scale (at least, they were to me. But I don't know how the parents would react to them, or if these girls like science fiction)

Blood Music- themes of nanotechnology and perception changing humanity

The Forge of God- on the destruction of earth once it becomes noticeable enough to aliens. And its sequel

Anvil of Stars- on whether revenge can be justified, how libertarian/cooperatives groups break down or are usurped, and an unusual alien race.

Queen of Angels- on psychology, consciousness, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the beginnings of an internet (before there was an internet).

Eon- an asteroid suddenly appears in orbit, and its unusual history and construction destabilizes earth during the Cold War, but opens the door to alien technologies and civilizations. And its sequel

Eternity- the far future of humanity, conflict with an alien race, travel in space and time.

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But to be honest two books that would give them a fundamental understanding of how the world actually operates, if they aren't being exposed to it, would be:

Campbell and Reece's Biology

and

Chemistry: A Molecular Approach

They don't require too much math other than algebra, and though they're kind of expensive, they're worth it. The utter logic of how scientific thinking is done can be easily introduced with biology and an understanding of the atomic framework chemistry teaches is invaluable because it explains so many behaviors in our world. Maybe in e-book format or something, so they're not as obvious.

wrong lol

40 years of advancements also say you’re extremely wrong. This photo was taken in 2016 by a russian photographer named Daniel Kordan with a 5,000 dollar camera. I can assure you there is not a single photo dating 1970-1979 that comes even close in quality.

This is literally the worst photo in the album and it still trumps anything from the 70s