JoinAll Book Chapters
Book Chapter
This sample of Up, Up in a Balloon: I Wonder Why gives you a little tease of what the book is about....
Book Chapter
Environments of Our Earth: I Wonder Why sample
In this sample from Environments of Our Earth: I Wonder Why, come learn about the desert environment....
Book Chapter
5E(z) Guidelines for Designing Research- Informed Science Lesson Sequences
Overworked elementary teachers do not have to invest their limited time in creating, field-testing, and revising their own science activities from scratch. This chapter reviews the five steps that teachers can use to better sequence science learning ...
Book Chapter
What is wind? What is it made of? What can it do? In this lesson, students explore ways to change the speed and direction of a Ping-Pong ball using a handheld air pump to simulate wind. Simple experiments help them understand that air has weight and ...
Book Chapter
What’s Hiding in the Woodpile?
Wood comes from trees, right? It is full of potential chemical energy that can produce heat when it is put into a stove or fireplace and burned. Yet, in this story, the Earth’s bounty seems to produce a cooler room. What can be the cause? Thermodyn...
Book Chapter
This story is based upon using solar energy and a variety of materials to modify and channel this energy to capture and hold heat. Almost everybody has experienced the differences in temperature due to sunshine passing through windows into an enclose...
Book Chapter
Some students may not believe that it is possible for a puddle that appears larger to evaporate more quickly than one that seems smaller. The story in this chapter has to do with evaporation. The authors explore the major factors that lead to how qui...
Book Chapter
The main purpose of the “Cheeks” story is to get the children to learn something about the behavior of shadows cast by objects in sunlight. Although the story takes liberties with the “thoughts and projections” of Cheeks, one can take it as m...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this story used in this chapter is to help students learn about the source of heat energy that warms their planet. Of course that is the Sun, and it only has an effect on the temperature of the Earth when it is shining on a particula...
Book Chapter
The theme of the story can be summed up in one word: microclimates. Have you noticed that there are variations among the temperatures broadcasted on your radio or TV and your own thermometer? Have you noticed that there are differences in temperature...
Book Chapter
This story is designed to spur an inquiry activity about the process of weathering and soil formation. Evidence lies all around us if we look closely enough and ask the right questions. Eddie is helping us by asking some of these questions and the au...
Book Chapter
Students may have the idea that all mountains are volcanoes and were formed by eruptions. The story in this chapter brings up questions about the geology of mountains and the weathering and erosion that takes place as nature breaks down the higher la...
Book Chapter
Your students will probably not be aware of the amount of water that covers the Earth’s surface. The story in this chapter will help introduce students not only to a clearer idea of the characteristics of our planet, but also to the concepts of pro...
Book Chapter
Many of your younger students do not believe that air around us has mass or weight, let alone exerts pressure on us and on everything around us. So, the idea that the atmosphere in which we walk actually has mass and can exert pressure on our world m...
Book Chapter
In 1991 and 1992, John Leach, Bonnie Shapiro, and the author did a study in which they interviewed approximately 400 students from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States about their beliefs surrounding the decay of an apple over a year’s...