REVIEWS


Place-Based Science Teaching and Learning: 40 Activities for K-8 Classrooms


Buxton, Cory A, and Eugene F. Provenzo. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE, 2012. Print.


Reviewed by Christina Bekhazi, Mallory Flesher, Caitlin Gonsalves, Janaina Kitzke and Laura Mathis as part of Pauline Sameshima’s T&L 536 class at Washington State University.


T


his is an incredible book that teachers should have to help teach place-based


science for K-8 students. This book includes 40 different science activities that can be used for all these age groups. Within this book, the authors also provide the reader with many different assessment strategies to help grade students’ work. I would highly recommend this book to many incoming and experienced teachers who need to understand the importance of place-based learning and how to implement it into their curriculum. There were many quotes that I read


that were very intriguing but a quote that stood out the most was one of how teachers who implement this model of teaching really open up the minds of their students: “Teachers who take up this model of


place-based teaching and learning should be prepared for a change in their classroom and their students. Once we begin to treat our students as the capable thinkers and problem solvers who will be asked to confront tomorrow’s global challenges, it is difficult to go back to traditional fact- driven education. In a sense, if you adopt the approach we are advocating, you are opening up Pandora’s Box and your students are unlikely to let you put the lid back on.” (p.9) I thought this was very thought


provoking and really emphasized the importance of place-based teaching and learning. This quote really introduces you to the idea of how students will be positively affected by place-based teaching and encourages teachers to put this model into practice. Along with the many activities that this book offers for you to implement into your science curriculum


CLEARING 2011


this book also promotes the practice of place-based teaching because this approach is: 1) engaging and motivating for students and teachers, 2) meaningful, relevant and authentic to the skills and ways of problem solving that today’s students will need as tomorrow’s citizens, 3) it provides a needed counterbalance to the testing-driven model of instruction that has become dominant in public schools today, 3) one that promotes curiosity, and 5) more reasonable and comparable to education of private schooling. This book talks about how currently


United States students are performing much lower than other countries in the field of science. Much of the argument for this is that classrooms are not pushing for inquiry- based practices but rather are focused on state-level tests and how this has become the primary focus for many schools instead of on student learning: “We are concerned that more and


more, students are being trained to become expert test takers rather than engaged learners and creative problem solvers. The world that today’s students will live in will require creative problem solving and persuasive communication... “(p. 4) This is a very scary and discouraging


direction that our education system is heading towards and these authors believe that place-based teaching and learning can help our system re-direct itself.


is our hub of reference and the peak at which we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You don’t have to be at an extreme latitude to notice the differences and compare them to other parts of the world. A local author, Debbie Miller and


illustrator, Jon Van Zyle teamed up to create the fantastic book Arctic Nights, Arctic Lights. Each page illustrates the average day for each month, a short description about what a typical day in interior Alaska looks like, the average temp and the sunrise and sunset times. The border on each page is cleaverly a chart of the amount of daylight and darkness for each day. There is also a brief informational introduction about Alaska and the characteristics of life at this latitude and a great glossary of terms specific to this locale. This book & topic provide so


much fodder for all kinds of learning opportunities and integrated cross- curricular lessons. Math, science and social studies completely intertwined! No matter what level you teach there exist so many ways to extend from this simple & beautiful picture book.


Math - Figure out the length of the day using


the sunrise and sunset times from the book. Chart the daylight and darkness. You


can do this together as a class, in groups or as individuals depending on your child, or classes developmental stage. I found my 6th grade students had some rather ingenious algorithms for correctly calculating the daylight and darkness. Compare the daylight & darkness


charts or overlapping them is a power visual. Then choose your locale (if you are


Arctic Lights/Arctic Nights Reviewed by Harmony Roll


I


n a little over a month we will officially begin Winter, though it feels like we’ve


been fully engulfed in it already here in Anchorage, Alaska. Solstices and Equinoxes are important markers this far north, where we notice the drastic differences from the midnight sun of June to the long dark & cold days in December. The winter solstice


www.clearingmagazine.org/online


in interior Alaska find the information for somewhere else in the world, perhaps closer to the Equator) and get your local sunrise/sunset info using the weather section of your local newspaper or the internet. Create the same kind of graph of the daylight and darkness in your neck of the woods. Compare graphs. Another extension for this lesson is to


do this as an ongoing project - once a week get the local sunrise/sunset times for your local paper. Add a new bar or plot to your graph every week over the course of the school year.


Writing: Have the students/class create a book


using Arctic Nights, Arctic Lights as a template and tailoring it to your place.


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