Tag Archives: science literacy

Edward Jenner and Smallpox

Last but not least this morning, especially considering that Edward Jenner was instrumental in refining the art and science of vaccinations, which makes him a man of his and our time, here is a reading on Edward Jenner and Smallpox along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Lesson Plan on Rock Sizes from The Order of Things

Here is yet another lesson plan from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book The Order of Things, this one on rock sizes. And here is list and comprehension worksheet that is the work of this lesson.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Prematurity

I worked up this reading on prematurity (in the sense of premature births) and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet for a student, and I think after that one use, it disappeared until today, when I found it in a far corner of my desktop. Health educators, is this something you teach about?

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Lesson Plan on the Percentages of Chemical Elements that Compose Earth from The Order of Things

Here is another lesson plan from The Order of Things, this one on the percentages of chemical elements that compose this planet. Here is the list and comprehension questions that constitutes the work of this lesson. If you have any questions about this material, please see the excursus on worksheets from The Order of Things in the About Posts & Texts page, linked to above the banner photograph.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Morphine

When I left Vermont in August of 1996 to seek my fortune as a doctoral candidate in history, I intended to return posthaste–if not to Vermont, than as near to the state as possible. Last August (of 2019) I finally made it back here to work in a public school system. I’d visited every summer for many years, but as I learned slowly and the hard way (like the way I learn everything in my life, alas), living in a place is quite a bit different than visiting it.

Of course I was aware of the opioid crisis in the state–it has been national news–and a national problem, after all–but I hadn’t had a chance to see it up close.

Now I have, and I can tell you that in the 23 years I was away, opioids cut a wide swath through the social and economic fabric of this fine state. So, for any young person who thinks that trying opioids won’t necessarily lead to personal disaster, here is a reading on morphine along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Cerebral Cortex

Although I prepared this reading on the cerebral cortex and wrote its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet for a specific student and purpose, I cannot remember who and what they were. I don’t know if this has any use in a high school classroom, but there it is if you need it. This might be a set of documents, properly revised, for a professional development workshop.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Plas, Plast, Plasm, and Plasty

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots plas, plast, plasm, and plasty. As you can probably see from looking at them, this is a set of roots that is very productive in medical words in English: they mean to form, forming cells or tissue, protoplasm,  and development. In other words, students interested in or pursuing careers in the healthcare professions, particularly at the post-secondary level, this document is for you.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Lesson Plan on Deserts on Earth by Size from The Order of Things

From the pages of The Order of Things, here is a lesson plan on deserts, specifically, their areas by square kilometers and square miles. This, like the other lessons I’ve composed and posted from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book, is a simply exercise in symbolic analysis–i.e. reading numbers and words at the same time and synthesizing them to grasp the facts that they represent. To that end, here is the reading and comprehension worksheet, in Microsoft Word, so it is flexible for your needs.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Enriched Foods

When I was in middle school, one of the classes we took was called “Home Economics.” It was a practical knowledge course on how to shop and cook for oneself. I can’t imagine how my life in this pandemic would have proceeded without the knowledge I took from that course.

This reading on enriched foods and its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet are the kind of thing we would have learned about in Home Ec, as it was known. I didn’t understand the point of the class at the time, so I apologize to the universe in general and the teachers of the course in particular for my uninterest and generally bad behavior that semester.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Rub

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word rub. It means red, as you will quickly infer from its basis in the English word ruby. It also shows up in the noun rubella, a form of measles. Care to guess what color they are?

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.