Tag Archives: science literacy

Edward Abbey

Posted on June 13, 2019 | Leave a comment

“(1927-1989) American novelist and essayist. Abbey is best known for his celebration of southwest Utah’s slickrock country. One of the more overtly political modern American nature writers, he advocated for the preservation of the wilderness and was a tireless critic of the forces which, in his view, desecrated it. In Desert Solitaire (1968), a nonfiction account of summers spent as a ranger in Arches National Monument, Abbey portrays a starkly beautiful desert landscape that is threatened by so-called “industrial tourism.” The Monkey-Wrench Gang (1975), a novel about a merry band of eco-terrorists, was taken up by the environmental group Earth First!. Novels like The Brave Cowboy (1956) and Fire on the Mountain (1962), further explore the fate of strong-willed individuals confronting the technocratic forces of industry and government.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996

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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Zero

Posted on June 12, 2019 | Leave a comment

“The mathematical sages of India conceived of this concept, and started on the path of the creation of zero back in the ninth century BC. The root of the word is in the Sanskrit Shoonya, meaning ‘it is a void’, which got passed on to the Arabs, who knew the symbol as ‘Safira.’

The Western world came to the concept extraordinarily late, when Venetian merchants stumbled across it and brought it back to their homeland, where it was known as ‘zefiro‘–later corrupted to ‘zero.’ The concept gradually spread through Europe, reading such far-flung outposts as the British Isles in the late sixteenth century.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Acne

Posted on June 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on acne, the bane of every teenager’s social existence, and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this as an item of social and emotional learning–acne can be tough on kids, and understanding its chemistry and physiology can help kids feel less alone.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Reference, Worksheets

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Sanitize (vt)

Posted on June 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

I have recently posted, and will continue to post until they are gone, a series of readings and comprehension worksheets on health-related topics.

So this morning seems as good a time as any to publish this context clues worksheet on the verb sanitize. It is apparently only used transitively.

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.

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Steroids

Posted on June 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here’s a reading on steroids and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you want them. I hope that there isn’t a real need for these documents–because that could mean kids are using steroids, a scary thought.

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.

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Lacquer

Posted on June 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

“A resinous varnish that, when applied in several layers, attains a high polish. True lacquer comes from the Japanese lac tree. Characteristically oriental, lacquer work spread to Europe in the early 18th century. Usually decorated.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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White Blood Cells

Posted on June 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

Some years ago, I oversaw a credit-recovery class over summer, and one of the most frequently failed courses that year was health. I developed a number of supplemental materials for the inadequate corporate software the school used for his endeavor. I’ll start posting them here occasionally.

Here, then, is a reading on white blood cells and 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.

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Yang, Chen Ning/Frank Yang

Posted on May 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Yang Chen Ning, known as Frank Yang (b. 1922) Chinese-U.S. theoretical physicist. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1945 and studied with E. Teller at the Univ. of Chicago. He showed that parity is violated when elementary particles decay. This and other work in particle physics earned him and Tsung-Dao Lee (b. 1926) a 1957 Nobel Prize. His research focused mostly on interactions involving the weak force among elementary particles. He also worked in statistical mechanics.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Word Root Exercise: Carp/o

Posted on April 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

OK, here is a word root worksheet on the Greek root carp/o; it means fruit. This is a tough root to puzzle out; it turns up in a lot of words related to the life sciences, so it may be useful in that respect.

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.

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The Weekly Text, April 26, 2019: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Vaccines

Posted on April 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

Earlier in the week, I had begun work on this Text with the idea of posting a complete lesson plan of some kind. However, as the news of a national measles outbreak in the United States, I changed my mind.

Because I can think of no better time than now to post this reading on vaccines and its attendant 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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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