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Next year I will be teaching two new courses at our school. They will both be semester long courses; anatomy and physiology and environmental science. Does anyone have any suggestions for good textbooks for these courses?

Hi Chelsea - Are you teaching high school courses? I have taught high school [i]AP Environmental Science and [/i]also teach [i]K-12 Educators in a MS in Environmental Education program[/i]. Often school districts already has a textbook that was previously adopted for the course that you will be required to use (our district, for example, is on a 10 year cycle for new texts). This can get you started while you research new texts for the next textbook adoption cycle. New textbook adoptions can be a very long process, with several layers of discussion and approval by your curriculum committee or school board. So you should begin asking questions of your science dept. chair and principal as soon as possible. Generally, you would need to review and justify your textbook selection. You may want to begin by searching the textbook vendors for Environmental Science. If you are teaching AP Environmental Science, the College Board APES website may also have several recommended texts. New texts have many wonderful digital learning tools for students. If you are a 1:1 computer laptop/tablet campus or have computer labs or classroom computer carts, you can use these digital resources to enhance learning and engage students. For prior textbooks that have been adopted (before you arrive), as a new teacher for a course, you should still be able to access these resources for your students (generally they are available for the length of the text adoption) by receiving the teacher text access code from colleagues and/or contacting the text vendor directly. [u]A few of my personal Environmental Science text favorites:[/u] 1) [i]Living in the Environment [/i](Miller & Levine) Note - These authors have several titles, each with slightly different emphasis. 2) [i]Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry & Applications [/i](Cunningham & Cunningham) 3) [i]Environment [/i](Raven) - This is a more advanced coverage (college/graduate level) and a terrific book for content reference book for teachers. There are so many wonderful choices for Environmental Science textbooks! Have fun exploring. I'm sure you'll find one that most closely matches your teaching philosophy, curriculum requirements and teaching style. Also, there are a wide variety of teaching/learning resources for environmental science available on the internet too. You'll be amazed at how many engaging resources you can find online. it's a great way to infuse technology into your teaching practice. Good luck! Dorothy

Hi Dorthy, Thank you so much for all the advice. We are a new high school and do not have textbooks yet for either course and will be purchasing them this year. So this added information will be extremely beneficial. Chelsea

Hi Chelsea - Lucky you! It's great fun adopting new texts, so many wonderful learning options to select from and the new texts are generally very engaging for students. Have great fun exploring. Environmental Science is even more fun to teach if you have a budget for field trips and some nearby outdoor spaces to explore with students (school forests, local green spaces, ponds, urban environment, or school rain garden). Dorothy