Sue Garcia
Lake Travis Middle School
TX

Cell Structure and Function

Sat, Oct 31, 2015 4:17 PM
Cell Structure and Function

Cell Structure and Function is one of NSTA’s new eBooks. I found it to be a well designed resource that covers four science objectives: “The Basis of Life”, “The Cellular Factory”, “The Molecular Machinery”, and “The Most Important Molecule”. This book is beautifully illustrated with photos, graphics, and images found on every page. I also appreciated the fact that all of the lessons had audio to accompany the text. Teachers will be pleased with the “Common Student Preconceptions” that are found throughout the book. This helps them understand when their students may have a different understanding of the material. There were slideshows, animations, interactive visuals, and “Hands-on-Activities”. I found the interactive simulations very useful when I needed to demonstrate a concept. This eBook also included a “Search” button that allowed me to search for information using just a few key words. And the “Check Your Thinking”, found every few pages, provided my students the opportunity to answer discussion or short answer questions in more depth. Another great feature was the “Review What You Learned”. This feature provided my students, in a multiple-choice format, the opportunity to review the concepts they had just covered. As an assessment, a quiz is included at the end of each Science Objective. At the end of the book, teachers will find the correlation of the new NGSS standards, Science for All Americans, and Benchmarks for Science Literacy are discussed. I highly recommend this book to educators and students wanting an excellent and proven means to learn the content needed for curriculum and instruction about Cell Structures and Functions.

Interdependence of Life

Thu, Oct 29, 2015 3:53 PM
Interdependence in the Ecosystem

NSTA’s new eBook, the Interdependence of Life is a wonderful educational tool. I found it to be a comprehensive resource that covers four science objectives: “Organisms and Their Environments”, “Species Relationships”, “Population Balance in Biomes”, and "Agents of Change in Ecosystems”. I appreciated the fact that all of the lessons had audio to accompany the text. There were slideshows, animations, and “Hands-on-Activities”. There were also plenty of interactive simulations that I found to be very useful when I needed to demonstrate a concept and many of them were designed in a game-style format for the students to use. This eBook also included a “Search” button that allowed me to search for information using just a few key words. And the “Check Your Thinking”, found every few pages, provided my students the opportunity to answer discussion questions or short answer questions in more depth. The “Take Notice!” also alerted the student’s to facts that pertain to the lesson they were discussing that normally they might have missed or over-looked. Another great feature was the “Review What You Learned”. This feature provided my students, in a multiple-choice format, the opportunity to review the concepts they had just covered. At the end of the book, the correlation of the new NGSS standards, Science for All Americans, and Benchmarks for Science Literacy are discussed. I highly recommend this book to educators and students wanting an excellent and proven means to learn the content needed for curriculum and instruction about the Interdependence of Organisms in Earth’s Ecosystem.

Solar System

Sat, Oct 24, 2015 2:44 PM
What you need to know about our Solar System

How can you go wrong with NSTA’s new eBook, the Solar System? I found it to be a comprehensive resource that covers four science objectives: “Earth in Space”, “A Look at the Planets, “Asteroids, Comets, and Meteorites” and “Formation of Our Solar System”. I loved the beautiful full screen videos that were provided to further illustrate the lessons along with audio to accompany the text. There were slideshows, animations, interactive visuals, “Hands-on-Activities”, and plenty of interactive simulations that I found to be very useful when I needed to demonstrate a concept. This eBook also included a “Search” button that allowed me to search for information using just a few key words. And the “Check Your Thinking” provided my students the opportunity to answer discussion questions or short answer questions in more depth. Another great feature was the “Review What You Learned”. This feature provided my students, in a multiple-choice format, the opportunity to review the concepts they had just covered. I highly recommend this book to educators and students wanting to explore what we know about our solar system and what is found within it.