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Thinking whimsically makes serious science accessible. That's a
message that should be taken to heart by all readers who want to
learn about evolution. Do Elephants Have Knees? invites readers
into serious appreciation of Darwinian histories by deploying the
playful thinking found in children's books. Charles R. Ault Jr.
weds children's literature to recent research in paleontology and
evolutionary biology. Inquiring into the origin of origins stories,
Ault presents three portraits of Charles Darwin-curious child,
twentysomething adventurer, and elderly worm scientist. Essays
focusing on the origins of tetrapods, elephants, whales, and birds
explain fundamental Darwinian concepts (natural selection, for
example) with examples of fossil history and comparative anatomy.
The imagery of the children's story offers a way to remember and
recreate scientific discoveries. By juxtaposing Darwin's science
with tales for children, Do Elephants Have Knees? underscores the
importance of whimsical storytelling to the accomplishment of
serious thinking. Charles Darwin mused about duck beaks and
swimming bears as he imagined a pathway for the origin of baleen. A
"bearduck" chimera may be a stretch, but the science linking not
just cows but also whales to moose through shared ancestry has
great merit. Teaching about shared ancestry may begin with
attention to Bernard Wiseman's Morris the Moose. Morris believes
that cows and deer are fine examples of moose because they all have
four legs and things on their heads. No whale antlers are known,
but fossils of four-legged whales are. By calling attention to
surprising and serendipitous echoes between children's stories and
challenging science, Ault demonstrates how playful thinking opens
the doors to an understanding of evolutionary thought.
Beyond Science Standards capture a vision of science education both
whimsical and serious. Ranging across examples from elementary to
university level classrooms and grounded in philosophy and history,
the stories address dimensions beyond the realm of bureaucratic
standards. Its thesis brings into question the premise of
scientific unity and its representation in school as notions of
method, process, nature, and practice. Schools, no less than the
sciences, profit from playful exploration-of musical instruments in
fourth grade physical science, for example, and hotel lobby
decorative rock in a college geology course. Aesthetic expression
permeates geologic interpretation and evolutionary insight-in
depicting dentition, for instance, in the history of the horse
family and linking this history to changing landscapes.
Participating in collecting local, high altitude weather data
enhances trust in climate science, especially when the observations
benefit the local farming community. Allied with historical
examples of the conduct of science, Beyond Science Standards offers
the reader inspiring stories of science teaching, varying from
place to place, time to time, discipline to discipline, and purpose
to purpose.
Beyond Science Standards capture a vision of science education both
whimsical and serious. Ranging across examples from elementary to
university level classrooms and grounded in philosophy and history,
the stories address dimensions beyond the realm of bureaucratic
standards. Its thesis brings into question the premise of
scientific unity and its representation in school as notions of
method, process, nature, and practice. Schools, no less than the
sciences, profit from playful exploration-of musical instruments in
fourth grade physical science, for example, and hotel lobby
decorative rock in a college geology course. Aesthetic expression
permeates geologic interpretation and evolutionary insight-in
depicting dentition, for instance, in the history of the horse
family and linking this history to changing landscapes.
Participating in collecting local, high altitude weather data
enhances trust in climate science, especially when the observations
benefit the local farming community. Allied with historical
examples of the conduct of science, Beyond Science Standards offers
the reader inspiring stories of science teaching, varying from
place to place, time to time, discipline to discipline, and purpose
to purpose.
For several decades educators have struggled to identify the
attributes all sciences have in common. In the popular mind this
effort constitutes the importance of teaching "the" scientific
method. In the policy maker's world this pursuit yields standards
for all Americans that unify the sciences. For teachers, the quest
for unity has typically meant teaching science as process. However,
a curriculum that prioritizes what all sciences have in common
obscures their vital differences. For example, studying landslides
is very different from doing x-ray diffraction; climate science is
unlike medical research. Naive ideas about scientific unity
impoverish the public's ability to evaluate scientific enterprises.
Challenging Science Standards voices skepticism towards the quest
for unity. Through analyses of disciplinary knowledge, school
curricula, and classroom learning, the book uncovers flaws in the
unifying dimensions of the science standards. It proposes respect
for disciplinary diversity and attention to questions of value in
choosing what science to teach. Illuminated by vignettes of
children and adolescents studying topics ranging from snail
populations to horse fossils, Challenging Science Standards
proposes promising remedies.
For several decades educators have struggled to identify the
attributes all sciences have in common. In the popular mind this
effort constitutes the importance of teaching "the" scientific
method. In the policy maker's world this pursuit yields standards
for all Americans that unify the sciences. For teachers, the quest
for unity has typically meant teaching science as process. However,
a curriculum that prioritizes what all sciences have in common
obscures their vital differences. For example, studying landslides
is very different from doing x-ray diffraction; climate science is
unlike medical research. Naive ideas about scientific unity
impoverish the public's ability to evaluate scientific enterprises.
Challenging Science Standards voices skepticism towards the quest
for unity. Through analyses of disciplinary knowledge, school
curricula, and classroom learning, the book uncovers flaws in the
unifying dimensions of the science standards. It proposes respect
for disciplinary diversity and attention to questions of value in
choosing what science to teach. Illuminated by vignettes of
children and adolescents studying topics ranging from snail
populations to horse fossils, Challenging Science Standards
proposes promising remedies.
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