For non-majors and mixed-majors introductory botany (plant biology) courses. Plant Biology focuses students on the function of plants and the role they play in our world. With evolved content and a new organization, the authors emphasize the scientific method to help students develop the critical thinking skills they need to make sound decisions throughout life. Together, the emphasis on how plants work and the development of critical-thinking skills support the authors' goal of fostering scientific literacy.

Conversational effectiveness is a barometer of human thriving and facilitating insightful conversations is a powerful method for accelerating psychological change and collaboration. This ground-breaking professional book provides a map of Breakthrough Conversations together with a practical toolkit for enhancing awareness, emotional resilience and creativity. Neuroscience, mindfulness and psychological research shows that awareness is pivotal to skilful conversations. By supporting clients to observe and manage their own body-brain states during conversation, they can learn to switch on the physiological systems that support more authentic, agile, and attuned interactions. Three body-brain states, reactive, habitual and reflective - characterised as Red, Amber and Green (RAG) - are differentiated in terms of body-sensations and behaviours, and these correspond to predictable interactive patterns. Facilitated to experience more emotionally resilient conversations, clients access their natural capacities for collaboration, compassion and shared creativity. This journey, through the five stages of Breakthrough Conversations, drawing on the RAG frame and a number of other practical models, is richly illustrated with case studies from working one-to-one and with pairs. Coming to see conversations as a dance driven by the interactions of underlying needs and emotions frees clients to make paradigm shifts in their self-awareness and interpersonal effectiveness. This book, and the approach it outlines, will be essential reading for coaches, consultants, leaders and all professionals seeking to choreograph more insightful conversations.

An introductory survey of the government's role in America's continuing drive for equality. Today's lingering inequalities, particularly the "American dilemma" of racism, runs throughout U.S. history. Equal Protection provides readers with a historical overview of the controversies over the issue of equality, an understanding of how government-and, particularly, the courts and Congress-has reacted to these controversies, and the role these issues have played in shaping U.S. society. This volume follows the push for equal treatment regardless of age, gender, disabilities, economic status, or sexual orientation. It focuses on legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, and political initiatives and movements such as The Great Society, the ERA, and the War on Poverty. Here are American's interpretations of equal rights, then and now. Includes a section of A-Z entries covering people, laws, events, judicial decisions, statutes, and concepts related to equal protection in the United States Primary source documents include court decisions, executive orders, and legislation that shaped the status of equal protection in our society today

Our increasing reliance on digital technology has had a profound impact on our own abilities as humans. What can we do about it? In a fascinating journey through history and science, Human Being offers an insightful and provocative survey of twelve vital skills we used to call upon as a species – from navigation, conversation and memory to craft, solitude and sleep – and how we can work to reclaim them. As rapidly advancing technology embeds itself ever deeper within our lives, we rely less and less on our own capabilities. The impact on our skills and self-reliance has been immense, and, because the transition has happened so swiftly and quietly, none of us have been taught how to address the effects of our ever-increasing dependence on algorithms and artificial intelligence. Based on years of research by author Graham Lee, a digital skills educator with experience training tens of thousands of professionals, each chapter in Human Being highlights an example of when these key capabilities were at their peak, demonstrates how in a vanishingly short space of time we have embraced ways to undermine them, and provides clear, achievable guidance on how we can reverse these losses and regain our essential, human qualities. At once a celebration of human history and a timely call to action, Human Being empowers readers to build better habits around – and away from – technology, and reminds us just how extraordinary human achievement can be.

Conversational effectiveness is a barometer of human thriving and facilitating insightful conversations is a powerful method for accelerating psychological change and collaboration. This ground-breaking professional book provides a map of Breakthrough Conversations together with a practical toolkit for enhancing awareness, emotional resilience and creativity. Neuroscience, mindfulness and psychological research shows that awareness is pivotal to skilful conversations. By supporting clients to observe and manage their own body-brain states during conversation, they can learn to switch on the physiological systems that support more authentic, agile, and attuned interactions. Three body-brain states, reactive, habitual and reflective - characterised as Red, Amber and Green (RAG) - are differentiated in terms of body-sensations and behaviours, and these correspond to predictable interactive patterns. Facilitated to experience more emotionally resilient conversations, clients access their natural capacities for collaboration, compassion and shared creativity. This journey, through the five stages of Breakthrough Conversations, drawing on the RAG frame and a number of other practical models, is richly illustrated with case studies from working one-to-one and with pairs. Coming to see conversations as a dance driven by the interactions of underlying needs and emotions frees clients to make paradigm shifts in their self-awareness and interpersonal effectiveness. This book, and the approach it outlines, will be essential reading for coaches, consultants, leaders and all professionals seeking to choreograph more insightful conversations.

Our increasing reliance on digital technology has had a profound impact on our own abilities as humans. What can we do about it? In a fascinating journey through history and science, Human Being offers an insightful and provocative survey of twelve vital skills we used to call upon as a species – from navigation, conversation and memory to craft, solitude and sleep – and how we can work to reclaim them. As rapidly advancing technology embeds itself ever deeper within our lives, we rely less and less on our own capabilities. The impact on our skills and self-reliance has been immense, and, because the transition has happened so swiftly and quietly, none of us have been taught how to address the effects of our ever-increasing dependence on algorithms and artificial intelligence. Based on years of research by author Graham Lee, a digital skills educator with experience training tens of thousands of professionals, each chapter in Human Being highlights an example of when these key capabilities were at their peak, demonstrates how in a vanishingly short space of time we have embraced ways to undermine them, and provides clear, achievable guidance on how we can reverse these losses and regain our essential, human qualities. At once a celebration of human history and a timely call to action, Human Being empowers readers to build better habits around – and away from – technology, and reminds us just how extraordinary human achievement can be.

Effective leadership coaching can drastically improve performance. However, good coaching is more than just passing on your own business experience. Developing authentic leadership through coaching is about changing deeply personal, often unconscious, elements of a manager's behaviour. In Leadership Coaching, Graham Lee explains to coaches how to be more sophisticated in their understanding of psychology and how to develop the skills needed to work on both the psychological and the practical elements of improving managerial performance. Leadership Coaching sets out a five-stage coaching model, and works through each of these stages in detail, highlighting the skills that coaches require and the issues they are likely to face. It also offers HR managers sponsoring coaching an understanding of the competencies necessary for effective coaching and provides a standard procedure for buying in coaching services. Supported by a wide range of case studies throughout the book, this is valuable reading for both in-house and external coaches looking to effectively develop leaders and managers in organizations.

Modern boarding schools are relaxed and pleasant places for children to learn and develop. However, this new freedom does mean that boarders have to make more of their own decisions and puts a new burden of responsibility on their shoulders. This excellent book offers advice from a mother on how to prepare girls for their first experience of boarding school. It is ideal for parents who have decided that boarding is the best option for their girls and is a guide to preparing your daughter so that she is confident from the start and can get the most out of the opportunity she's been given. The book is based on extensive research and a sizeable archive of advice and anecdotes from a huge number of staff, girls and parents. The advice ranges from the very obvious to the rather more surprising, with anecdotes and verbatim comments from those who have been there. It will leave you and your daughter feeling better armed for what is ahead.

Discover the untapped features of object-oriented programming and use it with other software tools to code fast, efficient applications. Key Features Explore the complexities of object-oriented programming (OOP) Discover what OOP can do for you Learn to use the key tools and software engineering practices to support your own programming needs Book DescriptionYour experience and knowledge always influence the approach you take and the tools you use to write your programs. With a sound understanding of how to approach your goal and what software paradigms to use, you can create high-performing applications quickly and efficiently. In this two-part book, you'll discover the untapped features of object-oriented programming and use it with other software tools to code fast and efficient applications. The first part of the book begins with a discussion on how OOP is used today and moves on to analyze the ideas and problems that OOP doesn't address. It continues by deconstructing the complexity of OOP, showing you its fundamentally simple core. You'll see that, by using the distinctive elements of OOP, you can learn to build your applications more easily. The next part of this book talks about acquiring the skills to become a better programmer. You'll get an overview of how various tools, such as version control and build management, help make your life easier. This book also discusses the pros and cons of other programming paradigms, such as aspect-oriented programming and functional programming, and helps to select the correct approach for your projects. It ends by talking about the philosophy behind designing software and what it means to be a "good" developer. By the end of this two-part book, you will have learned that OOP is not always complex, and you will know how you can evolve into a better programmer by learning about ethics, teamwork, and documentation. What you will learn Untangle the complexity of object-oriented programming by breaking it down to its essential building blocks Realize the full potential of OOP to design efficient, maintainable programs Utilize coding best practices, including TDD, pair programming and code reviews, to improve your work Use tools, such as source control and IDEs, to work more efficiently Learn how to most productively work with other developers Build your own software development philosophy Who this book is forThis book is ideal for programmers who want to understand the philosophy behind creating software and what it means to be "good" at designing software. Programmers who want to deconstruct the OOP paradigm and see how it can be reconstructed in a clear, straightforward way will also find this book useful. To understand the ideas expressed in this book, you must be an experienced programmer who wants to evolve their practice.

Learn the fundamentals of clean, effective Python coding and build the practical skills to tackle your own software development or data science projects Key Features Build key Python skills with engaging development tasks and challenging activities Implement useful algorithms and write programs to solve real-world problems Apply Python in realistic data science projects and create simple machine learning models Book DescriptionHave you always wanted to learn Python, but never quite known how to start? More applications than we realize are being developed using Python because it is easy to learn, read, and write. You can now start learning the language quickly and effectively with the help of this interactive tutorial. The Python Workshop starts by showing you how to correctly apply Python syntax to write simple programs, and how to use appropriate Python structures to store and retrieve data. You'll see how to handle files, deal with errors, and use classes and methods to write concise, reusable, and efficient code. As you advance, you'll understand how to use the standard library, debug code to troubleshoot problems, and write unit tests to validate application behavior. You'll gain insights into using the pandas and NumPy libraries for analyzing data, and the graphical libraries of Matplotlib and Seaborn to create impactful data visualizations. By focusing on entry-level data science, you'll build your practical Python skills in a way that mirrors real-world development. Finally, you'll discover the key steps in building and using simple machine learning algorithms. By the end of this Python book, you'll have the knowledge, skills and confidence to creatively tackle your own ambitious projects with Python. What you will learn Write clean and well-commented code that is easy to maintain Automate essential day-to-day tasks with Python scripts Debug logical errors and handle exceptions in your programs Explore data science fundamentals and create engaging visualizations Get started with predictive machine learning Keep your development process bug-free with automated testing Who this book is forThis book is designed for anyone who is new to the Python programming language. Whether you're an aspiring software engineer or data scientist, or are just curious about learning how to code with Python, this book is for you. No prior programming experience is required.