Rethinking Scientific Literacy presents a new perspective on science learning as a tool for improving communities. By focusing on case studies inside and outside of the classroom, the authors illuminate the relevance of science in students' everyday lives, offering a new vision of scientific literacy that is inextricably linked with social responsibility and community development. The goal if not tote memorization of facts and theories, but a broader competency in scientific think...

Curriculum*-in-the-Making theorizes about the living curriculum as an event that is in the making, for the enacted curriculum is something finished, which, only as an object, can be compared to another object. A living curriculum, understood as an event*-in-the-making, leads to a very different appreciation of just what is happening in a classroom. Events* are understood to be in the making so we cannot know the precise nature of what we witness until after completion has been ach...

This book provides an introduction to the significant role of physics in evolution, based on the ideas of matter and energy resource flow, organism self-copying, and ecological change. The text employs these ideas to create quantitative models for important evolutionary processes.Many fields of science and engineering have come up against the problem of complex design—when details become so numerous that computer power alone cannot make progress. Nature solved the complex-design pr...

Over the past two decades, the theoretical interests of mathematics educators have changed substantially—as any brief look at the titles and abstracts of articles shows. Largely through the work of Paul Cobb and his various collaborators, mathematics educators came to be attuned to the intricate relationship between individual and the social configuration of which she or he is part. That is, this body of work, running alongside more traditional constructivist and psychological approaches, ...

Establishing Scientific Classroom Discourse Communities: Multiple Voices of Teaching and Learning Research is designed to encourage discussion of issues surrounding the reform of classroom science discourse among teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. The contributors--some of the top educational researchers, linguists, and science educators in the world--represent a variety of perspectives pertaining to teaching, assessment, research, learning, and reform. As a whole the b...

Over the course of a generation, algorithms have gone from mathematical abstractions to powerful mediators of daily life. Algorithms have made our lives more efficient, more entertaining, and, sometimes, better informed. At the same time, complex algorithms are increasingly violating the basic rights of individual citizens. Allegedly anonymized datasets routinely leak our most sensitive personal information; statistical models for everything from mortgages to college admissions reflect rac...

The power of music, the way it works on the mind and heart, remains an enticing mystery. Now two noted writers on classical music, Michael Steinberg and Larry Rothe, explore the allure of this melodious art--not in the clinical terms of social scientists--but through stories drawn from their own experience. In For the Love of Music, Steinberg and Rothe draw on a lifetime of listening to, living with, and writing about music, sharing the delights and revelatory encounters they have...

Over the course of a generation, algorithms have gone from mathematical abstractions to powerful mediators of daily life. Algorithms have made our lives more efficient, more entertaining, and, sometimes, better informed. At the same time, complex algorithms are increasingly violating the basic rights of individual citizens. Allegedly anonymized datasets routinely leak our most sensitive personal information; statistical models for everything from mortgages to college admissions reflect rac...

A collection of stories by Penn alumni whose lives were transformed by engaging with the West Philadelphia communityFor over thirty years, the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships has served as the University of Pennsylvania’s primary vehicle for advancing civic and community engagement at Penn. The Netter Center develops and helps implement democratic, mutually transformative, place-based partnerships between Penn and its local geographic co...

How can computer modeling and simulation tools be used to understand and analyze common situations and everyday problems? Readers will find here an easy-to-follow, enjoyable introduction for anyone even with little background training. Examples are incorporated throughout to stimulate interest and engage the reader.Build the necessary skillsets with operating systems, editing, languages, commands, and visualization.Obtain hands-on examples from sports, accidents, and diseas...

With Python, C++, FORTRAN, and a friendly conversational tone peppered with attempted humor, Modeling and Simulation of Everyday Things takes us on a journey through constructing models and simulations of systems and processes in everyday life and beyond. Readers can access an example‑packed online repository of programs in each of the three languages, including seldom covered work in generalized geometries and 3D.This second edition is a wonderful confluence of developmen...

From the perspective of a five-time combat veteran and US Army Special Forces officer, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Roth, comes an in-depth account of the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq during the Global War on Terrorism. The author's career, spanning over thirty-five years in the US military, provides the reader with a unique and exciting direct experience from one of the most combat-experienced Green Beret commanders of the current age. LTC Michael Roth provides a mature and detailed...