Hello! Thanks for visiting our blog. We look forward to sharing information about science and inquiry, and hope that you will comment on topics that interest you.
We work with teachers and administrators in all phases of implementing instructional materials, from evaluation to adoption, through professional development and ongoing support. It is exciting to see the impact that quality inquiry-based science programs can have on student learning. And, with children in PreK and elementary school, it is something we are pretty passionate about on a personal level too!
Texas high schools are taking action to ensure their students are well-prepared for college and the workforce when they graduate. Beginning with the class of 2011, students in Texas are required to have 4 years of math and science coursework to graduate. Gone are the days of skating through that last year with study halls and electives (not that I am speaking from experience)! The Texas Education Agency put the 4x4 graduation requirement in place to give students continuity in their studies and avoid that potential lapse in their last year of high school.
We are pleased to offer several secondary school textbooks and digital learning products that align with courses being added as fourth year options for science. These programs include
Global Science for Environmental Systems,
Forensic Science, and
Starry Night for Astronomy and Earth and Space Science.
Please contact me for more information about these, or any other programs from our comprehensive line of science textbook publishing products. I will be happy to provide correlations with the TEKS or the standards in your state.
It appears that many high school chemistry teachers are looking for innovative secondary school textbooks for their classrooms. At the NSTA regional conference in Phoenix, AZ earlier this month, author Kelly Deters presented
Kendall Hunt Chemistry: Discovering the Chemistry You Need to Know to a full house.
Teachers listened with great interest as Kelly detailed how her experience as a classroom teacher, combined with extensive research, led to the development of this highly-engaging high school chemistry textbook. Attendees were extremely impressed with the program's concise, practical approach to teaching chemistry. They said it was so unlike the encyclopedia-type of textbook published by other educational book companies. They knew their students would be able to make real-world connections with this high school chemistry textbook.
Dr. Deters truly showed how this approach allows teachers to teach chemistry without hearing "When am I ever going to need to know this?" (which just happened to be the title of the workshop). I enjoyed speaking with many attendees following the session, and look forward to working with them as they implement the program in their schools next year!
I just returned from the NABT Conference in Denver, Colorado. It is always so inspiring to see educators taking time out of their busy schedules to focus on their own professional development. We enjoyed talking with teachers from around the country at our exhibit booth, as well as in workshops for our
BSCS Biology: A Human Approach and
Forensic Science for High School programs.
It is also fun to cruise the exhibit hall, mingling with other school textbook publishers, and seeing who has merged with whom in this ever-changing world of school textbook publishers! It makes me appreciate working for a stable company like Kendall Hunt, which has been family-owned for more than 60 years, and is still going strong.
But the best part of the conference for me is getting the chance to sit down and talk with teachers who are interested in, or currently using, our secondary school textbooks. Among educational book companies, the word "inquiry" gets thrown around a lot. It is always rewarding to hear directly from teachers that Kendall Hunt truly has the material to back it up. As one teacher from Massachusetts put it, "I know that when you say 'inquiry' you MEAN inquiry!"
This week I get to pack up my elementary school science textbooks too, as I head out for the Colorado Science Conference. It is at the Denver Merchandise Mart November 19-20. Hope to see you there!
One of our most in-demand secondary school textbooks is
Forensic Science for High School. It offers an extremely engaging context for students to learn science through inquiry. Concepts that are often taught in high school chemistry textbooks, physics, biology and even mathematics and statistics courses are brought together in this integrated program.
As I was browsing my local newspaper this morning, I was excited to see an article about a school here in Denver that is involved in the FBI's Adopt-a-School program. This program brings FBI agents into the classroom to talk to students about the real-world applications of their education in Forensic Science. The school is Career Education Center (CEC) Middle College of Denver, and guess what book they use in their Forensic Science course? That's right,
Forensic Science for High School! It was wonderful to read about how students at this school are looking forward to careers in science and investigation.
Congratulations to teacher Stacey Hervey and her students on the article and excellent Forensics program!
Click here for the article:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13759155Click here for more information on
Forensic Science for High School:
www.kendallhunt.com/forensics
I may be showing my age here, but when I was a student in high school, no one thought to ask the question, "What is a textbook?". The definition was fairly straightforward, and all textbooks looked pretty much the same.
Times have changed. I recently attended a webinar hosted by the Texas Education Agency outlining processes and procedures for textbook adoption to school textbook publishers. We were reminded throughout the presentation that the definition of a textbook had been broadened to reach far beyond the traditional printed book. The term
textbook, whether it refers to textbooks for elementary school or secondary school textbooks, can include nearly anything that "conveys information to the student or otherwise contributes to the learning process" (retrieved from
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/textbooks).
This leaves the door open for all types of digital media and certainly some formats we haven't even though of yet! How does your school or district define the textbook?
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