High School Physics Textbook

Volunteers, university students, scientists, engineers, other STEM professionals and, more broadly, members of the community are working together with educators and students to bring discovery-based science experiences to students in grades K-12."

There will be a nationwide celebration of this in early May with activities across the country. If you click on the "Projects" tab, you'll find that projects are posted from literally one end of the country to the other: Alaska to Florida, and California to Virginia. What a great way to encourage inquiry based science and the use of elementary school science textbooks, middle and high school chemistry and physics textbooks that use that learning model!

Kendall Hunt supports National Lab Day, so don't forget to check out all our inquiry based science programs! I'll keep you posted on what's coming up in the May celebration!
 

I guess it’s not THAT big a sale, but we do have some special pricing on classroom combo packs for our BSCS Science Track and Insights, our elementary school science textbooks and programs. Most classroom packs include a teacher’s guide, some student books, sometimes a lab kit; it varies by program and module. You can find them here: http://www.kendallhunt.com/insights and here: http://www.kendallhunt.com/tracks. Check them out and save some money!

NSTA’s NCSE (National Science Teachers Association’s National Conference on Science Education is getting closer! NSTA events always offer great opportunities for those of us in science text book publishing to share our outstanding inquiry based science programs. The NCSE is no exception. Whether it’s a high school biology textbook, a high school physics textbook, teacher edition textbooks, or any other science resource, we’ll be there ready to share our best work. See you there!
 

Not able to attend this year's NSTA conference? You can still download the full PDF presentation of each and every BSCS session (16 in all) by visiting the BSCS website. Session PDFs will be posted within 48 hours of presentations.

I thought I'd share a little more information on our outstanding Professional Development department. They have recently become an affiliate of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education.  The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policy makers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century by providing tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills Professional Development Affiliate Program equips individuals and organizations with resources and assistance in integrating 21st century skills into their professional development practice.
Kendall Hunt is a professional development affiliate of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills which supports the integration of 21st century skills into all aspects of teaching and learning.

Kendall Hunt's Professional Development experts can help with training and support for any of our programs, including our talented and gifted resources, and our science programs, from elementary school science textbooks, through our high school chemistry and physics programs. Check out what they can offer you!

Last week I was part way through reading the sample chapter from our high school physics textbook, Physics That Works, which is available for download from our website here. So, I’m reporting back now that I’ve read the chapter from start to finish, all 23 pages of it. I really enjoyed it, and I learned a bunch of new things, including the difference between average speed and average velocity. I love all the callouts, Did You Know blurbs, the Focus Questions, and the integrated activities which seem like such a natural progression. It’s really quite engaging, for a high school science textbook (!) and I can see how the inquiry based science concepts are built right in and carry throughout the unit.

Now, I realize no one asked for a review (let alone and uneducated review) of PTW, but it’s pretty interesting to look at these books as an adult and see how the inquiry based science structure can make a difference in the way students learn.

Okay, I know I’m no Spring chicken, and the way they taught science when I was in high school is a far cry from the way kids learn inquiry based science today. And I also know that anything beyond my high school chemistry textbook was too much for my little pea brain. I never made it to, let alone through, physics. Waaaaay too much math (another area of weakness for me) I thought.

So imagine my surprise when someone asked me to post a sample chapter from our Physics That Works program. I opened the file and was immediately drawn in by the fun, color picture of an old-fashioned, wind-up tin toy rocket, driven by a character who bore a striking resemblance to George Jetson! So, I thought, “Okay, I’ll read the first page, even if it IS physics.” (BTW, no offense to anyone who loves, teaches or does physics, I only wish I were smart enough to join you!) Alright, so this chapter is going to teach me about toys in motion while I construct and test a toy called a Creepy Crawly?? Whoa, cool!! Read a little farther…I’m going to do a feasibility study for the toy. Hmmm…pretty soon I’m totally sucked in. The chapter is 23 pages long. I’ve made it to page 10 so far (I do actually have to work during the day, sort of limits my “fun” time), and I get it!! I’m reading a high school physics textbook!  At least one chapter. But it’s all making sense to me so far.

I’ll keep reading, and give you an update next week. In the meantime, check out the chapter yourself. Go to http://www.kendallhunt.com/ptw and click the link called View a Sample Chapter under the Additional Information heading.

Here at Kendall Hunt Publishing we talk about inquiry based science a lot. But even I didn’t realize how cool some of our inquiry based science programs are until I was going through a couple of them looking for some specific information the other day. For instance, our Forensic Science for High School program isn’t typical of high school science textbooks. It not only teaches elements of chemistry, physics, math, technology, life science and social studies, making it truly multidisciplinary, it has a great website with really engaging virtual labs letting students engage in the same types of activities they can see on the popular crime scene investigation shows. I would have LOVED a high school science textbook/program like this when I was in school!
 

Then I looked through Kendall Hunt Chemistry, again, not your typical high school chemistry textbook. Now, to be honest, I barely passed chemistry, and we had open book, open note tests! It wasn’t for lack of intelligence (at least I don’t think it was!), but is was just…so…DULL. I was completely uninterested in it. But much of how we learned was from the book, and when we were in the lab, the experiments were rarely about anything that had any application to my life at that point. But when I looked at KH Chemistry, one of the first things I saw was the Alka Seltzer™ Cannon. What? A cannon? In Chemistry class? AAAAWESOME! ---was all I could think (yes, my thoughts often sound like those of a 14 year-old boy). I want to do it. In the process I’ll apparently learn about acids and bases. All I need is an empty film canister, water, and an Alka Seltzer™. Assuming I don’t put my eye out (always wear eye protection, kids!), I’ll let you know how it goes when I try it this weekend!

With the new school year approaching more quickly that we think, our PreK-12 group is getting ready for an intensive week of product training next week. Wayne, Jeff, Don and Jodi have had their noses literally “in the books” preparing for the training, so if you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from them for a few days, that’s why.

What they’re learning is all about the new inquiry based science programs we’ll be bringing you this year. And it’s not just elementary school science textbooks or high school science textbooks. In fact it’s not even just inquiry based science products. There’s math, health, fitness and physical education, and a dose of new digital learning products for good measure. Watch this space as we detail some of these exciting new programs in the next few weeks! 

In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance yet, Marla has written an excellent post about inquiry based science. Check it out!

Well, school registration is complete. One week from today, my son will be safely ensconced in his fourth grade classroom surrounded by elementary school textbooks of every subject: reading, math, science, social studies. He’s looking forward to what his gifted teacher has in store this year. The school was able to get a few new books for gifted students along with other accelerated learning resources. 

Here at Kendall Hunt, our brand new Distribution Center (it’s huge, and I love it when I have to go down there…it’s the coolest place!) is shipping out books like crazy…by the palletful, actually, just like every other educational publishing company, I suppose. 

Soon students around the country will be cracking open a new high school physics textbook, or opening a well-used primary school textbook. Whatever the case, this time of year always feels new, it’s a time of fresh starts, friends to be made, lots to teach and much to learn. To all the teachers out there who are responsible for our children learning, thank you for all you do. To all the students out there, learn everything you can, and have fun while you’re at it!

Last time I started explaining the role of permissions in the publishing process. As a school textbook publisher, like any other publisher, we must get permission to use other people’s material in our products, be it elementary school science textbooks, or a high school physics textbook.  We’ll finish this discussion in this post about fair use, public domain and citations.

Fair Use

The "fair use" clause comes into play if the writer wants to use an excerpt or quote from a work of substantial length; they still need to cite the source. Generally, we consider up to 250 words from the text of a book, magazine or journal fair use.

Public Domain

There are some items that are considered "public domain." These are works that have either expired or were not protected by copyright.  They can be used freely with applicable citation. Once they become public domain due to expiration, the copyright protection cannot be restored.

Works that cannot be copyrighted are those consisting of information that is common property with no specific authorship such as calendars, height/weight charts and rulers. Also items with standard information such as tables, schedules of sporting events, blank forms designed to record rather than convey information are also public domain. Official U.S. government works cannot be copyrighted, but the original source must be cited, for example NASA photographs.

Citations

The materials that are borrowed require a credit line list to be published within the textbook. Some require the credit line be printed with the actual image/article; others are generally listed in the back of the book or on the copyright page.

Next time, a few words about our Permissions Department.

Have you ever reviewed a high school biology textbook and liked what you examined but wished a few things with the layout could be changed? Whether it's a high school physics textbook, a primary textbook, or anything in between, talk to your sales rep about a custom textbook. Kendall Hunt is willing and able to do custom publishing for schools or districts.

Why not adopt a high school science textbook that you're comfortable using and is published the way you want it to be? Talk to us and we'll develop solutions to your school's textbook needs.
 

In my last post, I talked about the cover design process that school textbook publishers, like Kendall Hunt Publishing, use on products. Additionally, whether it is books for gifted students, high school science textbooks, or textbooks for elementary school, the interior of the book must be designed. We submit to a designer a portion of the manuscript that contains the majority of the elements we want to incorporate: unit/chapter opener, different levels of headings, art/photos, tables, listings, and so on. We give the designer some instruction on the grade level and type of theme we want to achieve. The or subject is important as the cover of a high school physics textbook would obviously differ in many ways from a high school biology textbook. If the cover is in advanced stages, we may also submit that as a reference. Again, we begin with a few different choices and narrow it down. It's important to create a design that enhances the pedagogy and readability. Additionally, in the case of, high school science textbooks, we want to draw the student in, but don't want to overwhelm or confuse them. The designer usually submits about eight two-page spreads. In addition, they submit a general color palette for the project. We sometimes go through several proofs, making additional suggestions to get to the point that we are satisfied with the design.

Again, the design phase happens at the same time as the copy-editing and art package preparation phases. Hopefully, they all come together around the same time so that we can proceed with composition, which I write about the next time...

This weekend I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a high school science teacher and we were talking about high school science textbooks. She was bemoaning the lack of teacher resources in the high school biology textbook her school uses. Sure, she has the teacher edition textbooks that go with the program, but she’s looking for something more. At the private school where she teaches, they’ve been using the program for a number of years and are hoping to change soon. 

She had no idea the inquiry based science resources that are available online now. When I told her about the virtual autopsies that are available with our Forensic Science for High School program, she was so excited. That got me thinking, are you happy with the resources that school textbook publishers are providing for you as teachers? Does your high school physics textbook give you online resources for experiments & interactive learning exercises? Is your high school chemistry textbook robust enough to keep your students engaged? I’d love to have a conversation about this!
 

I was just updating the elementary school, middle school and high school pages on the Kendall Hunt website to include cover images for each of our programs when it occurred to me how great our primary school textbooks, middle school textbooks, and secondary school textbooks look. (Check out the Global Science cover to the right.) For this, I must give a shout out to my talented designer friends here at KH.  They’ve won many Addy awards for their outstanding work, and if you look around our website, you can see why. They have the ability to take a high school physics textbook, or a teacher edition textbook (books not normally oohed and aahed over for their visual appeal) and create a cover that jumps right off the shelf and grabs you. Certainly you can’t always judge a book by its cover, but seeing the quality, care and effort that go into the outside is usually a pretty good indicator of what went into the inside.

But for book junkies like me, there’s nothing like a book hot off the press, as it were.  Opening a new book for the first time is a sensory experience.  The first crackles of the adhesive in the spine as I flip open the cover.  The feel of the crisp, new pages as I rifle through them, and the smell.  Oh, that printing press smell.  You’d laugh at us here because we all do it.  We get in a new high school science textbook, for example, and the first thing we do is stick our noses in it to get a whiff of the fresh ink on the new paper.  And I’d hazard a guess that you’d find employees at any other educational textbook publisher doing the same thing.

This has been a lifelong thing for me.  As a child, my mom always wanted me to get books from the library.  Okay, fine, I did, and I love the library, but I wanted to own the book, to keep the book, to watch my books line up on my bookshelves like a literary growth chart, showing me where I’d been and where I might be going.  My son has inherited this from me.  He told me once when I was ranting about the mess in his room, that I could, “get rid of everything but my football, my baseball glove, and my books.”  I almost took him up on it.  It’s no wonder I ended up at a school textbook publisher, my love of books brought me here.  I wonder where his love of books will lead him.

Were you good at science? I loved science, and did fine in biology, but chemistry and physics? Not so much. I was having this conversation with a colleague last week and we were discussing the fact that at the time, most of our learning came from our high school biology textbook, our high school chemistry textbook, our high school physics textbook or some other high school science textbook. In biology, at least we got to dissect actual (formerly) living things, maybe that’s why it sunk in so much easier for me.
 

This led to a discussion about how lucky our kids are now to have so much available to them in the world of inquiry based science. Educational textbook publishers, like Kendall Hunt, well, we’re not just school textbook publishers anymore. Take, for instance, our Forensic Science for High School program. Yes, there is a book, but there’s also an interactive website with the new edition that will have virtual autopsies and other interactive investigations. Another of our programs, Nano Legends, is a video game in which students learn cellular biology by helping a nano-adventurer kill a cancer cell! There was a great article about learning through video games in the NY Daily News a couple months ago. You can read it here.
 

Learning science through video games…even I might have pulled an A out of Chemistry that way!