Customer Reviews

The Art of Teaching Science: Inquiry and Innovation in Middle School and High School

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The Art of Teaching Science is a wonderful resource for middle and secondary science teachers. The book recognizes good teaching as a creative and experiential process and it provides young educators with a framework for innovative teaching. The hands-on, minds-on activities provide useful examples of how inquiry-based experiences can help improve our students understanding and enjoyment of science. It is well worth the read.

Hassard is at it again! Having been one of the pioneers in exploring the application of technology in the teaching of science in his earlier books, such as Science as Inquiry and Minds on Science, Hassard's The Art of Teaching Science is a compendium containing all that a science educator needs to be fully current and effective.

Incorporating historical information I deem critical knowledge for my pre-service students, Hassard considers the curriculum implications of the science curriculum, and does a masterful job at the marriage of the theory with the current trends in best practices in Part III of his book. In Part IV, Hassard really struts his stuff as a master strategist, and takes on the reader with him. This part, for me, is one of the most important reason to get this book, although some may argue that other sections hold stronger merit.

This is one of the books to own, if just to use for reference purposes.

Charles Hutchison
Science Educator
College of Education
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

I am teaching middle school science and love this book. It is packed with information and has a very interesting browsable format. Its very inviting to pick up and just start reading anywhere. There is a good balance between theory and application. It addresses the real world of teaching in multicultural, economically diverse america.

Research based and gives lots of case studies that illustrate
how instructional tools can be implemented. Explains the theory behind the models as well. A must have for science teachers!

Rather than a textbook for a "teaching of secondary science" course, this is better as a reference book. Way too much material for one semester's, maybe even two semesters', work. Every page of the lightweight paper is packed with information. Good information (as much as I've used), but the text-size is small, there is little "white space", and the language is jargony.

In other words, if you already know a lot about teaching science, this is an excellent refresher or reference book, but very intimidating for a beginning teacher or even for a graduate-level course.