Clear Creek Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 I need some suggestions for a good environmental science textbook. My daughter will be in 9th grade this fall, and she has asked to study environmental science as an elective (she will also be studying biology). I am kind of hoping to create an outside-the-box type course for her, so I am hoping to find an interesting textbook (or even a comprehensive non-textbook) to base the course on. I looked at the Holt textbook since it seems to be a popular one, but I don't like it. I don't need anything AP level; I just want an introductory level textbook. I have been looking at the Georgia Virtual Learning course and I like it, and will probably use it as a supplement, but I can't tell if it just covers everything superficially or if it has any depth so I hesitate to use it as the foundation for the course. Also, I am open to suggestions for interesting books for supplemental reading on the topics covered in environmental science. So far I know of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, but that is about it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 There is a very cool set of online resources put out by a group of Berkeley researchers: Global Systems Science. You can do all or part of this, I think it would be great for an elective study. You can choose to do the Investigation/Lab portions or not. I have Miller's Living In the Environment, an older edition of the college level text, and we'll use portions of it. It looks like there is a high school level text too. There are also a bunch of modular resources from Biozone - Ecology, Environmental Science, and related topics. These are workbooks, not textbooks, but they can be paired with any text and have some good in-depth analysis and activities. Biointeractive.org from HHMI has some really great resources, including a new unit on Patterns and Processes in Ecology. Dig around in there, there is a bunch of great stuff. Too much! I'm having a hard time whittling down my list of potential resources. There are so many great books you could read! Any specific topics you are interested in? Some of the other classics include A Sand County Almanac, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and The Diversity of Life. Some more recent selections include the Pulitzer-prize winning The Sixth Extinction, and some of E O Wilson's recent stuff. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loesje22000 Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 :bigear: So far I found: http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Systems-Societies-Course-Book/dp/0198332564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458748496&sr=8-1&keywords=ib+environmental+systems+and+societies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Not a textbook, but we've enjoyed http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Science-Activities-Ready---Use/dp/0470239557/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458750108&sr=8-1&keywords=environmental+science+labs+and+activities 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Not a textbook, but we've enjoyed http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Science-Activities-Ready---Use/dp/0470239557/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458750108&sr=8-1&keywords=environmental+science+labs+and+activities That does look interesting. Is it pretty easy to use with a single kid? I know classroom-based activities don't always adapt so well. A couple of other options along those lines: Watershed Science Investigations and Forestry Field Studies. We're planning on using each of these for next year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 That does look interesting. Is it pretty easy to use with a single kid? I know classroom-based activities don't always adapt so well. A couple of other options along those lines: Watershed Science Investigations and Forestry Field Studies. We're planning on using each of these for next year. It would definitely be easier with a class, but we've managed okay. Sometimes we poll the internets for data. At this point, we've probably only covered about 1/4 of the activities because Environmental Science has been mostly "for fun" here, and some of the work really is geared more toward high school level, which my dds are only beginning to reach. http://www.naturalinquirer.org/middle-and-high-school-c-0.htmlis also a pretty cool (free) resource. I haven't put them into action yet, but it looks promising. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 nasawavelength.com has a lot of activities, some of them use NASA data and images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Oh, and we absolutely adored The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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