Peer-reviewed science textbook for middle and high school on aquatic ecosystems by author Rudolph Rosen, Ph.D.
From molecules to ecosystems and headwaters to ocean, Texas Aquatic Science is a comprehensive textbook about life in the water and what people can do to create a sustainable water future. Now this important textbook will soon be available in book form from the Texas A&M University Press.
In the meantime, the entire book, plus videos specially produced for each chapter can be found at http://texasaquaticscience.org
The 729-page Teacher Guide and enhancements can be downloaded in their entirety at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/learning/aquaticscience/
Texas Aquatic Science is written for middle school and high school students. Lessons are designed to help teachers make students aware of the importance of water to life, aquatic ecosystems, and what we must do to conserve water and aquatic life.
In the student text each chapter has separate objectives in the form of questions at the beginning for students to think about as they read. The text meets these objectives and provides clear information on each question. By providing the questions at the beginning as a focus for reading, the author scaffolds reading level, giving the lower level students a tool for finding the most important information in the chapter.
In addition, there is a Teacher Guide, which builds understanding of important concepts through hands-on classroom and field activities, and short (around 2 minutes each) videos that cover the main ideas in each chapter.
All Texas Aquatic Science components work together to bring students up a notch in reading skills and increase their knowledge of science.
Using activities from the Teachers Guide, teachers introduce students to the wide variety of aquatic ecosystems through science investigations, games, models, Internet projects, reading the student guides, short videos, and field based assessments of water quality and environmental conditions in a variety of field trips. Students learn and demonstrate their new knowledge in creative products and performances.
Lessons in each chapter of the Teacher Guide begin with an activity to allow the teacher to assess what students know about the concepts to be studied. Lessons embed higher order thinking skills, provide depth and complexity of learning, and provide a wide variety of hands-on activities that engage students in many contexts and methods. Each lesson includes an opportunity for students to apply what they have learned by synthesizing the information and demonstrating their learning by developing creative products or performances.
All activities are aligned with the state curriculum standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for sixth through eighth grade and for Aquatic Science and Environmental Science courses for high school.
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Texas Aquatic Science was authored, adapted, and edited by Rudolph Rosen, Ph.D., who also designed the Texas Aquatic Science web site. Sandra Johnson, Ph.D. served as educational consultant and authored the accompanying Teacher Guide. Videos were produced by Randall Maxwell. Nancy Herron, Outreach and Education Director for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, provided leadership direction and review of the text and scripts, and Caleb Harris, TPWD aquatic education specialist, provided primary review of the educational content. Wes Tunnell, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Harte Research Institute provided special assistance on marine ecosystem science.
Texas Aquatic Science is a cooperative education project sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife, The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. Texas Aquatic Science Project Directors are Rudolph Rosen and Nancy Herron. Texas Aquatic Science was modeled after the Missouri Department of Conservation‘s (MDC) curriculum, Conserving Missouri’s Aquatic Ecosystems. Special thanks go to funding partners, the Ewing Halsell Foundation, San Antonio and the Sport Fish Restoration Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.