From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2000 20:32:05 -0500

In our sixth grade term devoted to the theme of Air and Space, the Humanities portion includes a concern with the geography of the night sky. (We even learn constellations -- and the mythology behind those names.) The old?shioned but still wonderful biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, the man who taught ordinary seamen to calculate longitude using moon sightings, Carry on Mr. Bowditch, has been a great success. For a few boys each year, it is their favorite book of the year. Last year we added Peter Sis' Starry Messenger, a biography of Galileo, which delighted the sixth graders, both boys and girls, by the complexity of its text as well as its ideas although it appears to be a picture book. The history of science is fascinating and a much-neglected part of most kids education. We're always looking for more ways to include that at this level.

Megan Schliesman wrote:


-Kathy Isaacs kisaacs at mindspring.com
Received on Thu 09 Nov 2000 07:32:05 PM CST