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Reading Science Stories
Reading Science Stories is a book meant to celebrate nonfiction reading, especially narrative nonfiction, as a vehicle for understanding the world around us. We live in what is the greatest scientific era in all of human history, it also happens to be an Information Age, and nonfiction is a great medium for explanations, but many of our schools and book clubs are still mostly focused on fiction. That is changing with the understanding that narrative nonfiction can be as gripping as a novel.
In this book Joy Hakim provides a series of stories about some of history’s great explorers: mathematicians and scientists trying to discover how the universe works. There’s Archimedes, tasked with figuring out if the king was cheated when he gave his jeweler a chunk of gold to make a crown. Did the jeweler mix silver with the gold so some would be left for his own use? Read the book and you’ll know what happened. Then there is Vesalius who dissected mice as a kid and expects, as a medical student, to cut into human cadavers. But that isn’t done in the med schools of his time. What does he do? Read his story and find out. Or you can learn about Einstein, who wouldn’t do what his teachers expected, whether he was in high school or graduate school. The teachers were not amused and wrote no recommendations. Einstein’s parents anguished over their son’s attitude and his inability to get a good job as almost all his classmates did.
Mostly this book is meant to make it clear that science is not just for scientists. It’s a story that stretches through human history impacting all of us.
In this book Joy Hakim provides a series of stories about some of history’s great explorers: mathematicians and scientists trying to discover how the universe works. There’s Archimedes, tasked with figuring out if the king was cheated when he gave his jeweler a chunk of gold to make a crown. Did the jeweler mix silver with the gold so some would be left for his own use? Read the book and you’ll know what happened. Then there is Vesalius who dissected mice as a kid and expects, as a medical student, to cut into human cadavers. But that isn’t done in the med schools of his time. What does he do? Read his story and find out. Or you can learn about Einstein, who wouldn’t do what his teachers expected, whether he was in high school or graduate school. The teachers were not amused and wrote no recommendations. Einstein’s parents anguished over their son’s attitude and his inability to get a good job as almost all his classmates did.
Mostly this book is meant to make it clear that science is not just for scientists. It’s a story that stretches through human history impacting all of us.
- GenresScience
153 pages, ebook
First published June 22, 2015
3 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Joy Hakim
140 books80 followersI've just updated A HISTORY OF US to include some new stories, especially those on people who haven't had their full story told, like Native Americans and African Americans. I've been astounded by some of what I've learned, I think you will be too.
My husband and I live most of the year in Colorado. I grew up in Rutland, Vermont and graduated from Rutland High School. I earned a bachelor's degree in government at Smith College, a master's degree in education from Goucher College, as well as an honorary doctorate from Goucher.
I've been a teacher: in Syracuse, New York; Omaha, Nebraska; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. And I've taught in elementary school, middle school, high school, and in a community college.
I've also been a newspaper woman: a general reporter, a business reporter, and an associate editor and editorial writer at Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot.
We have three children and five grandchildren.
from: http://www.joyhakim.com/biography.html
My husband and I live most of the year in Colorado. I grew up in Rutland, Vermont and graduated from Rutland High School. I earned a bachelor's degree in government at Smith College, a master's degree in education from Goucher College, as well as an honorary doctorate from Goucher.
I've been a teacher: in Syracuse, New York; Omaha, Nebraska; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. And I've taught in elementary school, middle school, high school, and in a community college.
I've also been a newspaper woman: a general reporter, a business reporter, and an associate editor and editorial writer at Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot.
We have three children and five grandchildren.
from: http://www.joyhakim.com/biography.html
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 25, 2015
Celebrating nonfiction reading and telling the stories of science is a very good idea, and the short selections in this book are good choices. The stories are biographical -- very little story-telling time is spent on the math and science, but that's understandable and makes sense. I'm a little confused as to what age these are aimed at. Early on, the author explains several basic concepts, like the Pythagorean theorem and some basic history notes with great pains, so I assumed it's aimed at young readers. But later on, the author clearly assumes that the reader knows not only who Columbus was and when he sailed the ocean blue (fair enough), but also that Newton invented calculus, which seems odd to me. The tone of this assumption can sound really condescending and off-putting if the kid who's reading doesn't know that.
There are a few other things that bothered me about these stories. There seems to be little distinction between myth and history. She speaks of the doings of the god Apollo in the same tone as the real ancient Greeks. And mythical history stories are repeated, such as Archimedes running through the streets naked shouting Eureka and Newton basing his gravity theory on the fall of an apple. Maybe I'm too much of a stickler to be disappointed in these things, but I felt the overall level of history scholarship of the book was basically at this level. Also, many of the stories ended abruptly, and the author did not bother to really point out the inaccuracy of the historical findings she describes -- a tiny statement that E=mv^2 was basically the same as the later E=mc^2 is one example. Ummm... well, sort of. But not really. That's a super loaded comparison, and it's just left there at the end of the story. The really strange 2-sentence summary of the beginning of Islam and its characterization as more business than religion was particularly troubling. Kudos for the inclusion of history other than European. I'm not crazy about the execution.
Some of the recurring ideas are good here, such as the theme that geniuses take ideas that seem unrelated and compare them to come up with something new and useful. Great! Also, she discusses the importance of observation and experimentation without really using either word. I cringed a little when she said about the roundness of the world that it is one thing to have a theory and quite another to have proof... Scientists have been trying to straighten out the general public's idea of what a scientific theory is for a very long time and this won't help.
Also, I have to say that many of the stories had strangely abrupt endings.
So I guess I'd recommend it with some caveats. Teachers in the know will be able to read these stories and supplement them with correct information, finishing the seemingly unfinished stories in this collection. But it could be done better. It can probably be done better by Hakim herself, given a little higher standard for solid truthiness and finishing the story that's been started.
I got a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley.
There are a few other things that bothered me about these stories. There seems to be little distinction between myth and history. She speaks of the doings of the god Apollo in the same tone as the real ancient Greeks. And mythical history stories are repeated, such as Archimedes running through the streets naked shouting Eureka and Newton basing his gravity theory on the fall of an apple. Maybe I'm too much of a stickler to be disappointed in these things, but I felt the overall level of history scholarship of the book was basically at this level. Also, many of the stories ended abruptly, and the author did not bother to really point out the inaccuracy of the historical findings she describes -- a tiny statement that E=mv^2 was basically the same as the later E=mc^2 is one example. Ummm... well, sort of. But not really. That's a super loaded comparison, and it's just left there at the end of the story. The really strange 2-sentence summary of the beginning of Islam and its characterization as more business than religion was particularly troubling. Kudos for the inclusion of history other than European. I'm not crazy about the execution.
Some of the recurring ideas are good here, such as the theme that geniuses take ideas that seem unrelated and compare them to come up with something new and useful. Great! Also, she discusses the importance of observation and experimentation without really using either word. I cringed a little when she said about the roundness of the world that it is one thing to have a theory and quite another to have proof... Scientists have been trying to straighten out the general public's idea of what a scientific theory is for a very long time and this won't help.
Also, I have to say that many of the stories had strangely abrupt endings.
So I guess I'd recommend it with some caveats. Teachers in the know will be able to read these stories and supplement them with correct information, finishing the seemingly unfinished stories in this collection. But it could be done better. It can probably be done better by Hakim herself, given a little higher standard for solid truthiness and finishing the story that's been started.
I got a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley.
October 28, 2015
Reading Science Stories was a fascinating read for me! I may have to find a place to slip this one into our read-aloud time some day. I learned so much from it, and it was written in a very interesting way. Just ask my family how many times I told them what I was reading in it when we were together at the table. We read another book about Archimedes recently, but the way Joy Hakim tells the story of his inventions to defend Syracuse from the Romans makes it come to life in a way the other book didn’t. Of course, Reading Science Stories doesn’t give the details that Archimedes and the Door of Science did, just a few highlights. Another story I really enjoyed was the one about how the Fahrenheit thermometer was invented, and also the chapter about zero and the base 10 number system. Fascinating!
Read my full review here.
July 10, 2015
This book is an attempt to provide nonfiction passages about science (and math)that teachers can use as part of their instruction. I applaud the effort. The Common Core State Standards call for an increase in nonfiction reading and that type of reading does require different skills. Does this book succeed though? Unfortunately for me it does not. I think the intent was to have short selections that could be read independently but many of the selections refer back to each other and build on concepts. To me the book still read like a science textbook and not a selection of stories. For students interested in science and math this may be successful and I imagine that there are teachers who will jump on this as a solution to their nonfiction woes but to me the stories are not kid friendly enough. There were times when the author interjected humor and those were successful but there was not enough of it.
February 3, 2016
I received this book last fall. It took a while (we were still adjusting to a recent move) to use it, but I was so happy when we did. The stories are fascinating (even for me) and my kids have loved having it as part of their education. I use it for the 3rd grader (who asks me a ton of questions about the stories-fortunately almost every question is answered by the book), the 6th grader (who asks to do those stories first and will frequently draw pictures to describe the stories), and my 8th grader (who took my kindle fire and read all of them during the first weekend we started it!). I'm so thankful for this book because I feel like it's really important to make children love science for the process and the people and this book gives them this.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews