Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Forest Measurements: An Applied Approach
Joan DeYoung · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2016
This is a forest measurements textbook written for field technicians. Silvicultural applications and illustrations are provided to demonstrate the relevance of the measurements. Special “technique tips” for each skill are intended to help increase data collection accuracy and confidence. These include how to avoid common pitfalls, effective short cuts and essentials for recording field data correctly. The emphasis is on elementary skills; it is not intended to be a timber cruising guide.
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Teaching Mathematics at Secondary Level
Tony Gardiner · Open Book Publishers · 2016
Teaching Mathematics is nothing less than a mathematical manifesto. Arising in response to a limited National Curriculum, and engaged with secondary schooling for those aged 11 ̶ 14 (Key Stage 3) in particular, this handbook for teachers will help them broaden and enrich their students’ mathematical education. It avoids specifying how to teach, and focuses instead on the central principles and concepts that need to be borne in mind by all teachers and textbook authors—but which are little appreciated in the UK at present. This study is aimed at anyone who would like to think more deeply about the discipline of ‘elementary mathematics’, in England and Wales and anywhere else. By analysing and supplementing the current curriculum, Teaching Mathematics provides food for thought for all those involved in school mathematics, whether as aspiring teachers or as experienced professionals. It challenges us all to reflect upon what it is that makes secondary school mathematics educationally, culturally, and socially important.
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Mostly Harmless Elementary Statistics
Rachel Webb · Portland State University Library · 2023
This text is for an introductory level probability and statistics course with an intermediate algebra prerequisite. The focus of the text follows the American Statistical Association’s Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE). Software examples provided for Microsoft Excel, TI-84 & TI-89 calculators. Students new to statistics are sure to benefit from this ADA accessible and relevant textbook. The examples are current and resonate with everyday life. The casual narrative style, has a conversational tone to provide an inclusive and easy to read format for students.
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Mathematics Methods for Early Childhood
Janet Stramel · Fort Hays State University · 2021
Welcome to Early Childhood Mathematics! This course satisfies the Early Childhood Unified requirements in the state of Kansas for a teaching license Birth to Grade 3. Most people agree that early childhood includes the period from infancy until eight years of age, characterized by rapid and complex growth in physical, cognitive, and social domains. Math skills must be taught in early childhood. Children should be provided a foundation to succeed in elementary school and beyond. Teachers should focus lessons in early childhood around the basic skills that will help to advance future mathematics. From preschool to the end of elementary school, children are setting the foundation for future life skills. Learning mathematics is “a ‘natural’ and developmentally appropriate activity for young children” (Ginsberg, Lee, and Boyd, 2008). Through their everyday interactions with the world, many children develop informal concepts about space, quantity, size, patterns, and operations. Unfortunately, not all children have the same opportunities to build these informal and foundational concepts of mathematics in their day-to-day lives (Sherman-LeVos, 2010). Young children are naturally curious, and the best time to begin mathematics is at a time while the young child’s brain is rapidly developing. Mathematics in early childhood helps children develop critical thinking and reasoning skills early on and it’s the key to the foundation for success in their formal schooling years.
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Humanizing Science through STEAM Challenges
EunJin Bahng; John Hauptman · Iowa State University · 2021
In a science methods course during the Covid19 pandemic, 51 future elementary teachers authored children's books and then read them aloud as part of a giving-back, service-learning activity as Open Educational Resources (OER). The 51 children's stories and their accompanying audiobooks aim to integrate STEM and the Arts to humanize science and scientific inquiry with history and philosophy of science in mind.
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Teaching Math for Emergent Bilinguals: Building on Culture, Language, and Identity
Ji-Yeong I; Ricardo Martinez · Iowa State University · 2020
This book is designed for pre-service/in-service teachers and others who will work or work with K–12 students who have linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds, especially students of other languages (English language learners/Emergent bilingual/multilingual). The core concept of this course is helping teachers understand the needs of various Emergent Bilinguals (a.k.a. English language learners (ELLs)/English Learners (ELs), learn to use their language and culture as a resource in mathematics classrooms and implement research-based instructional strategies that are effective to teach mathematics for Emergent Bilinguals.
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Exploring Physical Phenomena
Emily van Zee; Elizabeth Gire · Oregon State University · 2019
This course is intended for prospective and practicing elementary and middle school teachers. By exploring physical phenomena in class, you will learn science in ways in which you are expected to teach science in schools or in informal settings such as afterschool programs, youth group meetings, and museum workshops. This course also is appropriate for general science students and others interested in exploring some of the physical phenomena underlying global climate change. The theme for the course is: What happens when light from the Sun shines on the Earth? The emphasis is on questioning, predicting, exploring, observing, discussing, reading, and writing about what one thinks and why. This first unit focuses on exploring the nature of light phenomena. Among the unit’s many goals are two primary ones: to learn about light phenomena and to learn about ways to foster science learning for yourself and others such as your family, friends, and students.
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Elementary Earth and Space Science Methods
Ted Neal · University of Iowa · 2019
We created this book to help you as both a college student and a future teacher. Dr. Ted Neal asked us to help him create this resource from the perspective of students who have taken Science Methods II–what would we want in a textbook for this course? With this in mind, we have gathered and created resources to help you better understand science and feel confident in your abilities as a future teacher. This book is divided into five parts which align with the Science Methods II course: Physics Space Science Earth Science Climate Science Course Materials and Pedagogy Within each part, the material is broken down into smaller chapters. Here you will find written explanations, video links, glossary terms, key takeaways, and practice quizzes to help you understand the material. This book is designed to be a flexible resource; use it as much or as little as you need throughout the course.
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Trauma-Informed School Practices: Building Expertise To Transform Schools
Anna A. Berardi; Brenda M. Morton · George Fox University Library · 2019
This textbook represents the combined insight and experience of Morton, a k12 educator, and Berardi, a psychotherapist, both of whom are also university educators with extensive work experience serving districts and their teachers seeking to incorporate trauma-informed principles into their school culture and classroom. The authors identify that the field of education is now ready to deepen its level of response to the paradigm shift created by advances in neuroscience and traumatology. Hence, the primary focus is on identifying and applying trauma-informed educator competencies needed to transform districts, schools, educators, classrooms, and the field of education itself, while also including community members such as parents and board members in these processes - a total system makeover. At the conclusion of this text, the student, educator, or mental health professional will have a deeper understanding of what trauma-informed practice requires of them. This includes practical strategies on how to transform our learning communities in response to the devastating effect of unmitigated stress and trauma on our student's ability to learn and thrive throughout the lifespan.
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Mathematics for Elementary Teachers
Michelle Manes · University of Hawaii Manoa · 2017
This book will help you to understand elementary mathematics more deeply, gain facility with creating and using mathematical notation, develop a habit of looking for reasons and creating mathematical explanations, and become more comfortable exploring unfamiliar mathematical situations.The primary goal of this book is to help you learn to think like a mathematician in some very specific ways. You will:• Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. You will develop and demonstrate this skill by working on difficult problems, making incremental progress, and revising solutions to problems as you learn more.• Reason abstractly and quantitatively. You will demonstrate this skill by learning to represent situations using mathematical notation (abstraction) as well as creating and testing examples (making situations more concrete).• Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. You will be expected to create both written and verbal explanations for your solutions to problems. The most important questions in this class are “Why?” and “How do you know you're right?” Practice asking these questions of yourself, of your professor, and of your fellow students.Throughout the book, you will learn how to learn mathematics on you own by reading, working on problems, and making sense of new ideas on your own and in collaboration with other students in the class.
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Instruction in Functional Assessment
Marcie Desrochers; Moira Fallon · Open SUNY · 2014
Instruction in Functional Assessment introduces learners to functional assessment (FA), which includes a variety of assessment approaches (indirect, observational, and experimental) for identifying the cause of an individual's challenging behavior for the purpose of designing effective treatments. FA is mandated by federal law and is a recognized empirically based approach to treatment of individuals with challenging behaviors (e.g., disruptive, self-injurious, and aggressive behaviors). Instruction in FA is essential for students who will one day enter professions as educators, psychologists, social workers, counselors, or mental health professionals. The purpose of this textbook is to provide instruction in FA skills for pre-professionals in the fields of education and psychology. This supplemental resource provides the context, background, and knowledge to facilitate students' acquisition of the methods, decision-making, and skills involved in conducting FA. Each chapter begins with focus questions designed to promote reflective thinking and ends with discussion questions. To promote application of FA in diverse situations and teach important lessons, case studies of individuals with challenging behaviors, interactive activities, and opportunities for practice are embedded in the chapters. Moreover, the text includes the ingredients to facilitate students' role play and rehearsal of appropriate FA skills while working in cooperative groups and using performance-based training.