Book Reviews of Popular Science Books Heather Macdonald

Book Reviews of Popular Science Books Heather Macdonald College of William & Mary

Context n n Earth History course, ~ 20 students Inspiration for using book reviews n n Suzanne O’Connell – Oceanography course (JGE, 1997) Bev Sher – Emerging Diseases (Freshman Seminar)

Assignment Goals n Students will n n Delve more deeply into a geoscience topic of personal interest Critically review a book Develop communication skills Instructor will n n Learn more about students’ interests & abilities Learn more about the books that are reviewed

Assignment details n Select a book n n From list given by instructor or selected by student and approved by instructor Encourage them to read reviews before selecting book Write a book review, include other book reviews Give a short (3 -4 minute) presentation without ppt or with one ppt slide

The Book Review n The Review – Oral and Written n Basic information Description of book Review and commentary n n n Why did you select this book and would you recommend it to your classmates? What was surprising? Interesting? Quality of book, quality of science? Other reviews of the same book Needs to be interesting

Results & Things to Consider n What students learned n n n New content, process of science, the history of geoscience, … Consider intended audience and perspective of the author What I learned n n Student interests Ability to communication More about different books Importance of selecting books

Book Choices

Things to Consider n What books? – depends on your goals n Who chooses book? n What to require in review? Written review? Oral review? Both? n Your reactions and ideas? n