Charts, graphs and maps representing natural phenomena can be a challenge to anyone trying to extract something meaningful from them. A new book, Earth Science Puzzles: Making Meaning From Data, aims to help students of earth and environmental sciences decode images by presenting practice puzzles consisting of real-world scientific data. The authors are Kim A. Kastens and Margie Turrin of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Kastens, a geologist, has spent year studying how students grasp scientific ideas and refining methods of teaching; Turrin, Lamont’s education coordinator, is involved in learning programs spanning investigations of the nearby Hudson River to research in Antarctica.
The book contains puzzles on earthquakes, weather, climates of the past, estuaries, watersheds and hydrothermal vents. Aimed at grades 8 through 12, it is published by the National Science Teachers Association.
