Blackwood Paul E. et al. (eds.) You and Science: Science for Better Living. Experiences in Science

3rd Edition. — New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1960. — 210 p.You are about to become a co-author. With the help given here, you are going to write your own book in science. The science experiences in this book will guide your thinking about questions that you will need to answer in order to live a better-informed life in today’s world. You will find various kinds of questions and problems in this book; it will be your part as an author to discover and supply the answers. Many times you will need to do an experiment or take a field trip to solve a problem. Other times you will need to read your textbook and go to other references for help in finding answers. Your classmates and teachers will often be able to give you the information you need. As you go to all these sources, you will find that you are becoming a scientist as well as a writer of your own book, for a scientist makes use of all kinds of sources. This book will give you a good start in exploring experiences in science. It is not enough just to get information. You will need to think about it carefully. You will want to make a record of it and write the conclusions you reach. But there is not enough space in the workbook for all the science experiences suggested. Therefore, you will want to keep another kind of record as well. You may wish to make drawings of some of the things you do in the laboratory or find on field trips, or you may be lucky enough to discover some information that is new to you. It is handy to keep a separate notebook for recording certain of your experiences. In fact, this workbook has sheets that can be torn out and inserted in a ring binder. If you keep these sheets and records of your additional information together, then both become parts of a fuller and longer book than this workbook alone. A good scientist always checks his knowledge after he has finished a problem he has been working on. You, too, after you have finished recording your experiences and conclusions, will want to check on your knowledge and your progress. At the end of each chapter are some self-test questions for you to answer without help from books or classmates, of course. When you have done your best, then you may use your textbook to improve your answers. The work of a scientist is subject to review by other scientists. This book that you are completing will be no exception. The ‘"reviewer” this time will probably be your teacher who will from time to time tell you how well you are doing. Scientists are also often questioned and judged on their work after they have done the best they can to solve a problem. You, too, will be questioned and judged on the quality of your work at the end of each unit. Your teacher has a special set of unit tests. If you have prepared your book well, these tests will prove to your own satisfaction how well you have solved the many problems in Experiences in Science.