Bernadette's Book Review


A NEW LEARNING PATHWAY ~ "THE BIG BANG TO NOW"

I'm excited to encourage you to investigate a book, "The Big Bang to Now," recently published by Terry Herman Sissons. This book has opened up new pathways to my learning and I am confident that it will do the same for many teachers and students as well.

In truth, for what I know about science and history, they probably shouldn't have handed me an 8th grade diploma. One of life's mysteries for me was how eggs could get fertilized through the shell; as a freshman in high school I got into trouble when I asked what made the sun stay in sky; and I was embarrassingly beyond my young years when I asked if salt water made up the Caribbean Sea.

My sense of history has always been defined by "a long time ago" by contrast to "a very long time ago." So - no surprises that picking up a book on "The Big Bang to Now" would not have been one of my more natural choices. The truth is that I picked it up because the author happens to be my sister; and the delightful truth is that I haven't put it down because of the learning this book has opened for me.

This timeline book provides hooks on which to hang new understandings and thus those "long time agos" and millions-billions of years that can easily all mush together in history and science are put into context that builds on relationships. While the book is easily read from cover to cover it can also be opened up to "wherever" to learn a bit more about "whatever." In my perusals, I have a new gratitude to mice for their live births, to fish for their backbones, to flatworms for their bilateral symmetry. I am grateful to learn that star dust is more than romantic fantasy and I even found an answer to my question about egg shells! Mostly, I am in awe at how delicate, vulnerable, and resilient our earth "and us youngens," Homo sapiens, really are. Despite what's on the nightly news, I am left with a sense of hope and responsibility that we might be able to save ourselves if we take the process seriously.

My mind is busily thinking of unlimited ways this book can be used as a supplemental text or classroom resource in a middle school or secondary classroom to provide context that clarify details, spur questioning and invite further investigations. "The Big Bang to Now" doesn't have an ending but rather continually cycles through new beginnings and possibilities.

This book has led me down a new pathway to learning. If you are interested in taking a look, there are reviews on Amazon (look up "The Big Bang to Now") and the impressive website about the book is www.alloftimeonline.com. Enjoy.

Bernadette

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