Reviews for NSRC Science and Technology for Children: PLANT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT; Teacher's Guide

The average rating for NSRC Science and Technology for Children: PLANT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT; Teacher's Guide based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-06 00:00:00 Keith Jernquist Roach is the author of Stiff, a raucous romp through the wonderful land of death. It is only natural that she might continue that escapade with a look past the curtain. Are there ghosts? Is there life after death? She examines a host of topics under her conceptual umbrella, looking at reincarnation, the hunt for the seat of the soul, the notion that the soul weighs 21 grams, ectoplasm, the effectiveness of mediums, including her stint in medium school, (she outgrew small but was not yet advanced enough for large school?) EVP, and more. As with Stiff, it is a bit hazardous reading this in public as one is apt to burst out into laughter every now and then, victimized by the snide commentary that makes this book great fun to read. I particularly enjoyed the section on the possibility that infrasound, that is, sound at or about 18-20 decibels, might account for a wide range of supposedly psychic experience. Spook has enough payload to justify the trip and the humor makes it a very spirited ride. Other Mary Roach works -----Stiff -----Packing for Mars -----Gulp -----Grunt

Review # 2 was written on 2015-09-27 00:00:00 Megan Weller I learned a number of interesting things reading Mary Roach's survey of the historical and scientific efforts to prove the existence of a soul. Her discussion of the scientific inquiries into stories of reincarnated children provides an excellent example of the difficulties of trying to objectively prove something when your main resource is the shaky memories of those who are already convinced of whatever it is you're trying to prove. Though I was already familiar with the theory that infrasound (sound at a frequency too low for humans to hear) can cause the experience of ghostly phenomenon, I was intrigued to learn that a tiger's roar contains infrasound and some theorize that the fear we feel in the presence of infrasound is left over from days when escaping tigers was a high evolutionary priority. I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about the various ways spiritualist mediums faked the extrusion of ectoplasm. Despite the interesting nature of the topic, however, I didn't love this book as much as I hoped. There were moments in which the narrative got bogged down as the author detailed a few too many historical efforts to prove the existence of the soul. In addition, I struggled with the tone of the book. Roach admits to being a skeptic, but she said her goal was to explore this topic with an open mind. In this I don't think she really succeeded. Though she does acknowledge some inexplicable events, she spends more time poking cheap fun at many of her subjects. In some circumstances, I can imagine the temptation was hard to resist, but this semi-snarky tone felt a little too easy. A few moments of genuine humor combined with her generally readable style, however, made me want to seek out her first book, which I've heard is much better.