critical thinking

Science detectives follows fearless and dedicated science sleuths tracking down leads and solving cases all over the world, in cities and in deserts, deep underground, high in the sky and even in your DNA.

Examines how the human brain works and offers advice on how to develop critical thinking skills and adopt a life style that contributes to the health of the brain, focusing not so much on intelligence as on the importance of skepticism and critical thinking to the survival of our species.

In this fully updated and revised edition, coauthors Nicolas Capaldi and Miles Smith take an original approach to teaching critical thinking. By cataloging and outlining for readers tactics on how to develop the skills of deception and manipulation, the authors demonstrate that this is a foolproof way to avoid falling for the fallacious and fuzzy logic of others. They also show how to improve our own deficits in making careful decisions about our word choices, why we hold the opinions that we do, and how we form arguments. Readers will learn to apply these skills to everyday situations, whether debating politics with friends or evaluating the pitch of a persuasive salesman.

In this guide to critical thinking the author provides you with the tools to allow you to question beliefs and assumptions held by those who claim to know what they are talking about. These days there are many people whom we need to question: politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, clergy members, bankers, car salesmen, and your boss. This book will empower you with the ability to spot faulty reasoning and, by asking the right sorts of questions, hold people accountable not only for what they believe but how they behave. By using this book you will learn to analyze your own thoughts, ideas, and beliefs, and why you act on them (or don't). This, in turn, will help you to understand why others might hold opposing views. And the best way to change our own or others' behavior or attitudes is to gain greater clarity about underlying motives and thought processes. In a media-driven world of talking heads, gurus, urban legends, and hype, learning to think more clearly and critically, and helping others to do the same, is one of the most important things you can do.

Provides strategies for using modeling to improve the reading comprehension skills of middle- and secondary-grade students and includes discussion questions and a DVD.

Shows teachers how to weave technology throughout the curriculum to get students to be enthusiastic about writing, and includes selecting digital tools, differentiating instruction to meet individual needs, and more.