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When I taught at the Windsor School, a private 7–12 school in Queens, some 20 years ago, each grade covered one science subject. In grade seven it was pre-Earth science, in grade eight it was pre-biology, and in grade nine it was pre-chemistry. This worked just fine at that time. Students were exposed to each of the high-school-level sciences that would be offered to them in grades 10, 11, and 12.

However, things in education have changed since then. Many states, including New York, now have an eighth-grade exam that tests the entire middle school science curriculum. After studying one science per year, how many students, I wonder, will be able to remember what they learned in the first year of middle school through to the last year? To me, the solution is to cover some life science, some physical science, and some Earth science each year in a curriculum that spirals through the grades.

To help teachers and students, Amsco has just published Amsco’s Science: Grade 8, the third volume of our three-book middle school science series. Its purpose is to provide a complete, clear, and concise presentation of middle school science concepts, in life, Earth, and physical science in an integrated approach. This book builds on the information in Amsco’s Science: Grade 6, and Amsco’s Science: Grade 7. (Turn up the volume and watch our YouTube ad!)


The books in the series correlate 100% to the National Standards for middle school science, the NYS Middle School Core Curriculum for Grades 5–8, and the new Middle School Scope and Sequence for NYC. Each grade covers topics in life, Earth, and physical science. And at each grade level, a unique feature helps students make real-world connections to science. In the grade 6 textbook, the Career Planning section explores science-related careers. Grade 7's Science in Everyday Life feature shows students how science affects their lives. Grade 8 has Science Headline News, which zooms in on current events in science.

At each grade level, the Chapters are divided into Lessons as a planning aid for teachers. Lessons include Skill Activities, Web resources, and little-known science facts to spur student interest. Review sections contain questions of varying levels of difficulty to address the needs of all students. Extended-response questions challenge students to think, analyze, and write.

To order any or all books in the series, visit http://www.amscopub.com/ and click Online Purchasing and then General Science.

Earth Science educator Thomas McGuire was born in 1945 at Canandaigua in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Tom’s father had been an iron worker, but took a safer factory job in nearby Shortsville because he and his wife wanted to settle down. Tom attended Red Jacket Central Schools. A life of travel started when he became an exchange student in Cuenca, Ecuador. (Tom returned for the first time this year. He traveled the Andes by local buses, and actually found some members of the family he stayed with 46 years ago.)

At the University of Rochester, Tom majored in geology, filling his head with rocks. In graduate school at Binghamton University, he majored in geology education and began teaching in the Vestal schools. Before he had tenure, wanderlust stuck again and Tom flew to Melbourne, Australia. He spent two years there in the International Teaching Fellows program. In Australia, he discovered kangaroos, wombats, and Fosters, visiting the far ends of continent at every opportunity. He flew home via Asia and Europe and spent Christmas north of the Arctic Circle.

Shortly after his walkabout, Tom moved to Westchester County where he met his wife, Elaine, an Oneonta graduate. For their honeymoon they traveled the west in a Ford Pinto and a pup tent. In the summer of 1976, they toured Europe. Both lived and taught in Yorktown Heights.

The family grew; Kristen was born in 1978. Kristen graduated from Tulane University, where Tom’s brother holds an endowed chair of physics. Kristen now works on biological databases while her husband, Eric, programs heart pacemakers. Their first child, Lillian, was born this past spring. They live in Silicon Valley near San Jose, CA. Erin was born in 1980. After attending Claremont McKenna College and Cal State LA, Erin has become a school psychologist in Los Angeles. She’s actually teaching her investment banker boyfriend about personal savings and investing.

Tom became a frequent consultant to the New York State Education Department and a Fellow of the Science Teachers Association of New York State.(STANYS) As a STANYS fellow, he joined a group of dedicated professionals with whom he stays in close contact through the New York ESPRIT listserv. Tom originated summer workshops at SUNY Purchase, which have continued and evolved under colleague Steve Kluge. Tom’s first book was a geology field guide to Westchester County, NY. (Rochester Mineralogical Symposium, 1991)

That same year, his first Amsco review book came out, the one with the Yenta Glacier on the cover. (Very cool. Pun intended.) It is now called Reviewing Earth Science: The Physical Setting. His Amsco Earth Science: Reviewing the Essentials was published in 2001. Earth Science: The Physical Setting, a hardbound textbook was published in 2005. The Laboratory and Skills Manual—Earth Science: the Physical Setting, a lab/activity book followed in 2007. The latter is his favorite because it’s direct (“where the rubber hits the road”) student involvement “doing science.”

With the new millennium, Tom and his wife retired as science chairpersons (Briarcliff H.S. and Somers H.S., respectively). They bought a home in Cave Creek, Arizona, because they “like the beach, but not the ocean.” They have rafted through the Grand Canyon twice (actually, rather cushy) and have become enchanted by the narrow slot canyons in the Navajo Sandstone on the Colorado Plateau. Tom is in his second term as an elected Councilman in Cave Creek, where a local newspaper editorial compared him to a “baby-splitting auctioneer of horse flesh.” (A rather humorous and colorful Western motif.) Of course, this appeared in the Sonoran News that also endorsed him in both elections.

Tom returned to Australia, visiting friends in Melbourne and Sydney and flying to Alice Springs (“the Alice”) and the “Top End” at Darwin for three weeks in 2006. He actually attended a Town Council meeting by telephone from an Alice Springs “caravan park.” He called in live to the Council meeting, which according to Australia time would be happening the next morning. He says, “I try to schedule these trips between Town Council meetings, but they seem to run the town just fine when I’m not here.” Meanwhile, Elaine did year three down the Grand Canyon.

He hasn’t yet cured his desire to usually be somewhere else. But his editor, Midge, plans to tie him down with occasional book revisions. This is no mean task. “It’s like squeezing a wet pumpkin seed,” she mused.

While visiting an exhibition of antique planes with my son, I mentioned to him that I was due to post to the blog soon and was out of good ideas. He suggested that I write something dealing with Bernoulli’s principle and flying. He said, “We can even take pictures of the old planes.” “Great idea, Ed,” I said. So here goes.

It’s my guess that in the 21st century, most students have flown in a plane, although when I was a student, it was less common. Teachers might like to begin a discussion of flight by asking students what keeps a plane in the air. You can have them blow over a strip of paper and watch it fly. “What makes the paper rise?” Eventually, you can discuss Bernoulli’s principle.

Another Principle of Flight

Teachers can show their students a helium balloon or a picture of a blimp and ask: “What makes these objects fly? Is it Bernoulli’s principle?” Of course, the answer is no. This time it is the difference in density. There are many ways to lead students to this answer. One way is to have the students look at the Periodic Table of the Elements. “What is the atomic mass of helium?” (4 atomic mass units [amu]) “What is the composition of air?” (Approximately 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen) “What is the atomic mass of nitrogen?” (28 amu) Tell your students that under the same conditions of temperature and pressure, equal volumes of gases contain an equal number of particles (molecules). Nitrogen molecules are heavier than helium molecules. So, helium is less dense than air.

Density differences are also involved sinking and floating. These concepts are commonly taught in middle school. These topics are discussed in Amsco Science: Grade 6, the first book in our new middle school science series. In Earth science classes, density differences are important in weather and in the study of rocks and minerals. These topics are discussed in Earth Science the Physical Setting, Reviewing Earth Science: The Physical Setting, and Earth Science: Reviewing the Essentials all by Thomas McGuire and Earth Science Work-Text by Constantine Constant. In addition, there are activities and labs in Laboratory and Skills Manual for Earth Science: The Physical Setting. You can learn more about these books on our Website http://www.amscopub.com/.