Download or read book Metapatterns written by Tyler Volk and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1996-06-29 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the interdisciplinary tradition of Buckminster Fuller's work, Gregory Bateson's Mind and Nature, and Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics, Metapatterns embraces both nature and culture, seeking out the grand-scale patterns that help explain the functioning of our universe.

Download or read book Gaia s Body written by Tyler Volk and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If the biosphere really is a single coherent system, then it must have something like a physiology. It must have systems and processes that perform living functions. In Gaia's Body, Tyler Volk describes the environment that enables the biosphere to exist, various ways of looking at its "anatomy" and "physiology", the major biogeographical regions such as rainforests, deserts, and tundra, the major substances the biosphere is made of, and the chemical cycles that keep it in balance. He then looks at the question of whether there are any long-term trends in the earth's evolution, and examines the role of humanity in Gaia's past and future. Both adherents and sceptics have often been concerned that Gaia theory contains too much goddess and too few verifiable hypotheses. This is the book that describes, for scientists, students, and lay readers alike, the theory's firm basis in science.

Download or read book Quarks to Culture written by Tyler Volk and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our world is nested, both physically and socially, and at each level we find innovations that are necessary for the next. Consider: atoms combine to form molecules, molecules combine to form single-celled organisms; when people come together, they build societies. Physics has gone far in mapping the basic mechanics of the simplest things and the dynamics of the overall nesting, as have biology and the social sciences for their fields. But what can we say about this beautifully complex whole? How does one stage shape another, and what can we learn about human existence through understanding an enlarged field of creation and being? In Quarks to Culture, Tyler Volk answers these questions, revealing how a universal natural rhythm—building from smaller things into larger, more complex things—resulted in a grand sequence of twelve fundamental levels across the realms of physics, biology, and culture. He introduces the key concept of “combogenesis,” the building-up from combination and integration to produce new things with innovative relations. He explores common themes in how physics and chemistry led to biological evolution, and biological evolution to cultural evolution. Volk also provides insights into linkages across the sciences and fields of scholarship, and presents an exciting synthesis of ideas along a sequence of things and relations, from physical to living to cultural. The resulting inclusive natural philosophy brings clarity to our place in the world, offering a roadmap for those who seek to understand big history and wrestle with questions of how we came to be.

Download or read book Writing the Natural Way written by Gabriele Lusser Rico and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2000-04-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writing the Natural Way, first published fifteen years ago, has shown hundreds of thousands of readers how to turn the task of writing into the joy of writing. Completely revised, newly illustrated, and with a wealth of updated, field-tested exercises, this popular classic will help unlock natural writing styles and storytelling abilities.

Download or read book Green Space Green Time written by Connie Barlow and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last few centuries, science has usurped domains of knowledge that were once the province of religion. At the same time, however, both science and religion have enforced strict boundaries throughout. Science can describe the world to us, but it cannot tell us about meaning or values. This is a compelling case for breaching this barrier - in effect, for a reunification of science and religion.

Download or read book The G O D Experiments written by Gary E. Schwartz and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-05-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can science lead to God? Esteemed scientist and theoretician Dr. Gary Schwartz tackles this question as he takes readers on a journey of discovery to the miraculous place where science and spirituality meet. Illustrations throughout.

Download or read book Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists written by Jeffrey W. Bloom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-07-20 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating a Classroom Community of Young Scientists helps teachers - both pre-service and in-service - to develop exciting science programs in their classrooms. This book provides the groundwork for designing and implementing a science program that takes into account the latest research in teaching and learning. It provides an approach that will capture children's imaginations, stimulate their curiosity and create a strong foundation for their continued interest in, and appreciation of, science and the world in which they live. The book is designed to be user-friendly, and offers an approach to teaching science that is exciting for teachers as well. This thoroughly revised, second edition focuses on making inquiry more explicit both in terms of the process of inquiry and teaching in ways that capitalize on children's curiosity and questions. New material has also been added on U.S. and Canadian science standards, as well as professional standards for teachers.

Download or read book Geopolitics at the End of the Twentieth Century written by Nurit Kliot and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excellent examination of how the collapse of the Soviet Union and the impact of globalization have brought about changes not only to the territorial configuration sovereignty of states and their boundaries, but also to traditional notions of state, boundaries, sovereignty and social order These essays focus on the key regional and geopolitical characteristics of this global reordering, with an emphasis on Eastern Europe and South Asia. They discuss the territorial reordering which is taking place at the level of the state as boundaries are redemarcated in line with ethno-territoral demands; as borders are transversed by the movement of peoples, information and finance; and as the lines of territorial demarcation are perceived not only in terms of their fixed characteristics but as part of a process through which regional and ethnic identities continue to be formed and reformed. Each section ends with articles which focus on literature on geopolitics and boundaries. This is an invaluable addition to our understanding of contemporary world affairs.

Download or read book CO2 Rising written by Tyler Volk and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010-09-24 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the global carbon cycle and the human-caused disturbances to it that are at the heart of global warming and climate change. The most colossal environmental disturbance in human history is under way. Ever-rising levels of the potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) are altering the cycles of matter and life and interfering with the Earth's natural cooling process. Melting Arctic ice and mountain glaciers are just the first relatively mild symptoms of what will result from this disruption of the planetary energy balance. In CO2 Rising, scientist Tyler Volk explains the process at the heart of global warming and climate change: the global carbon cycle. Vividly and concisely, Volk describes what happens when CO2 is released by the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), letting loose carbon atoms once trapped deep underground into the interwoven web of air, water, and soil. To demonstrate how the carbon cycle works, Volk traces the paths that carbon atoms take during their global circuits. Showing us the carbon cycle from a carbon atom's viewpoint, he follows one carbon atom into a leaf of barley and then into an alcohol molecule in a glass of beer, through the human bloodstream, and then back into the air. He also compares the fluxes of carbon brought into the biosphere naturally against those created by the combustion of fossil fuels and explains why the latter are responsible for rising temperatures. Knowledge about the global carbon cycle and the huge disturbances that human activity produces in it will equip us to consider the hard questions that Volk raises in the second half of CO2 Rising: projections of future levels of CO2; which energy systems and processes (solar, wind, nuclear, carbon sequestration?) will power civilization in the future; the relationships among the wealth of nations, energy use, and CO2 emissions; and global equity in per capita emissions. Answering these questions will indeed be our greatest environmental challenge.

Download or read book Simultaneity written by Susie Vrobel and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2008 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an interdisciplinary approach to the question of how observer-participant perspectives are generated, what constrains them and how they may be modified. These questions are of vital importance and must be addressed in any discipline before formulating a hypothesis or designing a model about reality. Both epistemological questions about the nature of temporal nested structures and practical applications of our ability to contextualize are discussed. The resulting temporal observer-participant perspectives reflect approaches to the concept of simultaneity from the viewpoints of philosophers, logicians, cyberneticists and systems theorists, mathematicians, psychologists, medical practitioners, physicists, educationists, economists and musicologists. Although the main focus is on the cognitive sciences, as constraints to observer perspectives arise primarily from this field, the book will appeal to researchers of all disciplines and interested layman readers.

Download or read book Developments in Intelligent Agent Technologies and Multi Agent Systems Concepts and Applications written by Trajkovski, Goran and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2010-11-30 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Developments in Intelligent Agent Technologies and Multi-Agent Systems: Concepts and Applications discusses research on emerging technologies and systems based on agent and multi-agent paradigms across various fields of science, engineering and technology. This book is a collection of work that covers conceptual frameworks, case studies, and analysis while serving as a medium of communication among researchers from academia, industry and government.

Download or read book Changing Cultures in Higher Education written by Ulf-Daniel Ehlers and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-03-10 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More and more educational scenarios and learning landscapes are developed using blogs, wikis, podcasts and e-portfolios. Web 2.0 tools give learners more control, by allowing them to easily create, share or reuse their own learning materials, and these tools also enable social learning networks that bridge the border between formal and informal learning. However, practices of strategic innovation of universities, faculty development, assessment, evaluation and quality assurance have not fully accommodated these changes in technology and teaching. Ehlers and Schneckenberg present strategic approaches for innovation in universities. The contributions explore new models for developing and engaging faculty in technology-enhanced education, and they detail underlying reasons for why quality assessment and evaluation in new – and often informal – learning scenarios have to change. Their book is a practical guide for educators, aimed at answering these questions. It describes what E-learning 2.0 is, which basic elements of Web 2.0 it builds on, and how E-learning 2.0 differs from Learning 1.0. The book also details a number of quality methods and examples, such as self-assessment, peer-review, social recommendation, and peer-learning, using illustrative cases and giving practical recommendations. Overall, it offers a step-by-step guide for educators so that they can choose their own quality assurance or assessment methods, or develop their own evaluation methodology for specific learning scenarios. The book addresses everyone involved in higher education – university leaders, chief information officers, change and quality assurance managers, and faculty developers. Pedagogical advisers and consultants will find new insights and practices for the integration and management of novel learning technologies in higher education. The volume fosters in lecturers and teachers a sound understanding of the need and strategy for change, and it provides them with practical recommendations on competence and quality methodologies.

Download or read book The Nick of Time written by Elizabeth Grosz and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2004-12-06 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this pathbreaking philosophical work, Elizabeth Grosz points the way toward a theory of becoming to replace the prevailing ontologies of being in social, political, and biological discourse. Arguing that theories of temporality have significant and underappreciated relevance to the social dimensions of science and the political dimensions of struggle, Grosz engages key theoretical concerns related to the reality of time. She explores the effect of time on the organization of matter and on the emergence and development of biological life. Considering how the relentless forward movement of time might be conceived in political and social terms, she begins to formulate a model of time that incorporates the future and its capacity to supersede and transform the past and present. Grosz develops her argument by juxtaposing the work of three major figures in Western thought: Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Henri Bergson. She reveals that in theorizing time as an active, positive phenomenon with its own characteristics and specific effects, each of these thinkers had a profound effect on contemporary understandings of the body in relation to time. She shows how their allied concepts of life, evolution, and becoming are manifest in the work of Gilles Deleuze and Luce Irigaray. Throughout The Nick of Time, Grosz emphasizes the political and cultural imperative to fundamentally rethink time: the more clearly we understand our temporal location as beings straddling the past and the future without the security of a stable and abiding present, the more transformation becomes conceivable.

Download or read book Seven Story Tower written by Curtiss Hoffman and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-01-07 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the white stag to the green knight, The Seven Story Tower examines how myth colors our perception of history, nature, and ourselves. Organized around seven key myths-representing the Irish, Greek, Sumerian, Indonesian, Amazonian, and Inuit cultures, as well as the fantasy world of J. R. R. Tolkien-this book is the perfect intro-duction to the common themes found in world mythology. Curtiss Hoffman, a noted archaeologist and anthropologist, takes us beyond the entertaining stories and uses insights from cultural anthropology and analytical psychology to analyze the many common themes found throughout. In particular, he examines the significance of names, numbers, plants, animals, the heavenly bodies, and the human body. The Seven Story Tower will enhance the reader's appreciation of myth's power today over our lives and cultures.

Download or read book STEM Teacher Preparation and Practice for the 21st Century written by Patrick M. Jenlink and published by IAP. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: STEM Teacher Preparation and Practice for the 21st Century: Research-based Insights introduces the reader to a collection of thoughtful, research-based works by authors that represent current thinking about the future of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics or STEM as it known today, as well as STEM education for a rapidly evolving global society and the preparation of STEM teachers to meet the educational needs of a changing educational landscape. Each chapter focuses on STEM teaching and the preparation of teachers who will enter classrooms to instruct the next generation of students in STEM. Research in the learning sciences focuses on the cognitive, epistemological, and socio-cultural characteristics of scientific and engineering research communities in their efforts to improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. STEM education is a means to help individuals develop different strategies in order to solve interdisciplinary problems and gain skills and knowledge as they are engaged with STEM related activities through formal and informal learning programs. Research also suggests that STEM may well stand as the new general education for the 21st century. In much of the current discourse on teacher quality and preparation, two essential points for consideration have emerged: the strength of the relationship between teacher content knowledge and student achievement, and the specific representations of knowledge that are most conducive to effective teaching. Add to these two points one additional: the nature of transforming a chaotic system of discreet preparation and clinical experiences into a coherent, aligned and logical system of continuous and progressive development and support throughout a teacher’s career. These three points apply to STEM teacher preparation, induction and professional learning as well as to teacher preparation, induction and professional learning in general. Importantly, the contributing authors to this book have brought to the foreground research-based insights concerning STEM teacher preparation. Each chapter presents clear paths to understanding and reimagining STEM teaching and the importance of STEM teacher preparation, acknowledging the value of STEM literacy and the interdisciplinary nature of STEM teaching.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Positive Communication written by José Antonio Muñiz Velázquez and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Positive Communication forms a comprehensive reference point for cross-disciplinary approaches to understanding the central role of communication in the construction of hedonic and eudemonic happiness,or subjective and psychological well-being. Including contributions from internationally recognized authors in their respective fields, this reference uses as its focus five main scenarios where communication affects the life of individuals: mass and digital media, advertising and marketing communication, external and internal communication in companies and organizations, communication in education, and communication in daily life interactions.

Download or read book Victorian Culture and the Origin of Disciplines written by Bernard Lightman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-20 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current studies in disciplinarity range widely across philosophical and literary contexts, producing heated debate and entrenched divergences. Yet, despite their manifest significance for us today seldom have those studies engaged with the Victorian origins of modern disciplinarity. Victorian Culture and the Origin of Disciplines adds a crucial missing link in that history by asking and answering a series of deceptively simple questions: how did Victorians define a discipline; what factors impinged upon that definition; and how did they respond to disciplinary understanding? Structured around sections on professionalization, university curriculums, society journals, literary genres and interdisciplinarity, Victorian Culture and the Origin of Disciplines addresses the tangled bank of disciplinarity in the arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences including musicology, dance, literature, and art history; classics, history, archaeology, and theology; anthropology, psychology; and biology, mathematics and physics. Chapters examine the generative forces driving disciplinary formation, and gauge its success or failure against social, cultural, political, and economic environmental pressures. No other volume has focused specifically on the origin of Victorian disciplines in order to track the birth, death, and growth of the units into which knowledge was divided in this period, and no other volume has placed such a wide array of Victorian disciplines in their cultural context.