(Prentice Hall, 2005)
Michael Wysession is the lead author of Prentice Hall’s high-school physical science textbook, Physical Science: Concepts in Action With Earth and Space Science, co-authored with David Frank and Sophia Yancopoulos.
The text is aimed at a ninth-grade level, though is being used for many different grade levels in both middle and high school. The book appears in two versions: one with just physics and chemistry (the traditional physical science curriculum), and one including earth and space science.
The book and accompanying program are designed to help students make the important connection between the science they read and the science they experience every day.
This is done through the incorporation of current and relevant content, lively explorations into interesting topics and a wealth of hands-on activities help students understand that science exists well beyond the page and into the world around them.
The challenge in writing the book was to simultaneously inspire students with exciting text (while maintaining an average of about 12 words per sentence!) and to provide teachers with all of the material, presented in a clear and logical way, that they will need to meet state testing standards.
High-school textbooks are no longer a simple matter of printing a book, but are part of a large program of educational materials for the teacher and students that includes workbooks, test question banks, Web links, video demonstrations, reading guides, etc.
In addition to writing text for the physics and earth science sections of the book, Wysession also wrote test questions for students and additional material for the teachers’ edition to help high-school teachers present the material in a more informed and creative way.
Wysession often attends National Science Teachers Association meetings where he trains high- school teachers in how to best teach earth science at a high-school and middle-school level.
In addition to Physical Science, Wysession has been involved with several other K-12 Prentice Hall textbooks in earth science. He is the author of three middle-school textbooks, Earth’s Interior, Earth’s Changing Surface and Earth’s Waters, all published in 2005, and supervised the construction of a high-school text, Earth Science, to be released in 2006.
— Tony Fitzpatrick