Before learning can effectively occur in the classroom, students need to acquire basic skills. Science Skills provides an opportunity for students to develop the skills and practices that will enable them to fully comprehend science theory. The book aims to develop students' more general analytic skills, such as decision making, negotiating, researching and communication. The Science Skills series features activities labelled by the skill which they are designed to develop. Exercises follow each activity enabling students to revise and reinforce the skills acquired in the activity section. Activities are listed in the contents by both skill and topic allowing science teachers to deal with a specific skill across a range of conceptual contexts.

Table of Contents

Table of contents by skill; Chapter 1. Scientists experiment: 1.1. Designing practical investigations, 1.2. Designing an investigation, 1.3. Testing adhesives, 1.4. Weighing atoms, 1.5. Handling chemicals safely, 1.6. Heating and cooling humans, 1.7. Controlling electricity, 1.8. Collecting solar radiation, 1.9. Identifying minerals, 1.10. Building apparatus, 1.11. Designing techniques; Chapter 2. Scientists organise: 2.1. Creating column or line graphs, 2.2. Creating tables, 2.3. More tables, 2.4. Reading line graphs and pie charts, 2.5. More complex tables, 2.6. Line graphs, 2.7. Creating more tables, 2.8. Multiple line graphs, 2.9. Making simple column graphs, 2.10. Making branching keys, 2.11. Tabulating information from diagrams, 2.12. Concept maps; Chapter 3. Scientists communicate: 3.1. Persuasion, 3.2. Between text and diagram, 3.3. Simplifying dense words, 3.4. Choosing the right words, 3.5. Paragraphs and summaries, 3.6. Word stacks and passive voice, 3.7. Summarising and design, 3.8. Symbolic sentences, 3.9. Purposeful writing, 3.10. Technicality, 3.11. Possibility and paragraphs, 3.12. Gaps and corrections; Chapter 4. Scientists research: 4.1. Keywords, 4.2. Summarising, 4.3. Locating information, 4.4. Skim reading, 4.5. Bibliographies, 4.6. Planning research, 4.7. Ordering information, 4.8. Text and pictures, 4.9. Surveys, 4.10. Glossary, 4.11. A data grid, 4.12. Planning research; Chapter 5. Scientists solve problems: 5.1. Poverty, 5.2. Broken bones and shock, 5.3. Return from extinction, 5.4. Standards, 5.5. A look at atoms, 5.6. The importance of plants, 5.7. Preparing for bushfires, 5.8. Buying a car, 5.9. A bright future for solar, 5.10. When science is not enough, 5.11. Predicting weather, 5.12. Our changing universe; Chapter 6. Scientists value and decide: 6.1. A conflict of values, 6.2. Which treatments are permissible?, 6.3. Choosing a scientific model, 6.4. Group roles, 6.5. Decisions and distance, 6.6. Scripted role play, 6.7. Costs and benefits, 6.8. Dilemmas, 6.9. Clarifying values, 6.10. Alternate explanations; Table of contents by topic: Caring for the environment, Coordination, Change and survival, Testing and processing materials, The periodic table, Important chemical reactions, Heat and fire, Moving motor cars, Australian energy, Australia's resources, Satellites, Changing ideas about the sky; Glossary