By Peter Spinks *

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Chinese proverb

IN MAY 2004, a cross-country runner stumbled upon an unemployed man, 53, and his 12-year-old daughter, Ruth, who had lived for four years in a tarpaulin-covered shelter dug into a steep hillside in Forest Park, Oregon, in the United States.

Authorities were concerned about the girl’s education after she had lived for so long in the wild, removed from so-called civilisation. Yet Ruth’s happiness and wellbeing, and vast general knowledge, struck welfare workers. “Upon testing her – they couldn’t help themselves – officials found her academic levels were on a par with our VCE or university entrance levels,” says Home Education Network Victoria co-ordinator Lyn Loxton.

Among the couple’s few possessions were several well-thumbed volumes of the World Book Encyclopedia. “The girl had gained her entire education from these books as well as from the incredible knowledge of life given to her by her father,” Loxton says.

Can we benefit from Ruth’s experience? For a start, she acquired her knowledge informally. Second, she and her father relied on a limited but comprehensive reference resource.

Educational psychologists know that acquiring knowledge is a lifelong pursuit, and the stimulation, joy and satisfaction of exploring and discovering new things about the world, and how it works, does not stop on leaving school.

Much of the learning process is subconscious. In basic behaviourist terms, it involves weaving intricate webs of connections between multitudinous stimuli and responses. When we sit in a classroom or lecture hall, the business of education, training or schooling, as the act of learning is then known, takes on a more formal, conscious dimension – self-conscious even – as we realise the need to store those connections so that they can be recalled later. Memorising facts, and retrieving them at will, after all, is part of passing examinations.

Informal learning, in general, is a more pleasurable process. It’s also inclined to be more enduring and meaningful, and a lot less burdensome.

How do we learn informally? Essentially, when we seek answers to questions. (Even the receipt of no answer to a particular query is more likely to be remembered as a question unanswered – perhaps to be answered later on.) This kind of casual education, or ‘living-room learning’, occurs much of the time. It�s how we get to know what’s happening through printed and broadcast news, and about activities we enjoy, such as cooking, reading, watching films or listening to music.

Children come wired for informal learning in every conceivable situation. As child psychologists know, playing is about learning – and one of the most valuable forms of instruction known. Museum curators prey on play by using interactive games as exhibits that try to tempt and tantalise young visitors into learning while playing.

Home educators, those relying on distance or correspondence education and more and more schoolteachers, too, realise the power of play and the need to use the everyday world of plants, animals, minerals, sounds and smells to facilitate what is known as �natural learning�. It involves nothing special – just trying to answer questions as they arise. In this regard, natural learning is the antithesis of what much formal education attempts to force-feed – namely, answers to questions that never arose in the first place.

But how can home educators, parents or even qualified teachers provide answers to every question an inquisitive child throws at them? Many children’s questions, after all, embarrass us by exposing our ignorance. Short of becoming veritable know-alls, few parents can answer everything their children ask them.

So how should parents tap the benefits of natural learning? One strategy might be to encourage offspring to ‘Ask Jeeves‘ or use other internet devices to search electronically for answers to their myriad questions. (A problem with this is that it is hard to verify the authenticity of much internet material, some of which may be inaccurate or misleading.)

Another approach might be to palm inquisitive children off to a knowledgeable neighbour or the local library – assuming one is close by, and still open (in Victoria, for example, several mobile library services have been halted, while local budget cuts in the US have forced some Californian libraries to close).

A third way, perhaps to be tried in conjunction with the first two, would be to invest in a slightly souped-up version of what Ruth had access to – an initially modest but comprehensive home reference library. This might comprise a judicious selection of audiotapes, videos and DVDs but, above all, a collection of up-to-date, printed editions of children’s encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference works. Their purpose would not be to outdo or replace the local library’s reference collection, but to provide in-house resources that encourage and educate children and adults alike. Books, after all, speak volumes.

Recognising the rising demand for such resources, most of the bigger publishers produce a range of colourful, concise, all-encompassing and compellingly accessible works. Intended for young people aged from four, or thereabouts, through to the late teens, and beyond, the books explain topics accurately and simply in language that children understand. (This is in addition to the resources available from home educators� learning centres and suppliers across Australia.) Some books are complete reference works in their own right, others form series and many nowadays link to the internet.

Reference books come in various guises. Young readers may begin with the carefully cross-referenced Oxford First Encyclopedia (Oxford University Press, 2004), taking in the body, people and places, the arts, the Earth, animals and plants, science and technology and the universe. It contains 400 colour pictures and a range of simple experiments, such as making a mountain out of books or discovering the mysteries of magnetism.

In the case of dictionaries, one place to start might be the Oxford First Illustrated Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2003), Andrew Delahunty’s compilation of 2000 entries, including rhyming words, idioms, synonyms, antonyms and more, entertainingly illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark.

My Macquarie Picture Dictionary (Jacaranda Wiley, 1990) is another option. A few others, such as the Macquarie School Dictionary second edition (John Wiley, 2003), include computer software with interactive activities for learning and practising language.

Series help introduce young readers to fundamental scientific concepts. For instance, MYZone Science (Heinemann, 2004) is aimed at middle school years, although some of the texts seem suited for younger groups. The series comprises a student book and set of teacher’s notes for each topic, such as Earth, Sun and Moon, which describes the shapes, sizes and motions of these bodies, and Forces in Action, covering push and pull forces, gravity and air resistance, and how to measure them.

Rebecca Hunter, the series editor of Explore Science (Heinemann Library, 2002), aimed at 10 to 14-year-olds, describes forces and energies in Physical Processes and explains how natural and artificial materials are classified, mixed, separated and altered in Materials and their Properties. Switching to matters biological, Life Processes and Living Things explores the workings of plants and animals and ways in which they interact with one another and their environment.

In Routes of Science, another series, one would be hard pressed to find a better all-in-one introduction to the elementary constituents of matter than Chris Woodford and Martin Clowes – Atoms and Molecules (Brown Reference Group, 2004). Here’s their introduction to kinetic theory, the study of molecular movements: ‘Molecules in all substances move about. In solids they vibrate in position and in gases they whiz about freely. How much they move depends on the temperature. The molecules vibrate or move around more when a substance heats up.’

Yet another series, the eight-part Space Science (Atlantic Europe Publishing, 2004), affords a rollicking read through such titles as How the universe works, Sun and solar system, Rocky planets and Gas giants. Each has stunning photographs and illustrations, a quick reference glossary on most pages plus master glossary at the end of every book.

Most engaging of all, perhaps, is the latest Uncle Albert series (Faber and Faber, 2005), now in paperback, by Russell Stannard, a former physics professor at Britain’s Open University in Milton Keynes. It�s meant for children but would enthrall adults, too. Stannard�s first children�s book, The Time and Space of Uncle Albert, was short-listed for The Science Award and the children’s category of the Whitbread Award. Other aspects of German-born Albert Einstein’s theories are discussed in Black Holes and Uncle Albert and Uncle Albert and the Quantum Quest. The three books read as well on their own as they do as companion volumes.

Though Albert features in the title of Robert Wolke’s What Einstein Told His Cook 2 (Wiley, 2005), this book is not so much about relativity theory as the science of cooking. Tendering advice on such delicate matters as removing wine stains and matching pasta with sauces, it�s not aimed at children but is a tantalising way to learn simultaneously about science and the kitchen.

In fact, older children and adults are spoilt for choice. Melbourne-based Surendra Verma’s The Little Book of Scientific Principles, Theories and Things (New Holland, 2005) concisely explains 175 key laws and equations expounded by the likes of not just Einstein but also Pythagoras, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.

One beauty of these publications is that they avoid the technical details, excessive information and tedious, fustian prose plaguing many traditional reference tomes. As a result, adults find themselves grasping topics they thought they already knew and understood. This comes as both a joy and shock to parents choosing to educate at home or perhaps wanting to supplement school-set homework with some independent home inquiry.

Suppose, for instance, a child is exploring the solar system. Dorling Kindersley’s e.encyclopaedia science says this about the second planet from the sun: ‘The atmosphere of Venus is much thicker than that of Earth and is made up mostly of carbon dioxide. Its pressure is nearly 100 times Earth’s atmospheric pressure. The dense clouds in the atmosphere are made up of sulphuric acid droplets. The atmosphere traps heat like a greenhouse, sending the temperature soaring to more than 475 degrees.’

The entry displays a keyword that electronically links readers to extra information online at www.science.dkeencyc.com , created by DK and Google. E-links include animations, videos, sound buttons, virtual tours, interactive quizzes, databases, timelines and real-time reports.

The e.encyclopaedia is e-linked to about 1000 topics arranged in categories: matter and materials, forces and energy, electricity and magnetism, space, earth, plants, animals and the human body. More particulars may be found in DK’s specific titles, including e.explore Dinosaur, e.explore Earth, e.explore Space Travel, e.explore Human Body, e.explore Insect, e.explore Mammal and e.explore Rock and Mineral. Each provides a mine of well-illustrated information – on- and off-line – for homework, schoolwork and those with an insatiable desire to learn more.

Explanations of the latest technologies, such as mobile telephones, iPods, MP3 players and robot helpers, can be found in DK�s How Cool Stuff Works. It�s brilliantly illustrated and concisely written by Chris Woodford, Luke Collins, Clint Witchalls, Ben Morgan and James Flint. The section on jet engines, for instance, says: ‘Japanese engineers are developing the SuperSonic Transport plane. It will carry three times more passengers, travel twice as far, yet be no noisier than a normal jet.’ Glossaries at the end include a list of groundbreaking technologists and engineers, techno terms and an all-embracing timeline of technological achievements.

DK’s output is even broader than that. Their simplified Night-Sky Atlas brims with star-studded photographs, maps and transparent pages. Red planet aficionados are especially well catered for with Stuart Murray’s Mars (Dorling Kindersley, 2005), as well as a kit for building a Martian mini-rover. The publisher’s Ultimate Flight Kit , meanwhile, contains pre-cut components enabling children to assemble a paraglider, glider, airship, helicopter, propeller plane and other craft.

DK’s latest series, 24 Hours, takes an around-the-clock peek at the lifestyles of various animals. Coral Reef, for instance, follows the daily and nightly routines of all manner of marine life, notably the activities at dawn, 10am, 2pm, dusk and 10pm of a green turtle, Titan triggerfish, moray eel, white-tip reef shark and bubble coral. In similar fashion, but for slightly younger readers, DK’s Look Closer series inspects the body parts and functions of Sea Creatures, Reptiles and Bugs, with ‘did you know?’ breakouts such as ‘A dragonfly’s wings beat about 20 times every second. It can hover in the air and even fly backwards.’

Relating newly acquired information to real-life situations helps reinforce the material. In the case of children learning about the solar system, a peek at the night sky through binoculars or a rudimentary telescope might be followed by visits to a planetarium, museum, library or IMAX movie on the planets.

Afterwards, reading Steve Massey’s introductory How does the night sky work? (New Holland, 2005) may enrich the experience, as may Andrew Langley�s First Book of Space (Oxford University Press, 2003) or perhaps Andrew Conway and Rosie Coleman�s A Beginner�s Guide to the Universe (Cambridge University Press, 2003), aimed at children aged seven to 14, but probably more towards the latter. Adults and more mature children might consult Simon and Jacqueline Mitton�s popular and updated Astronomy (Oxford University Press, 2003) or Milton Heifetz�s and Wil Tirion�s detailed A Walk through the Southern Sky: A Guide to Stars and Constellations and their Legends (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

When children start chapters dealing with the evolution of plants and animals, for example, trips to the park, botanical gardens and zoo might help. Another approach might be to take children on an excursion after handing them a book on the subject. A tour of a wind farm, for instance, might be preceded by a read of Nigel Saunders and Steven Chapman�s Renewable Energy (Raintree, 2004).

For home scholars and parents with children engaged in correspondence or distance education, these techniques are not new. The range and quality of reference works, however, is new, as are the electronic links to dedicated, interactive webpages. �Better and more reference resources and educational workbooks are now available in bookshops and even newsagents, making it easier for parents to teach at home,� says Lyn Loxton.

Inquiries she receives about home schooling have trebled over the past two years, as more parents become disillusioned with conventional education and problems such as bullying. Despite concerns that home-schooled youngsters lack the socialisation skills of conventionally schooled children, home educators contend that their offspring have ample opportunity for socialising with peers; some even insist that the home schooled are better �socialised� than many institutionally educated children.

This claim seems to be supported by a North American survey, Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream, published in 2001 by The Fraser Institute in Vancouver, which found that, on average, home schooled children were more academically and socially advanced than public and private school students.

Home education is legal throughout Australia, though regulations vary between states. Some, such as Queensland, require home tutors to hold teaching qualifications, although this is under review. Western Australian and South Australian home schoolers need only register with their education department or board of studies; in other states, registration is optional. Most parents prefer not to register and so exact figures on home schooling are unavailable. The Australian Bureau of Statistics, in fact, collects no data on home education.

Estimates by home education associations, based on curriculum suppliers� mailing lists, home schooling networks and newsletter subscription records, suggest that 10,000 children are home schooled in Victoria. The unofficial Victorian figure exceeds an official nationwide estimate of only 7000, which parents� organisations reckon is grossly underestimated; they put the national tally at almost four times this number.

It�s believed that about one-third of home schoolers in Australia belong to religious groups who prefer to do their own thing. �Years ago, before home education became as mainstream as it is today, and before bullying became paramount for many parents, I would say that it was much higher than one-third but I think more pressing issues these days have outweighed the religious ones,� says Loxton.

Whatever the true total, home schooling seems to be catching on. The NSW Board of Studies, for example, reports that 250 students were educated at home in the 1990-91 financial year and 1478 in 2001-02, a rise of almost 500 per cent. In Queensland, 907 children were home schooled in 1996 and 1384 in 2002.

In the US, home education was illegal in 30 states in 1980 but was legalised nationwide in 1993. Some states even provide vouchers for educational resources. In New Zealand, such assets are a tax-deductible expense. Australia, unfortunately, offers no such concessions yet, despite luring property investors with generous incentives, such as negative gearing, which costs the country more than $2 billion a year, and rising, in lost revenue.

Offering subsidies or tax allowances to parents investing in children�s reference works – in much the way that solar hot water systems attract subsidies – would give a shot in the arm to primary and secondary education in Australia. In addition to assisting home schoolers, such a move would raise parents� awareness of the potential benefits of acquiring home reference resources. This would assist parents to become more directly and jointly involved in their children�s education and may result in youngsters learning more actively from everyday experiences. An old Native American saying goes: �Tell me and I�ll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and I�ll understand.�

Home schooling means total involvement. Parents unable or unwilling to take this path might consider supplementing their children�s conventional schooling – be it public or private � with some wholesome home habits. Most teachers, after all, admit that the best performers at school are children whose parents are involved in their education.

In 2002, an Australian Council for Educational Research study found that the socio-economic background of parents may influence educational performance at least as much as the kind of school that children attend. This implies that parents, and what they possess and do at home, may ultimately influence their children�s education as much as the schools themselves.

Thus, well-stocked and updated home libraries, accompanied by regular reading habits, may offer a cheaper and possibly wiser alternative to private schooling. A handy home library, after all, costs hundreds of dollars, against thousands a year for private school fees.

Despite this, parents increasingly opt for private rather than public schools and many of them may not even keep reference resources at home. A recent national poll of high school students� parents by the Australian Council for Educational Research revealed that in the decade to 2003 enrolments rose nationally by 22.3 per cent for private schools but by only 1.2 per cent for their public counterparts. Overall, the public school share of students fell nationally from 77.4 per cent in 1970 to 68.4 per cent in 2004, leaving every capital city, bar Darwin and Hobart, with 40 per cent or more of students in private secondary schools.

Reasons for parents choosing private schools range from the particular culture and discipline of these schools to their traditional values and learning environment. Some parents, who may be squeezed for time, seem keener to pay more for a school that can �entirely take care of� their children�s education than plump for a relatively poorly resourced one that they feel requires some degree of parental tuition at home. Most of these parents argue that they have neither the time nor domestic resources to fill gaps left by teachers.

This argument needs tackling, particularly in light of American philosopher George Santayana�s comment: �A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.� Parents paying less for schooling, by going public rather than private, would not need to earn so much money in the first place. They could work shorter hours – in theory, at least – and use the time not spent at work on assisting their children to explore things they wanted to know about – and simultaneously learning themselves.

Let�s say parents wished to nurture a child�s natural fascination with animals. Aboriginal artist and designer Bronwyn Bancroft�s alphabet book, An Australian abc of Animals (Little Hare Books, 2005), has superb untraditional Aboriginal paintings of anything from an ant and bandicoot to a yabby and zebra lionfish. On a pernickety note, however, the book might have included lower case as well as upper case letters at the head of each page and could have benefited from sticking to simple initial vowel sounds � such �o� for octopus rather than �o� for owl. Bancroft�s Patterns of Australia (Little Hare Books, 2005), a series of Australian landscapes and habitats, including rainforest, reef, desert and ocean, to name but four, is a magnificent testimony to this gifted artist�s intricate artistry.

John Farndon�s Wildlife Atlas (ABC Books, 2004) provides a more conventional, albeit colourful, habitat-by-habitat account of 1000 or so predators, grazing mammals, birds, insects and reptiles.

Yvonne Winer and Tony Oliver�s Wild Cats Prowl (ABC Books, 2005), meanwhile, is an attempt to foster an interest in these beasts and their vanishing habitats. What it lacks in text, including the rather sloppily written cat identification parade at the end, the book makes up for with striking illustrations.

Taking another tack, John Nicholson�s Animal Architects (Allen & Unwin, 2003) describes and illustrates the homes of a plethora of animals, birds and insects but sometimes fails to illustrate the architect itself – such as the mound-digging Mallee-fowl and the nest-weaving titmouse.

In Richard Morecroft, Alison Mackay and Karen Lloyd-Diviny�s brightly illustrated Zoo Album (ABC Books, 2004), zookeepers tell anecdotes about the personalities and habits of gorillas, frogs, tigers, penguins and other animals in captivity. Children wanting to delve deeper into the habits and habitats of a particular animal, say wombats, can turn to such gems as Jackie French�s The Secret World of Wombats (HarperCollins, 2005). It tells all one could possibly wish to know about these bottom-biting marsupials, from whose coarse fur Aborigines once made string. Prospective cameleers, on the other hand, might go to Janeen Brian�s Hoosh! Camels in Australia (ABC Books, 2005).

Alternatively, those considering buying a pet, such as a cat, might first want to buy a book like Jean Coppendale�s You and Your Pet Kitten (QED Publishing, 2004), which tells children how to care for, understand and play with their new feline friend.

Some books use novelties to lure children into learning. Philip Blythe�s Nature Hunt uses puzzles, such as counting the number of jellyfish swimming on two pages of marine creatures, to introduce the habits of animals in a dozen different environments. Matt Denny, Robert Tainsh and Simon Mugford�s Jungle Picture Pops (Priddy Books, 2005), on the other hand, uses ingeniously engineered pop-up reproductions of jungle creatures such as elephants, chameleons, chimpanzees and beetles.

Satisfying children�s penchant for stickers, another team from the same publisher has produced First Learning: Dinosaurs (Priddy Books, 2004). Its 100 stickers and simple questions, such as �which dinosaurs walk on two legs?�, describe these extinct reptiles while using size, shape and colour to enhance recognition skills.

Atlases, too, offer offbeat ways to learn. Ruth Brocklehurst�s Animal Sticker Atlas (Usborne, 2003) teaches where animals live by getting younger readers to stick images of more than 200 species on their global habitats. In similar vein, although not restricted to animals alone, Brocklehurst�s Children�s Picture Atlas (Usborne, 2003) locates, by picture and word, the world�s crops, people and animals.

Roger Priddy�s My Picture Atlas (Priddy Books, 2003) breaks up the globe into regions and individual countries, briefly describing each one�s population, currency and language, and how to pronounce the word �hello� in every culture.

For slightly older readers, the Jacaranda Junior Atlas (John Wiley, 2003) takes a novel approach by asking three questions relating first to the globe and then to each region: Where do we live? How do we interact with the world? What is changing? It�s a worldly wise way to explain maps, settlement, landforms, agriculture, political divisions, territorial claims, climate, vegetation, population distribution, transport networks, mineral and energy resources and even trading patterns.

Options for atlases don�t end there. Featuring satellite-based landform maps for each continent, and linked to interactive webpages, Jacaranda�s compendious Atlas of Discovery (John Wiley, 2003) uncovers the what and where of the world as well as the why and how of specific societies and environments.

The 100 maps, 1000 illustrations and pictures and countless fact files of the Macmillan Children�s Atlas (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2004) aim at a seemingly ageless audience. Pages bulge with information they never taught at school (at least not me). This is the kind of reference that readily complements conventional class work. Say, for instance, a child gets a school lesson on the Low Countries. A parent wanting to build on what�s been taught in class might encourage their child to read two pages from the atlas at home. Beginning with a potted history of the region, this would cover natural features, major cities and places of interest, great painters, traditions, culture and profiles of such luminaries as Abel Tasman, Vincent van Gogh, Mata Hari and Anne Frank.

Anna Nilsen�s Famous Journeys takes another approach by using mazes and other puzzles to engage young readers in the adventures of a dozen explorers such as the first European to set foot in North America, Leif Ericsson, British Museum collector of African wildlife Mary Kingsley and legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.

Children eager to home in on one part of the world might consult a regional reference, such as Coral Tulloch�s Antarctica (ABC Books, 2003), which won the Wilderness Society�s environment award for children�s literature. Poles apart is Bryan and Cherry Alexander�s Journey into the Arctic (Oxford University Press, 2003), a sled and snowmobile tale of seals, polar bears, arctic foxes and musk oxen.

Books like these inform in a digestible, entertaining way that makes material instantly understandable and hence easier to recall. In fact, much of it is hard to forget. The secret is to integrate learning, living and playing in a way that breaks down classroom walls and renders schooling seamless. Virtually everything then becomes an enjoyable opportunity to learn together – not just for children, but whole families, too.

A visit to the shops thus becomes a lesson in geography, physics or economics. A walk in the park takes on a botanical, zoological or even physiological twist. An outbreak of food poisoning provides the opportunity to read Micro-organisms (Heinemann, 2004), and accompanying teacher�s notes, explaining how bacteria, viruses and fungi may be harmful and beneficial. And the inconvenience of being caught on the hop in a hailstorm offers a chance to dash home to the Oxford University Press A-Z Geography to discover: �Hail is ice which falls from the sky. Ice is formed in thick, dark clouds and it grows into hailstones as it is blown about in the air. The hailstones, which are usually about the size of a pea, fall in hail showers. The biggest hailstone ever found was almost 20 centimetres across.��

Other A-Z subjects include science, mathematics, space, technology, the human body, art, music and world religions. Every title lists more than 300 words alphabetically, and defines each one using OUP�s tried-and-trusted formula of providing highly accessible but authoritative information that has been carefully checked by expert consultants, many from the famous university itself.

In 2003, in collaboration with London�s Science Museum, OUP published a four-part series, Space, Time, Speed and Flight. Written by award-winning children�s author Philip Wilkinson, each title boasts 23 pages of lavish illustrations and tightly written, informative text. Take this entry in Speed: �Thrust SSC is the first car to go faster than the speed of sound. Powered by two large Rolls-Royce engines, the car reached 1227.985 km/h in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, US, in 1997. At this speed, the main danger is that the car will leave the ground, turn over, and crash. The vehicle�s large tail fin helps to prevent this.�

“One could get a first-class education from a shelf of books five feet long,”a former Harvard University president, Charles Eliot Norton, once opined. Selecting the appropriate books is obviously crucial and a set or two of encyclopedic and lavishly illustrated children�s reference works would make an excellent start.

Once the books are on the shelf and consulted regularly, children will acquire the heuristic habit of loving to learn things for themselves, when they are ready to do so. In no time at all, the lifelong art of learning will have assumed a leisurely life of its own.

* Acclaimed science-writer Peter Spinks, MA, has written and broadcast for some of the world�s leading media organisations and is the author of Wizards of Oz, a bestseller on Australian scientific breakthroughs. Peter runs science-writing and media-skills workshops that teach people how to become freelance science writers and broadcasters. Practising scientists, technologists and managers are also shown the basic techniques and strategies needed to convey their work to media, government, research-funding bodies and the public. His comprehensive courses cover the fundamental principles of science communication and provide hands-on training in preparing short articles, features, media releases and illustrative material for various outlets, including in-house publications, Australian and international media and the internet.

For more details, please visit the workshop webpage at www.dreamwater.org/workshop/ or telephone Peter on 03-54295473. Email: science-writing@go2netmail.com

MORE TO PORE OVER

For Dummies . . .

Wiley Publishing, New York

Although not designed expressly for children, this lighthearted, often humorous series, written by people who can write, helps adults to extract and explain the essence of complicated or technical topics. “For Dummies�� uses wit, cartoons and down-to-earth explanations, sometimes in depth, without dumbing down material. Having begun with computers and business, the 300-plus-page books now span a vast and ever-expanding raft of subjects, including English grammar, biology, astronomy, world history and religion (with more specific titles on branches such as Buddhism).

The Usborne internet-linked Children�s Encyclopedia
Usborne Publishing, London

This one-volume wonder provides a general, albeit fleeting, introduction to topics younger children may ask about. It�s a sensible place to start, and could be supplemented by more books on topics that take children�s fancy. Budding boffins, for example, would relish Usborne�s internet-linked Science Encyclopedia with links to 1000 recommended webpages. Covering physics, chemistry, biology, information technology, earth sciences and astronomy � including newer areas such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, telecommunications and environmental protection � the book clearly explains more than 2500 scientific terms using at least 1500 illustrations and diagrams and about 140 experiments and activities. It also has a dictionary defining more than 1500 terms and self-test revision aids. Chapters are presented in a lucidly logical, stepped sequence, enabling readers to build knowledge slowly but surely.

Nelson Primary: Flying Colours
Thomson Learning Australia, Melbourne

This home grown, complete literacy program for the first three years of primary school comprises 200 fiction and non-fiction books, such as The concert, At the playground and My little fish . Also available are 10 animated stories for online work, 20 benchmark assessment books and teachers� resources. Another series, “Nelson Focus��, features 120 titles – such as Plants , Maps , Early inventions and Weather watching � spanning science, technology, the environment and society. Nelson Maths for Victoria , including electronic teachers� resources, supports the state�s early years numeracy program and encourages children to perform elementary mathematical tasks at their own pace. The publisher�s latest four-part series, �Science Edge�, edited by Jenny Sharwood, won the 2005 publishing awards for �best secondary series� and �best overall resource�. The books teach scientific skills in most areas and include a host of safe experiments and investigations, case studies and stories about scientists. Although some illustrative material might have been omitted, or at least simplified � such as the barramundi and red emperor database in Science Edge 2 � there�s much else to learn. For example, zero gravity is explained thus: �A lot of people mistakenly think there is no gravity on astronauts out in orbit. The truth is that the pull of gravity on them is about 90 per cent as strong as the pull they would experience if they were back on the ground � The only reason the astronauts and their spacecraft don�t fall back to Earth is that the spacecraft is travelling around Earth at high speed.� Glossaries explain new words and terms at the end of each chapter and book. Interactive self-tests are another handy feature. Download a sample unit from www.scienceedge.com.au Each book comes with a teacher resource pack to help with tests on particular topics and puzzles, quizzes, literacy exercises and projects.

Children�s Encyclopaedia
Oxford University Press, Oxford

For children of eight and above – not to mention a fair few parents wanting to learn more about the world – OUP�s nine-part, 1712-page hardback set is hard to beat. The first seven volumes cover major, and many minor, subjects from Aborigines to zoos. The eighth is a 560-profile biography. The last volume includes a 15,000-entry index, a gazetteer of countries and a timeline of world history. The June 2004 edition has revised topical areas of science, such as cloning, genetically modified foods and the human genome project, as well as politics, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this regard, OUP tries to capture those it trusts will become regular readers almost as soon as they step from the cradle.

The Macmillan Visual Guide
Pan Macmillan, Sydney

When it comes to photographs and illustrations, this series is a hard act to follow. Vivid colours, dramatic contrasts, ultra high-resolution images and extraordinary settings make this a coffee table asset second to none. But that�s not all. These books are penned by experts who know their subjects inside out. In Rocks & Fossils, geologist and geophysicist Robert Coenraads takes a journey to the Earth�s centre, through the fossil record and on to the processes by which minerals and rocks form and transform. Marine biologists Stephen Hutchinson and Lawrence Hawkins, meanwhile, chart a course through Oceans leaving readers in little doubt of their immense value to humans. In Weather, meteorologists Bruce Buckley, Edward Hopkins and Richard Whitaker employ the same formula of irresistible photographs to entice readers into learning about the workings of weather, including extreme events such as hurricanes, floods and droughts, and how weather patterns affect biota. Finally, in Astronomy, astrophysicist Mark Garlick captures the boundless beauty and wonder of the cosmos in uncompromising colour.

Get Writing
Heinemann Library, UK

Exciting writing is the stuff of communication. This series, by Shaun McCarthy, spanning Write that Play, Write that Story and Write that Poem, helps readers to develop and improve their creative writing skills and shows how to turn an idea into prose, a poem or play. Each book offers bountiful but not overly complicated advice such as this top tip for aspiring playwrights: �Be careful not to make your characters into caricatures. These are characters whose way of speaking is so �over the top� that they are unbelievable, such as a farmer who says �Ooo ar, me beauty� every single time they open their mouth!�

Communications Close-up
Evans Brothers Limited, London

Continuing the communications theme, the developing writer will no doubt want to know how to make an even greater impact by entering the dark and mysterious worlds of print and broadcast journalism. Books and Newspapers, for instance, takes readers on a tour of not just the history of newspapers and books but also the printing presses and manufacture of paper that are intrinsic to the publishing industry. Radio and Television, on the other hand, is a straightforward introduction to anything from the electromagnetic spectrum to satellite TV and electronic bugging.