Abstract
In 1993, I was sitting in Japanese elementary classrooms for months on end, gathering data for a book focused on the social and civic aspects of Japanese elementary education (Lewis, 1995). My observational focus had nothing to do with science. Yet all at once I began to notice pendulums and levers everywhere. (These were two of the topics under study by the students during my months of observation.) For example, while walking to the train one day, I suddenly noticed that where I attached my heavy briefcase to my long-handled rolling suitcase was a problem in levers. I noticed that I couldn’t swing my arms at the same rate when I tried to speed-walk with a short umbrella hanging down from one arm: a problem in pendulums! Pendulums and levers had surrounded me for a long while, but I had never noticed them until I started learning science with Japanese elementary students. These daily-life objects had suddenly become “text” for me, as the community gardens and scientist’s laboratory described by Rahm (chapter 4) became text for the students she studied.1
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© 2004 Alan Peacock and Ailie Cleghorn
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Lewis, C.C. (2004). What is a Science Text?: An Overview of Section One. In: Peacock, A., Cleghorn, A. (eds) Missing the Meaning. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982285_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982285_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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