ECI 306 Middle Years Reading: Getting Graphic

The Apollo 13 Mission book review by Jason West

This is a well written story.  It is not very long so students should be able to complete it fairly quickly.  The story concludes on page 27.   The following 2 pages gives the reader more details about the mission than what was mentioned in the story.  The last 3 pages conclude with: Glossary, Internet Sites, Read More, Bibliography, and Index.  The artwork is equivalent to modern day comic books. 

The story begins with the crew waving good bye to their work associates as they load on board the space craft.  The rocket is then blasted into space on the way to the moon.  While in space, they heard an explosion.  They looked out their space craft window and saw gas leaking to outer space.  The computers were beginning to read low levels of oxygen in tanks 1 and 2.  To make matters worse, fuel cells 1 and 3 were dead.  The mission to the moon was now called off.  Survival and returning home was their new mission.  Returning home would be no easy matter.  They were scared to fire the service module engine because they feared it may be damage.  They also feared to slingshot around the moon because the oxygen level would not last the entire trip.  After 5.5 hours of debating, they decided to fire the engines for 30 seconds and sling shot around the moon.    They began to ration their supply.  Each astronaut was only allowed 6 ounces of water each day.  The space craft was moving too slow to make it back to earth in time so they fired the engines again.  They were now traveling fast enough to make it in time; however, a new problem had occurred.  Carbon Dioxide levels were rising to dangerous levels.  Mission control figured out how to use the CO2 filters from the Odyssey to the Aquarius.  It worked!  CO2 levels returned to normal.  By this time the temperature inside the craft had fallen to 38 degrees.  The crew could not afford to use the energy to increase the temperature.  They returned to the Odyssey to reenter earth's atmosphere.  The electronics had ice on it from the cold temperature, and they were worried about it possibly shorting out.  They had no choice but to try.  It worked!  They landed 6 days from the time they launched into space.  The crew had lost a total of 31.5 pounds during their space travel. 

The story keeps the student's attention by the constant problems NASA is forced into.  You never know how they will defeat the problem, and when they do, a new one rises.  The book also does an excellent job in giving the students more information about the mission if they choose to go further with it.  One example is two pages titled "More about Apollo 13."  Another example is a list of internet sites students may go to learn more about Apollo 13.  The book also does an excellent job defining words in the story in the glossary section.  The only improvement I can see that would make the book better is for the author to include more pages in the section "More about Apollo 13."  Two pages just aren't enough to fill my appetite.  The author does however give us some web sites to further our investigations.  This is fine for me; however, for students who don't yet have access to the web may be left unfulfilled.

This story goes well with the 6th grade science curriculum.  Objective 4.01 says, "Water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and oxygen are substances cycled between the living and non-living environments."  The non living environment in this story is obviously the space capsule.  The water levels were low, and the carbon dioxide level was rising.  In Objective 5.04 it says, "Describe space explorations and the understandings gained from them including: N.A.S.A., Technologies used to explore space, Historic timeline, Apollo mission to the moon, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Future goals."  Notice it even mentions the Apollo mission in the objective.  Objective 6.02 says, "Analyze heat flow through materials or across space from warm objects to cooler objects until both objects are at equilibrium."  In our story, the equilibrium settled to 38 degrees.  In Objective 7.02 it says, "Investigate factors that determine the growth and survival of organisms including: temperature range, water, and energy."  Notice that the astronauts lost a total of 31.5 pounds in 6 days because of the compromised environment.  The story also goes well for the 7th grade science curriculum it goes well also.  Objective 1.05 says, "Analyze evidence to: Explain observations, and make inferences and predictions.  The astronauts observed an explosion and gas leaking.  This led them to take immediate action.  Objective 2.02 says, "Use information systems to: Identify scientific needs, human needs, or problems that are subject to technological solution."  Mission control came up with unique ideas to help the troubled astronauts.  Objectives 3.03 says, "Conclude that the good health of environments and organisms requires: The monitoring of air quality, and taking steps to maintain healthy air quality."  Without this monitoring, they would not have known about the high CO2 levels.  Objective 6.03 says, "A moving object that is not subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed in a straight line."  This is why they did not have to fire the engines the entire trip.  They only fired them to increase their speed.  For the 8th grade we have and objective covered as well.  Objective 4.06 says, "Describe and measure quantities related to chemical/physical changes within a system: Temperature, and gas production."   The temperature dropped in the capsule and CO2 levels rised. 

I do believe middle school students will respond rather positively to this book.  First of all it is short enough to read in one sitting.  Secondly it has cool graphics.  And finally it keeps you in suspense the entire story.  I do highly recommend this book for consideration in middle school reading.  This book will give real life examples of the many concepts covered in class.

Posted at 10:17PM Apr 22, 2008 by Jason Lee West in Graphic Nonfiction Reviews  |  Comments[0]

Graphic Nonfiction Title Review

Thomas Jefferson: Great American 

Christine Fischer

1. Summary- This short novel is very simple and easy to follow, as it is a biography of the life of Thomas Jefferson.  The novel begins with Jefferson's life when he was a young boy on a farm and follows him through all the stages of his boyhood, college years, time he served the government and Senate, and finally his terms as President of the United States.  I liked how the book was seperated into "chapters" even though it was short.  The chapters represent each chapter in Jefferson's life, so they prepare the reader for what is to follow.  The graphics were very clear and interesting.  For each picture (about 3-4 on each page) there is a side note about what is going on in at that particular time (ex. "Jefferson had finally been able to speak publicly against slavery") and then the characters are shown with phrase bubbles.  I liked it this way because I think the pictures and word bubbles will help the students remember and better understand what was happening at that particular time in Jefferson's life.

2. Strengths- Like I said, I loved that there were side notes about the time period.  These sentences/phrases were more like something you would see in a textbook, but the fact that they go along with a very animated picture and word bubbles, makes the story come alive for the students.  This way, it is easier for them to make connections and to remember dates, events, and people ini a more creative way than rote memorization or worksheets.  The writing was very easy to understand and the artwork was colorful and intricate.

3.Weaknesses- I thought the only weakness in this novel is that it was too short.  Although many people may find history or the life of an old President boring, there are also many others (like me!) who love history and want to learn and know more about important historical figures in our country's past.  Thomas Jefferson did a lot of things to help our country and I felt like he sort of got jipped with such a short story.

4. Content Area Connections- This graphic novel would go under the content area of social studies.  It obviously makes connections with American history, but there are many references to battles that occured in North Carolina that Thomas Jefferson took part in regulating.  This is great for the 8th grade curriculum of NC History.  If I ever did a section on the Presidents, I would enjoy choosing a few of these graphic novels for the class to select by choice and then read.  I think they would enjoy it too, considering there are so many pictures and it presents an easier way of understanding what happened during the time of Jefferson.  This graphic novel would most likely fit within the 8th grade history classes.

5. Addressing Content- I think this novel addresses the content of American history and the different treaties and documents that were important during Jefferson's life very well.  It included the Declaration of Independence, the peace treaty with France, and the Manual of Parliamentary Procedures, to name a few.  It also explains the differences between the Federalist and Republican parties, something that middle schoolers struggle with in history (political parties).  As it does all of this "boring" stuff in an interesting manner, I think it greatly enhances the learning of content in the area of social studies and history.

6. Students- I think middle school students would be very responsive to this book.  In fact, I think middle school students would be responsive to any graphic novel.  Before reading them, I thought they were bogus, but now, I really enjoy reading them and really do think that the pictures and word bubbles help tremendously with understanding what you might call "text" material.  I am a nanny for a family with a 6th grade boy and he read graphic novels like crazy.  I brought this book to work with me one day and asked him if he would be interested in reading it.  He sat down with it and finished it in about 15 minutes and seemed to like it a lot.  Point proven.

7. Recommendation- I would definitely recommend this graphic novel to pre-service AND in-service teachers.  In fact, this novel comes in a library of novels on Great Americans.  I would recommend the whole library, especially to history teachers or teachers planning on teaching American History or NC History.  I liked it a lot :)

Posted at 09:47PM Apr 22, 2008 by Joy king in Graphic Nonfiction Reviews  |  Comments[0]