Publisher's Synopsis
Now elementary teachers can combine the best of science and technology education in a comprehensive curriculum based on everyday materials and artifacts. Signs, Symbols & Codes uses a novel, engaging approach to teaching different methods for representing information. Signs and symbols can take the form of words and numbers; graphic devices used on maps, signage systems, packages, and consumer products; and even gestures used by teachers and children to get one another's attention and convey messages. A set of symbols organized into a coherent system is called a code. The contexts and activities in this book involve signs, symbols, or codes of some sort and all draw on a broad range of places and situations that are part of everyday experience. Let your students learn how to decipher and use this Information both in and out of school.;At the same time, meet these broader instructional goals: introduce fundamental themes of information, representation, sign, symbol, and communication; promote literacy by developing a variety of techniques for sending and receiving information; promote numeracy by increasing awareness of symbols as a means to represent quantitative information; demystify common artifacts and, by extension, technology in general; develop process skills in observation, classification, generalization, communication, and design; foster an appreciation of the immediate environment; provide rich opportunities for group work. Signs, Symbols & Codes is one of a five-volume series, Stuff That Works! A Technology Curriculum for the Elementary Grades. Developed by City Technology of City College of New York, each volume helps teachers plan and implement classroom activities and units organized around a single topic - how and why a basic technology works. The guides include an introduction to concepts, classroom stories, resources, and information about standards, as well as suggestions for teachers new to the subject.;Use a single volume independently or all five to form a powerful vehicle for integrating science, math, social studies, language arts, and everyday technology. The complete series includes: Mechanisms & Other Systems; Packaging & Other Structures; Designed Environments: Places, Practices & Plans; Signs, Symbols & Codes; Mapping
