Author Description

YEAR 8 The Jacaranda Science series has been developed to help teachers implement the three-year junior secondary science courses developed in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. It has been written for young Australians who will become adults in the twenty-first century. The Jacaranda Science series has been designed to meet the requirements for the three-year junior secondary science courses in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. The text covers the concepts and outcomes of the four strands (Earth and Beyond, Energy and Change, Life and Living, and Natural and Processed Materials). The Queensland Science and Society, the Western Australian Investigating Scientifically strands are interwoven throughout the text. Some of the features in the Jacaranda Science series of books include: Outcome statements and \'think about these\' questions on the opening page of each chapter A \'Thinking about\' section at the beginning of each chapter to assist in identifying the current knowledge and views of students Practicals to provide hands on opportunities to visualise, model, use and apply scientific ideas Investigations to engage students in designing, planning, performing and evaluating their own experiments Science issues and Science and Technology sections to deal with the interaction between science and society Putting it all together, Summing up and Looking back sections at the end of each chapter, designed to assist students to summarise the topic and apply the knowledge and skills introduced in the chapter The Reflection section to encourage students to reflect on their learning An extension in each chapter which can be used in a variety of ways Literacy skills are developed throughout the text.