Saturday, January 28, 2012

Excerpt from “The Year of My Fourth Dimension” by Kathy Yocum

Teaching physics was no longer my only job. I had to become a voracious reader of science material. I couldn’t read deeply; I had to read broadly and quickly. Before school began, I, thankfully, finished Joy Hakim’s The Story of Science: Newton at the Center. Her work is a great read with short science vignettes carrying us through science discoveries over time and loaded with lots of interesting asides. Once I began working with Sam and Charlie, I immediately ordered the other two books in her series. My home was my homework center. In the evenings, I’d scan several science websites. Stephen Hawking sometimes joined Hakim’s work and Bill Bryson’s, A Short History of Nearly Everything. Theirs were words that took me to dreamland. I didn’t have to know everything, but these boys wanted to talk about a variety of science topics. They were amazing.

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Kathy Yocum teaches at Natchitoches Central High School in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

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