Yancey, Diane. Basketball

Yancey, Diane.           Basketball     

Cengage (Gale,Lucent,Kidhaven/Blackbirch          2011   112p  33.45  978-1-4205-0293-0           

ms/hs             Science Behind Sports (Cengage) E-BNS  

A clever blend of science topics & a sport makes this book a

valuable tool for improving standard test scores, for motivating students to

study science and for teaching students about this natural combination to

enhance interdisciplinary curriculum.       What a wonderful series for the U. S. at

a time when science standard test scores are low and students are not naturally

choosing to study science. Science and basketball are treated together in this

book where one learns the physiological and psychological benefits of training

wisely, the plethora of injuries that might plague a sports star, the scientific

reasons why good equipment is vital, the physics of the moves involved in

playing basketball, what is involved when the body plays the sport and finally,

the importance of the brain, the nervous system and the state of mind in

determining who will win at a sport. The series title, ╥Science Behind Sports╙

makes one think that it will just examine basketball plays or the game itself.

However, upon navigating the pages, a science and/or health teacher finds a tool

to use to motivate students to learn about many topics of science by using

basketball.  Two seemingly polar opposites, sports and science, come together

naturally to provide a variety of ways to instruct students in an subject that

is weak in the United States!  A student can turn to page 74 to learn about

potential and kinetic energy when dribbling a basketball.  The resourceful

health teacher who needs to teach his/her students about the MRI and stress

fractures can turn to page 42 to learn that Yao Ming was sidelined due to a

stress fracture and learn why and how this occurred.   Teenagers will be tricked

into learning about science, but they won╒t mind because the photographs are

interesting, the extra sections offer great support information and explanations

are clear and relevant.  The glossary could be more inclusive, especially in

light of the fact that there is so much new information relating to science

within the 7 chapters of this book, but a 5-page index more than makes up for

the short glossary of new vocabulary.        By combining science and sports, the

publisher has figured out a way to engage teenagers in learning about the

physical and psychological needs of each sport, about the physical science

concepts involved in playing each sport and about the treatment of sports-

related injuries.         Squaresky, Martha