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From the author of the classic Human Anatomy for Artists comes this user-friendly reference guide featuring over five hundred original drawings and over seventy photographs. Designed for painters, sculptors, and illustrators who use animal imagery in their work, Animal Anatomy for Artists offers thorough, in-depth information about the most commonly depicted animals, presented in a logical and easily understood format for artists--whether beginner or accomplished professional. The book focuses on the forms created by muscles and bones, giving artists a crucial three-dimensional understanding of the final, complex outer surface of the animal. Goldfinger not only covers the anatomy of the more common animals, such as the horse, dog, cat, cow, pig, squirrel, and rabbit, but also the anatomy of numerous wild species, including the lion, giraffe, deer, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant, gorilla, sea lion, and bear. Included are drawings of skeletons and how they move at the joints, individual muscles showing their attachments on the skeleton, muscles of the entire animal, cross sections, photographs of live animals, and silhouettes of related animals comparing their shapes and proportions. He offers a new and innovative section on the basic body plan of four-legged animals, giving the reader a crucial conceptual understanding of overall animal structure to which the details of individual animals can then be applied. The chapter on birds covers the skeleton, muscles and feather patterns. The appendix presents photographs of skulls with magnificent horns and antlers and a section on major surface veins. Incredibly thorough, packed with essential information, Animal Anatomy for Artists is a definitive reference work, an essential book for everyone who depicts animals in their art.

Often the finest artists do not make the best teachers. Many frustrated college students of art know this all too well as they suffer through unstructured classes with inexperienced teachers or graduate student instructors. In these situations, it is easy to blame the teachers. But the problem is largely institutional: most students graduating with MFAs from art schools receive little if any instruction in teaching art. If you find yourself in this predicament as teacher or student, this book is for you. The first book to provide a comprehensive guide for teaching college-level art, The Art of Teaching Art is the culmination of respected artist and instructor Deborah Rockman's two decades of teaching experience. Believing that drawing is the backbone of all of the visual arts, she begins with a complete explanation of drawing concepts that apply to any subject matter, e.g., composition, sighting processes, scaling techniques, and methods for linear and tonal development. She then illustrates these concepts with step-by-step methods that easily translate to classroom exercises. Next, she applies the drawing principles to every artist's most important and challenging subject, the human figure. After an extended section on understanding and teaching perspective that explores illusionistic form and space, the focus of the book shifts to the studio classroom itself and the essential elements that go into making an effective learning environment and curriculum. From preparing materials lists and syllabi, to setting up still-lifes, handling difficult classroom situations, critiquing and grading student artworks, and shooting slides of student artworks, she leaves no stone unturned.

Gathering perspectives of musical talent from the psychological, musical, and educational fields, Kindling the Spark is the only single sourcebook that defines musical talent and provides practical strategies for identifying and nurturing it. Joanne Haroutounian uses her experience as teacher, researcher, and parent to clarify central issues concerning talent recognition and development in a way that will easily appeal to a wide audience. The book describes the different stages of development in musical training, including guidelines for finding a suitable teacher at different levels, social and psychological aspects that impact musical training, and research on talent development by ages and stages from infancy and preschool years through the teen years. An important feature of the book are "sparkler exercises" designed to provoke observable talent behavior in home, school, and studio settings. The book also includes an Appendix of Resources which lists books, media, organizations, and specialized schools that offer additional information on musical talent, identification, and development. For music educators in both public school and private studio settings--as well as for parents and their musically inclined children--Kindling the Spark provides an invaluable summary of the research on talent and a wealth of resources for developing it.

Having trouble interesting your students in history or the history textbook? Concerned about the ability of your students to actually read the textbook? Learn ways to tie reading strategies to the learning of history, and discover sources that will help history come alive for your students. Nationally known literacy advocate Janet Allen discusses strategies for teaching nonfiction reading using Joy Hakim's award winning A History of US series as the center of a blossoming campaign among educators to integrate literacy and history. Classroom tested at a variety of grade levels, real student samples are interspersed throughout the book providing clearer understanding of the strategies in action.

Some assumptions about biology are so deeply rooted in our thinking that they seem beyond question. These concepts - expressed in playful jargon - are our sacred bovines. With a light-hearted spirit, Douglas Allchin sets out to challenge many of these common beliefs about science and life. Allchin draws on fascinating insights from science to illustrate the ironies in many widespread beliefs. Be prepared to challenge the notion that male and female are fixed natural categories. Or that evolution implies cutthroat competition in human society. Or that we struggle against a fundamental immoral nature. Or that genes establish our identity. Or that science progresses through rare leaps of genius. Or that politics and emotions inevitably taint good science. Sacred Bovines revels in revelations about the nature of science. Reflecting on the many errors in commonly accepted, everyday ideas also fosters creative thinking. How do we challenge assumptions? How do we "think outside the box"? The many examples here provide inspiration and guidance, further elaborated in a retrospective epilogue. An additional "Afterword for Teachers" highlights how the essays can foster learning about the nature of science and describes some practical classroom strategies.

The sublime evokes our awe, our terror, and our wonder. Applied first in ancient Greece to the heights of literary expression, in the 18th-century the sublime was extended to nature and to the sciences, enterprises that viewed the natural world as a manifestation of God's goodness, power, and wisdom. In The Scientific Sublime, Alan Gross reveals the modern-day sublime in popular science. He shows how the great popular scientists of our time--Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Brian Greene, Lisa Randall, Rachel Carson, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, and E. O. Wilson--evoke the sublime in response to fundamental questions: How did the universe begin? How did life? How did language? These authors maintain a tradition initiated by Joseph Addison, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Adam Smith, towering 18th-century figures who adapted the literary sublime first to nature, then to science--though with one crucial difference: religion has been replaced wholly by science. In a final chapter, Gross explores science's attack on religion, an assault that attempts to sweep permanently under the rug two questions science cannot answer: What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of the good life?