EL本棚紹介 (42) Everything You Need to Ace Science in One Big Fat Notebook, by Micheal Geisen

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

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This is a big—a very big—textbook introducing basic scientific concepts. It was written for middle school students in the US, but it can be useful for you, too. As a general introduction, there are units on all physics, chemistry, engineering, outer space, biology, weather, ecology, and a lot more. The vocabulary is a little challenging, but important words are underlined and definitions are highlighted. There are lots of pictures and some jokes that make reading a pleasant experience.

Don’t borrow this book and expect to read all 533 pages! Look at the table of contents (目次) and skip to a unit that you are interested in. Even reading just one unit will be an accomplishment, and you might even learn something interesting, too.

My two cents: Science books are good for “learning what you already know.” I think you will learn more English by choosing a topic you already know about in Japanese than by reading something completely new.