Book Review : Essential Skills for Science and Technology

By : Peter Zeegers, Kate Deller Evans, Sandra Egege, Christopher Klinger

One must develop substantial amount of academic skills to study science based
topics. This book is meant to assist students in acquiring competence in a range of
academic and professional skills by exposing them to step by step developmental actions
needed in scientific studies. In fact, this book is also very resourceful as it packed with
with ideas based on the experiences of teaching by the authors and collective experiences
of many successful tertiary level students. This content of this book is divided into five
sections : You and Tertiary Studies; Teaching and Learning; Research and Critical
Appraisal; Writing and Presenting; and Quantitative methods. Every chapter comprises of
its own subtopics that is needed to develop specific skills.
The first part discusses issue faced by students who are transitioning to university
lifestyle and routines. This is a vital part of this book because it guides science students to
adapt themselves to the new academic routines in their tertiary level studies. Firstly, this
book introduces graduates attributes that students need to develop as part of the university
experience which will later set students apart from each other based on the skills and
abilities. This book also explicit explains what students will have to expect throughout
their university experience as it covers several common area of difficulties that all
students will face. For example, academic preparedness, academic progress, personal
concerns, financial affairs and such. Students will also be taught to balance different
facets of their life by adjusting their lifestyle to enable them to do academic activities and
as well as social activities. In the second subtopic of this book, students will be exposed
on how to be an organized person throughout university life. The author emphasized the
need to manage time effectively so that no time will be wasted. To do this, students must
set their goals, plan their daily routines using and use a study timetable.
The second part of this book concerns about subtopics related to Learning and
Researching. In the first subtopic, Modes of Learning, the authors explained that each
student has their own preferences when it comes to learning style. For example students

can learn through 3 sensory aspects of learning styles which are Visual, Auditory and
Kinaesthetic. In fact, students should also strive to learn for meaning not just rote
memorization. One of the key strategy to do show includes monitoring your own learning
setting goals and reflecting on actions. Several advises on getting to know your course
mates and note taking tips from successful students were also included. In the second
subtopic, Lectures, Tutorials and Laboratories, students are exposed to the best ways to
benefit from these academic settings. For example, a lot of tips are given to students on
how to takes notes effectively during lectures by ; mechanics, editing, reviewing and
summaries.Besides that students will be also taught on the correct procedures and use of
apparatus in laboratories. The next subtopic discusses about E-Learning in which
technology become an educational tool that students can fully utilize through 5 levels
which are ; information retrieval, knowledge database, online support and and
asynchronous and synchronous instructions. At the end of this part, the authors explained
how assessment in scientific studies could be done through summative and formative
assessment.
In the third part, the authors discussed specifically on Critical Evaluation in
University. The subtopics in this part are, Reading Scientific Literature, Critical Thinking,
and Academic Argument. In the fist subtopic, students are introduced to four components
of scientific literature which are textbooks, Reviews, Journal Articles and Electronic
Databases. When reading, students will confront several concerns like jargon,
comprehension and contradictory points. These problems can be solved through critical
reading of journal through skim reading and critical reading. The next subtopic critical
thinking concerns the need to practice critical thinking to be able to assess relative
strengths and weaknesses of certain arguments. The best way to be a critical thinker is by
asking questions to yourself pertaining the source arguments. The last subtopic is about
the need to make academic arguments to establish a point or convince someone of a
particular interpretation. According to the book, there are two types of arguments which
are Deductive Reasoning and Inductive Reasoning. The authors clearly explained how
these two arguments differ from one another through accurate examples.

The forth part of the book discusses about Writing and Presenting in Science. Writing
based on scientific studies is called as Scientific Writing. This part of the book expounds
on how students can make use of their writing as an effective tool of communication.
Several subtopics deal with the essential skills required in specific format of writing. For
example, writing an article review is different from writing a laboratory report because it
composes of different sets of diction and objectives. Besides that authors also revealed
several important tips on preparing talks and posters related to scientific studies. For
instance, a point is made on how students should use prompts and visual aids when
presenting orally. Besides that, the book also touches on how students can edit their
writing through proofreading methods and recognition of common writing errors.
The last part of the book discusses about Quantitative Methods. The first subtopic,
Approach to Problem Solving is about how students can use quantitative method to solve
scientific problems. There are four step in problem solving procedure which are
clarifying the problem, devising the plan attack, implementation of plan and checking the
result. On than that, there is also a subtopic called Fundamental Mathematics in which
authors strived to highlight some of the fundamental concepts of mathematical operations
prevalent in scientific field. For example, to solve certain mathematical operation,
students have to perform it according to a specific sequence which is also known as
BEDMAS. Besides that, authors also explained on equations, dimensions and at the same
time about laws related to logarithm. Nearing the end, students will be introduced to basic
statistics procedures like categorizing data, drawing graphs, making inferences from
graphs and relating variables. Finally, a number of statistical terminology is also
explained thoroughly.
This book will be a tremendous help to students who wish to gain better
understanding of scientific studies. In fact, this book does not only provide important
information on how to carry out activities like writing an article review and reading
scientific literature but it also guides students to adapt themselves in the new academic
environment. As for me, this book has all the relevant information needed for me to grasp
the concept of this course better. I will definitely recommend this book to others.