Books in Investigate series

What does it mean to be an immigrant today? Has the immigrant experience changed since the last century? Immigration Nation: The American Identity in the Twenty-First Century invites middle and high schoolers to explore the history of immigration in the United States, along with immigration law and statistics through the perspectives of immigrants, citizens, policy makers, and border agents. For more than a century, an immigrant from France has stood vigil in the New York Harbor. At 350 feet tall, with a majestic spiked crown upon her head, a tablet of laws clutched in one hand and a torch held aloft in the other, the lady is hard to miss. She cries out to the world, “Give me your tired, your poor…I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Millions of immigrants have answered the Statue of Liberty’s call, passing over, under, or through the Golden Door to become Americans. However, on the eve of its 250th birthday, the United States is in the middle of an identity crisis. Should this land of immigrants open the door open to outsiders, people hungry for opportunity and desperate for freedom? Or should the country shut the golden door, barring entry to all but a select few? And what does it mean to be an American? How citizens answer these questions in the early twenty-first century will determine the future of America’s identity. Immigration Nation includes critical-thinking activities and research exercises to encourage readers to dive deep into the topic and consider viewpoints from many different identities. Interesting facts, links to online primary sources and other supplemental material, and essential questions take readers on an exploration of the past, present, and future of immigration. Immigration Nation is part of a set of four books called Inquire & Investigate Social Issues of the Twenty-First Century, which explores the social challenges that have faced our world in the past and that continue to drive us to do better in the future. Other titles in this set are Gender Identity, Feminism, and Race Relations. Nomad Press books integrate content with participation, encouraging readers to engage in student-directed learning as opposed to teacher-guided instruction. This student-centered approach provides readers with the tools they need to become inquiry-based learners. Common Core State Standards and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. As informational texts, our books provide key ideas and details from which readers can make their own inferences. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

Why do birds have wing feathers? What animals are cold-blooded? What does a kangaroo keep in its pouch? 'Investigate' encourages science enquiry with an interactive, investigative, and visual approach to a wide range of core curriculum topics. The format allows students to use scientific processes such as prediction, hypothesis, and inference in answering a series of questions on important topics throughout the book.

How could a country founded on the honorable ideals of freedom and equality have so willingly embraced the evils of enslavement and oppression? America’s history of race relations is a difficult one, full of uncomfortable inconsistencies and unpleasant truths. Although the topic is sensitive, it is important to face this painful past unflinchingly―knowing this history is key to understanding today’s racial climate and working towards a more harmonious society. In Race Relations: The Struggle for Equality in America, kids ages 12 to 15 follow the evolution of race relations in America from the country’s earliest beginnings until present day. The book examines how the concept of race was constructed in the seventeenth century and how American colonists used racial differences to justify slavery, discrimination and the persecution of people of color. Through links to online primary sources such as newspaper articles, letters, poems, and songs, young readers will explore how race relations changed―and didn’t―through the eras of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights, and under the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The book introduces students to people from four different centuries―some famous, some ordinary citizens―who took great risks to fight for freedom, equality, and social justice. It also fosters discussions of contemporary racial issues and social justice movements, including Black Lives Matters, and encourages students to consider steps they can take to help improve race relations. Race Relations: The Struggle for Equality in America teaches students about American race relations in a fact-based way that promotes empathy and understanding. Projects such as identifying the influences that contributed to the reader’s own view of other races, writing journal entries from the perspective of student of color at a newly-integrated school in the 1960s, and investigating implicit racial bias in newspaper photographs or news articles helps students to think critically and creatively about their own position and role in society and gain a broader understanding of the world they live in. Interesting facts, links to online primary sources and other supplemental material, and essential questions take readers on an exploration of the past, present, and future of race relations. Race Relations is part of a set of four books called Inquire & Investigate Social Issues of the Twenty-First Century, which explores the social challenges that have faced our world in the past and that continue to drive us to do better in the future. Other titles in this set are Gender Identity, Feminism, and Immigration Nation. Nomad Press books integrate content with participation, encouraging readers to engage in student-directed learning as opposed to teacher-guided instruction. This student-centered approach provides readers with the tools they need to become inquiry-based learners. Common Core State Standards and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. As informational texts, our books provide key ideas and details from which readers can make their own inferences. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

A fascinating exploration of why we do the things we do, according to science! Dive into the psychology of the human brain with STEM activities and research projects that get readers excited about learning their own minds. Psychology: Why We Smile, Strive, and Sing introduces students to the science behind behavior. From the developing teenage brain to genetics, psychology, and social environments, readers ages 12 to 15 gain a greater understanding of the complexities behind how we behave. Why does one person react to test anxiety by studying harder while another person gives up? As with all other behavior, the answer depends on many things: genetics, cultural and family expectations, previous behaviors, and a person’s own special blend of attitudes and values. Plenty of text-to-self and text-to-world connections provide a foundation for deeper learning. • Hands-on STEM activities and research projects such as testing teenage risk-taking thought processes, conformity experiments, and exploring mindfulness and empathy engage readers beyond the text.• Psychology includes graphic novel style illustrations, fascinating sidebars, and interesting trivia.• Psychology integrates a digital learning component by providing links to primary sources, videos, and other relevant websites. Text-to-self and text-to-world connections make learning applicable and fundamental. About the Inquire & Investigate Human Science set and Nomad Press Psychology: Why We Smile, Strive, and Sing is part of a set of three Inquire & Investigate Human Science books that explore the human body, genes, and brain. The other titles in this series are The Human Genome: Mapping the Blueprint of Human Life and Inside the Human Body. Nomad Press books in the Inquire & Investigate series integrate content with participation, encouraging readers to engage in student-directed learning. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers. All books are leveled for Guided Reading level and Lexile and align with Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. All titles are available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats.

Slavery or freedom? The question of whether to make the United States a slave country or to make all people free was the question that pitted the states against each other in a brutal battle. In The Civil War: The Struggle that Divided America, readers ages 12-15 explore this conflict through the eyes and ears of the men and women who were touched by the clash that left more than 700,000 soldiers dead. Following the American Revolution, slavery was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. However, the United States still wrestled with whether it would be a country of slavery or grant freedom for all. The southern states relied on slavery’s economic role, while the northern states, though also beneficiaries of the benefits of slavery, were closer to deciding that the institution should be outlawed. The rapid territorial expansion of the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century created a series of crises that upset the delicate balance of power between free and slave states, ultimately sparking the Civil War. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, sounding the death knell of slavery. This act permitted African-Americans to join the fight and enslaved people fled to Northern lines. The Confederacy lost slave labor, one of its greatest war weapons. The Union implemented a strategy of total war, which achieved victory, but only after shocking carnage. The Confederate army surrendered on April 9, 1865, but celebrations in the north were short-lived. A week later, President Lincoln was assassinated. The legacies of the Civil War are far reaching and include the abolition of slavery and the endurance of a unified nation. In The Civil War: The Struggle that Divided America, readers follow in the footsteps of two young men, Elisha Hunt Rhodes and Sam Watkins. From opposite sides, these men fought for similar reasons―adventure, country, and freedom. Readers become myth busters as they examine primary source documents to prove slavery’s role in causing the war and experience the life of a soldier as they evaluate patriotic music, design models of battlefield fortifications, and explore camp life. Other activities include calculating the mathematics of death and examining the role women played in providing medical care and on the home front. The Civil War was the central crisis in American history. The issues at the heart of the conflict―race, freedom, and citizenship―still resonate today.

Have you noticed that our planet is becoming increasingly connected? At the supermarket, you can buy food from all around the world, including olive oil from Greece, cheese from France, and coffee from South America. At home, you surf the Internet on a computer made in Asia, reading news from many different countries. Your parents might drive a car made in America, Japan, or Germany while you listen to music from American and Canadian pop stars on the radio. In Globalization: Why We Care About Faraway Events, kids ages 12 to 15 focus on the definition of globalization, how technology drives globalization, and how globalization affects economies, political systems, human rights, and cultures around the world. The book also explores the future of globalization and discusses issues the global community might face in coming years. For centuries, people from different societies and cultures have made contact with each other and exchanged goods and ideas. Globalization is not a new thing, but in recent years, advances in transportation and technology have made it easier than ever to connect with people everywhere, whether they are sitting next to you on a bus, waiting for you at home, or sitting on a different bus halfway around the globe. Jet airplanes and great ocean ships carry people and goods everywhere in the world. Cell phones, computers, the Internet, and social media allow people to communicate instantly, no matter where they are. Through globalization, the world is becoming more interconnected and interdependent. Is globalization a good thing? Does globalization benefit all world citizens, rich and poor? Or does it only benefit a few, while harming others? In this civics book, middle grade students are encouraged to think critically about how globalization affects local and global communities. Globalization: Why We Care About Faraway Events teaches students about a crucial topic in a fact-based way that promotes empowerment and understanding. Investigations and hands-on experiments provide students with problem-solving opportunities that help students determine the right balance between the benefits and costs associated with globalization. Projects such as tracking the origins of different objects and devices you might find at home lead readers through an inquiry-based, open-ended investigation with plenty of room to explore individual creativity. Globalization is one book in a set of four that explore great events of the twentieth century. Inquire and Investigate titles in this set include The Vietnam War; World War II: From the Rise of the Nazi Party to the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb; Globalization: Why We Care About Faraway Events; and The Space Race: How the Cold War Put Humans on the Moon.Nomad Press books in the Inquire & Investigate series integrate content with participation, encouraging older readers to engage in student-directed learning as opposed to teacher-guided instruction. This student-centered approach provides readers with the tools they need to become inquiry-based learners. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Consistent with our other series, all of the activities in the books in the Inquire & Investigate series are hands-on, challenging readers to develop and test their own hypotheses, ask their own questions, and formulate their own solutions. In the process, readers learn how to analyze, evaluate, and present the data they collect. As informational texts our books provide key ideas and details from which readers can work out their own inferences. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers. Soon they’ll be thinking like scientists by questioning things around them and considering new approaches.Nomad Press books in the Inquire & Investigate series integrate content with participation, encouraging older readers to engage in student-directed learning as opposed to teacher-guided instruction. This student-centered approach provides readers with the tools they need to become inquiry-based learners. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Consistent with our other series, all of the activities in the books in the Inquire & Investigate series are hands-on, challenging readers to develop and test their own hypotheses, ask their own questions, and formulate their own solutions. In the process, readers learn how to analyze, evaluate, and present the data they collect. As informational texts our books provide key ideas and details from which readers can work out their own inferences. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers. Soon they’ll be thinking like scientists by questioning things around them and considering new approaches.

Examine what it means to be a global citizen, and learn about the rights and responsibilities that we all have. The right to grow and thrive in a safe environment. The right to a name and an identity. The right to the free expression of ideas. The right to an education. In Global Citizenship: Engage in the Politics of a Changing World, readers ages 12 to 15 discover the resources and information they need to learn about issues of global concern and strategies for taking informed action, as outlined by the Sustainable Development Goals set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly. Each chapter centers on a specific human right outlined by the United Nations' "Convention on the Rights of the Child," focusing on the political, human, economic, environmental, and cultural guarantees born of our common humanity. Readers learn about the history and evolution of citizenship, about past and ongoing human rights struggles, about economic justice, and about environmental sustainability. They also learn about cultural appreciation and preservation in an age of global convergence. Ready to create a better future for all? Let's go! . In an interconnected world with countless tools for education and social participation, children need not wait until adulthood to become civic participants and social justice advocates! Young people can forge local and international partnerships to combat inequality, promote sustainability, and foster intercultural understanding. . Links to online resources provide a digital learning experience that integrates content with an interactive platform.. Investigations include examining case studies, researching global groups working for change, and developing biographies of key people.. Essential questions guide readers' investigations while hands-on activities promote critical and creative problem solving, and text-to-world connections highlight the way the past provides context for the present-day world. About the Inquire & Investigate series and Nomad PressNomad Press books in the Inquire & Investigate series integrate content with participation, encouraging readers to engage in student-directed learning. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad's unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers. All books are leveled for Guided Reading level and Lexile and align with Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. All titles are available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats.

On July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong landed gently on the lunar surface and became the first person to set foot on another world. People around the world stopped what they were doing to crowd around television sets and radios to witness one of the greatest achievements in human history--a man walking on the moon. How did we get there? Why haven't we gone back? In The Space Race: How the Cold War Put Humans on the Moon, kids ages 12 to 15 explore the race to the moon against the chilling backdrop of the Cold War. The Space Race was the period during and after the Cold War when America and the Soviet Union participated in a fierce competition to see which country could beat the other into space. It was a time of bitterness, fear, and secrecy, but it was also a moment in history when two countries directed resources toward pushing themselves to reach goals that were once thought unattainable. Would we have succeeded as far as we did without the competition to be first? While Neil Armstrong will be remembered as the first person to set foot on the moon, the people and events behind this accomplishment populate a fascinating tale of politics, science, technology, and teamwork that resulted in what might be the greatest accomplishment of the twentieth century. In The Space Race, middle school students explore this history of science and discover the political, social, and economic factors that led to incredible achievements in space, including the launch of Sputnik, the launch of Explorer I, and eventually, the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon, where Neil Armstrong took those famous first steps. Middle school students will meet some of the tens of thousands of engineers and scientists that worked for years to create the technology needed to send humans to the moon and return them safely to Earth. By showing space events against the backdrop of the turmoil back on Earth, readers understand that scientific achievement doesn't happen in a vacuum, even when it happens in space! A wealth of links to primary sources makes this an interactive learning experience while science-minded STEAM activities link the historical and scientific material. Throughout the fun facts, cool photos, and investigative projects, kids are encouraged to explore creative and critical thinking and problem-solving strategies.

An informative and project-filled book for middle graders to explore the meaning and history behind LGBTQ rights movements, including biographies of key figures in gender and gay/lesbian history, the context behind today’s transgender “bathroom wars” and dozens of activities and research ideas for perspectives and further learning. What does it mean to think of gender as being a range instead of being simply male or female? In Gender Identity: Beyond Pronouns and Bathrooms, middle school readers unpack the cultural significance of gender identity in the United States and around the world. Written using #ownvoices and with editors trained in the sensitivities of today’s gender discussions, the book is filled with interesting facts, primary sources, a range of text features, and more to engage readers. Highlights include: • Introductions to concepts crucial to understanding the basics of gender identity, including how gender identity differs from physical sex and sexual orientation, the importance of gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns, and more • Short biographies of gender activists and other important public figures throughout the text, filled with personal stories to help readers form social-emotional connections to the subject – including Renee Richards, Chaz Bono, and gender rights pioneers Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, plus early transgender individuals including Lili Elbe and Christine Jorgensen. • In-depth information on famous gay/lesbian rights protests and movements, detailing the cultural and legal struggles for gay rights and gender acceptance, from the Compton Cafeteria riots to the Stonewall Riots to the Transgender Day of Remembrance, and more. Sidebars throughout on how books and popular TV shows and movies helped expand gay/lesbian awareness and rights, from 1970s shows such as The Jeffersons to the contemporary show Meet Polkadot. Projects and activities encourage teens to form their own, well-informed opinions on the many facets of gender perspectives and issues.Gender Identity is part of a set of four books called Inquire & Investigate Social Issues of the Twenty-First Century, which explores the social challenges that have faced our world in the past and that continue to drive us to do better in the future. Other titles in this set are Feminism, Immigration Nation, and Race Relations. About the series and Nomad PressNomad Press books in the Inquire & Investigate series integrate content with participation, encouraging readers to engage in student-directed learning as opposed to teacher-guided instruction. This student-centered approach provides readers with the tools they need to become inquiry-based learners. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. As informational texts, our books provide key ideas and details from which readers can make their own inferences. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers. All books are leveled for Guided Reading level and Lexile, and meet Common Core State Standards and National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. All titles are available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats.

Have you ever touched a snake? Do you think a snake's skin would feel cold and slimy? In fact, snake skin is smooth and dry. Although many people are scared of snakes, only a few species are really dangerous. We are much more harmful to snakes than they are to us. The huge variety of snakes that populate the world live in almost every type of climate, with some preferring to live on land and others in the water. This book shows you how snakes live and move and shed their skins; how they catch their prey (there's a graphic picture of an African python eating an impala); and how they defend themselves against predators. It also has an actual size picture of the head of the longest snake in the world and gives hints on how to keep an anaconda in your bathtub!