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Now elementary teachers can combine the best of science and technology education in a comprehensive curriculum based on everyday materials and artifacts. Signs, Symbols & Codesuses a novel, engaging approach to teaching different methods for representing information. Signs and symbols can take the form of words and numbers; graphic devices used on maps, signage systems, packages, and consumer products; and even gestures used by teachers and children to get one another's attention and convey messages. A set of symbols organized into a coherent system is called a code. The contexts and activities in this book involve signs, symbols, or codes of some sort and all draw on a broad range of places and situations that are part of everyday experience. Let your students learn how to decipher and use this information both in and out of school. At the same time, meet these broader instructional goals: introduce fundamental themes of information, representation, sign, symbol, and communication promote literacy by developing a variety of techniques for sending and receiving information promote numeracy by increasing awareness of symbols as a means to represent quantitative information demystify common artifacts and, by extension, technology in general develop process skills in observation, classification, generalization, communication, and design foster an appreciation of the immediate environment provide rich opportunities for group work. Signs, Symbols & Codes is one of a five-volume series, Stuff That Works! A Technology Curriculum for the Elementary Grades.Developed by City Technology of City College of New York, each volume helps teachers plan and implement classroom activities and units organized around a single topic-how and why a basic technology works. The guides include an introduction to concepts, classroom stories, resources, and information about standards, as well as suggestions for teachers new to the subject. Use a single volume independently or all five to form a powerful vehicle for integrating science, math, social studies, language arts, and everyday technology. A companion website-filled with curriculum ideas and providing teacher support from hands-on workshops to forums-is available at http://citytechnology.ccny.cuny.edu. The complete series includes: Mechanisms & Other Systems Packaging & Other Structures Designed Environments: Places, Practices & Plans Signs, Symbols & Codes Mapping