John Clement – författare

Blaize Clement won fans all over the world with the charm and wit of her pet-sitting mysteries. Now, with the help of her son, author John Clement, Blaize''s beloved heroine Dixie Hemingway is back for yet another thrilling adventure in this critically-acclaimed series. Dixie has built a nice, quiet life for herself in the sleepy town of Siesta Key, a sandy resort island off the coast of Florida. In fact, her pet-sitting business is going so well she''s even taken on part-time help: Kenny, a handsome young surfer who lives alone in a rickety old houseboat. But things get a little messy when, on an early morning walk in the park with a client''s schnauzer, Dixie makes a shocking discovery. Hidden among the leafy brambles is a homeless girl, alone and afraid, cradling a newborn baby in her arms. Dixie takes the young girl under her wing, even though she''s just been hired by Roy Harwick, the snarky executive of a multi-national oil company, to care for his equally snarky Siamese cat, Charlotte, along with his wife''s priceless collection of rare, tropical fish. It''s not long before Dixie stumbles upon a dead body in the unlikeliest of places, and soon she''s set adrift in a murky and dangerous world in which no one is who they appear to be. Smart, fast-paced and entertaining, The Cat Sitter''s Cradle is a perfect illustration of why Dixie''s loyal fans have come to know and love her and eagerly await the next installment of her adventures.

This book describes new, model based teaching methods for science instruction. It presents research that describes these new methods in a very diverse group of settings: middle school biology, high school physics, and college chemistry classrooms. Mental models in these areas such as understanding the structure of the lungs or cells, molecular structures and reaction mechanisms in chemistry, or causes of current flow in electricity are notoriously difficult for many students to learn. Yet these lie at the core of conceptual understanding in these areas. The studies focus on a variety of teaching strategies such as discrepant questioning, analogies, animations, model competition, and hands on activities. Five different levels of organization for teaching strategies are described, from those operating over months (design of the sequence of units in a curriculum) to those operating over minutes (teaching tactics for guiding discussion minute by minute).

How do scientists use analogies and other processes to break away from old theories and generate new ones? This book documents such methods through the analysis of video tapes of scientifically trained experts thinking aloud while working on unfamiliar problems. Some aspects of creative scientific thinking are difficult to explain, such as the power of analogies, the use of physical intuition, and the enigmatic ability to learn from thought experiments. The book examines the hypothesis that these processes are based on imagistic mental simulation as an underlying mechanism. This allows the analysis of insight ("Aha!") episodes of creative theory formation. Advanced processes examined include specialized conserving transformations, Gedanken experiments, and adjusted levels of divergence in thinking. Student interviews are used to show that students have natural abilities for many of these basic reasoning and model construction processes and that this has important implications for expanding instructional theories of conceptual change and inquiry. "I regard this work as the most comprehensive account ever attempted to show how imagistic, analogic, and sensory-motor representations participate in creative thinking." Professor Ryan Tweney

Plucky heroine Dixie Hemingway is back in this ninth installment of Blaize Clement''s beloved cozy mystery series. While driving along the beachside road that runs through the center of her hometown Dixie witnesses a terrible head-on collision. Ever the hero, she springs into action and pulls one of the drivers from his car just before it explodes in flames. A little shaken but none the worse for wear, Dixie proceeds to her local bookstore where she meets Cosmo, a fluffy, orange tomcat, and Mr. Hoskins, the store''s kind but strangely befuddled owner. The next day the driver whose life she saved claims that he is Dixie''s husband. Meanwhile, both Cosmo and Mr. Hoskins have disappeared without a trace, and a mysterious phone call from a new client lures her to a crumbling, abandoned mansion on the outskirts of town. Soon Dixie finds herself locked in a riddle of deception, revenge, murder, and mystery. The Cat Sitter''s Nine Lives features a compelling main character and a riveting plot that is bound to satisfy the appetites of Dixie Hemingway fans and newcomers to the series.

Pet sitter Dixie Hemingway is on the prowl again in the newest installment of Blaize Clement''s classic and beloved series of cozy mysteries, now written by her son, John Clement, using Blaize''s notes and ideas for future adventures. Set in the sleepy beach-side town of Siesta Key, Florida, THE CAT SITTER''S WHISKERS catches up with Dixie as she heads off for work one morning in the dimly lit hours before sunrise. Her very first client of the morning is Barney Feldman, a Maine coon cat with a reputation for mischief who''s guarding his vacationing owner''s valuable collection of decidedly creepy antique masks. But someone''s hiding in the house when she arrives, and they sneak up and knock her out cold. When the cops arrive at the house, there''s just one problem: no one has broken in and nothing is missing.Searching for answers, Dixie soon finds herself hopelessly trapped in a murky world of black market antiques, dark-hearted secrets, and murderous revenge… a mystery only she can solve.