Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Science Rocks!

9780756671983HScience Rocks!
Written by Robert Winston
Published at DK

About the book

Daring experiments and perplexing puzzles designed to get your brain cells buzzing!
Science Rocks offers youngsters a variety of awe-inspiring ideas for science projects that could enliven their school work and help them score the winning prize at the science fair! Jam-packed with fun activities to fill a few spare minutes, an hour, or a day, this book teaches kids how to use household objects to learn about chemistry, physics, biology, and more. With its vivid illustrations and step-by-step instructions, these experiments are instantly accessible to all.

My Thoughts

As soon as I saw this book in an email from DK, I knew I had to request it for review.   This is an amazing book which will bring cool and innovative science experiments in your home.

As a homeschooler, sometimes you wonder how you will incorporate science in your days.   Well this fun and colourful book will motivate you and your kids to explore the world of science from the comfort of your home (or in some cases in a park near you!).

When the book arrived in the house, my kids jumped into it and went through all the pages to identify the experiments they wanted to do.   On their list you will find the Launch a Bottle Rocket,  Gravity-defying water, ice water can crusher (which I find totally cool!), and the blast a two-stage rocket.   For some of them, I think we will wait until the nice weather comes back and avoid doing them in the house…

The experiments are divided in sections like material world, forces and motion, energy in action, electricity and magnetism, and natural world.    Each experiments includes a list of what you will need to do the experiment, the time needed to do it, a level of difficulty for the experiment, a step by step directions, a science around us snippet as well as how does it work? section that gives more details.   For example, one of the first experiment explains how you can avoid having cloudy ice with water.  Be aware that some experiments necessitate an adult to be present. 

One of the first experiments we have done is the Elephant’s Toothpaste.  

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Step one – Preparing the bottle to receive the yeast mixture.

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And voilĂ ! 

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The kids loves the eruption of bubbles…

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Even my daughter thought it was very cool!

In the end, our experiment didn’t turned out the same as the book but we had fun nevertheless.   I assume the reason why the reaction wasn’t instantaneous was because our yeast wasn’t as fresh as it should be.  Still after putting a bit more yeast (from a new container), we got our chemical reaction!

As soon as I can get to the grocery store to get heavy cream, we will make butter.   Mind as well make a little science project with yeast and make bread at the same time.   And then we will savour our hard work together for the supper time!  Yum!

Some items needed for the experiments are unknown to me and I would have liked some suggestions on where I can purchase the products like the alum for example but I am suspecting that I will be able to find it at a pharmacy. 

Science Rocks! is available everywhere even at amazon.ca.

 

Disclaimer: Thanks to DK Canada for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way.  All opinions expressed here are only my own.

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