Energy Lab for Kids: 40 Exciting Experiments to Explore, Create, Harness, and Unleash Energy: Volume 11

Description

Energy Lab for Kids offers 40 discovery-filled and thought-provoking energy projects by Emily Hawbaker, a science educator. Each chapter contains scientific explanations, discoveries, and hands-on knowledge that make learning fun. Energy Lab for Kids is more than just a random collection of science experiments that kids can do in the classroom, kitchen, or backyard. The goal: to explore and discover real energy solutions. The chapters cross all categories - from steam, electricity, and chemical reactions, to water, solar, and wind power, allowing kids to compare and test the different sources and to discover their strengths and failings. Why is one source of energy is more efficient for a one situation but not for another? How come two energy sources combined might work better than a single source? Which sources are renewable? Additionally, the projects are geared to understanding actual issues in the news today. There is an emphasis on inventive exploration throughout the books, so that kids may learn the reward of discovering that creativity leads to breakthroughs.

Emily Hawbaker has always had energy and a passion for science and education. After graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Earth science and a minor in science education, she began teaching eighth grade science. Her school was chosen to take part in an energy education project where students learn about their energy use and then teach others, with the help of the National Energy Education Development (NEED) curriculum and materials. Emily saw her students come alive with the NEED program, where she is now curriculum director. In this capacity she shares her passion for energy education as a facilitator of teacher and student events and programming across the country and around the world.

"An array of simple demonstrations designed to give budding eco-activists an understanding of how energy is stored, transferred, used responsibly, and recycled. Developed by the National Energy Education Development Project and demonstrated here by a cast of dozens of young children...the low-cost projects range from measuring shadows and charting temperature changes to constructing a solar cooker in a pizza box, creating an inventory of home-appliance energy needs, and competitively "mining" chocolate chips from cookies, then trying to reconstruct the cookies." - Kirkus Reviews "The NEED Project continues to produce excellent resources for teachers. This book has an excellent variety of energy experiments. The labs are divided up into five units, making it easier to find the energy lab you need for your curriculum. The labs are easy to follow, with step by step color photos. Each lab gives specific examples as to how that specific energy concept relates to students' everyday life. The resource section for teachers helps explain the science behind each lab in the "Energy Explained" section. I also like how the book gives ideas on how to incorporate more technology into students' learning. I look forward to doing the experiments from this book with my students." - National Science Teachers Association Recommends "Discover the amazing ways in which chocolate syrup, slinkies, and cheese curls can explain everything from solar power to sound waves and burning calories in Emily Hawbaker's Energy Lab for Kids. Using just a few simple tools and everyday items, experiments focus on the production of all types of energy, the importance of conservation, working as a team and, of course, having fun, all in sixty minutes or less." - ForeWord Reviews "Color photographs show children taking part in 40 activities involving household objects: readers can simulate drilling for oil using chocolate syrup and straws, create a "biomass bag" with leftover food and yeast, build a generator, and construct a solar cooker using a pizza box, aluminum foil, and plastic wrap. Hawbaker clearly describes the implications of each activity, and sidebars lend perspective on how the labs relate to science...It's a straightforward guide to energy principles that encourages collaboration and active exploration." - Publisher's Weekly "a great way for children and their parents to bond over something that's both fun and practical" "Throughout the book Hawbaker does an excellent job of combining an active, visually engaging experiment with real-world learning on energy, explaining how it works and how we can explore and exploit it to enrich our world" * How It Works magazine *