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Stellar Science Projects About Earth's Sky
Does air have weight? Why is the sky blue? What makes a cloud? Robert Gardner presents experiments that use materials readers can find in their home or at school. Young scientists can take what they've learned from these experiments and use suggestions to create their own unique science fair projects. Detailed explanations that follow the experiments explain the science used in each experiment. This resource supports the National Science Education Standards for K–4 Earth and Space Science.
* Reviews *
The twenty experiments in this book will help any student learn more about the sky, which means weather, clouds, rain, air pressure and the like. After a short introduction and some words of caution regarding the experiments, kids are ready to experiment and learn. Most of the experiments do not require any elaborate equipment—and many of the items needed are readily available at home or can be easily obtained. There is a shaded box that lists the things needed. To find out if air has weight, kids are asked to deflate a basketball, weigh it, and then inflate the ball and weigh it again. There will be a slight difference, therefore air has weight. One of my favorite experiments is the one involving air pressure. Insert a balloon in an empty plastic bottle and then try to blow it up. You will have great difficulty. Next punch a small hole in the bottle and try again. Now you can blow up the balloon because you are pushing out the air through the hole and the balloon is now filling the space. Most of the experiments require about half a dozen steps—questions are asked and answers follow. The illustrations are helpful and most of the information is easy to understand. There is a brief words-to-know section, a list of books for further reading which are a couple of years old, and two web sites for additional information. The book does have an index., Children's Literature
RL
Grades
3--5 IL
Grades
3-5 GRL
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