Description
Book SynopsisEnergy Lab for Kids offers 40 discovery-filled and thought-provoking energy projects by Emily Hawbaker, a science educator from the NEED (National Energy Education Development) project—with a foreword by Liz Lee Heinecke, author of Kitchen Science Lab for Kids. Using supplies that you can find around the house or in the grocery store, these exciting projects let you observe, explore, discover, and get energized!
We hear about energy on the news, we use it every day, and sometimes we're told we have too much of it. But what is energy—potential, kinetic, chemical, radiant, and thermal? The lab activities in this book will let you explore almost everything about energy—what it is, how we find it, how we use it, and how we can save it.
Uniting this collection of science experiments for the kitchen, backyard, or classroom is 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? Why might two energy sources combined work better than a single source? Which sources are renewable? Projects are geared to understanding actual issues in the news today. With an emphasis on inventive exploration, you'll discover that creativity leads to breakthroughs.
Learn about:
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chemical, radiant, and thermal energy by activating a glow stick and watching it get brighter in hot water.
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viscosity by sucking soda and chocolate syrup up an "oil pipeline" made from straws.
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solar energy by melting s'mores in a pizza box solar oven.
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wind power by lifting paperclips with a wind turbine made from a cup, paper, tape, and straw.
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calories by burning cheese puffs (and other food) in a homemade calorimeter.
The popular Lab for Kids series features a growing list of books that share hands-on activities and projects on a wide host of topics, including art, astronomy, clay, geology, math, and even how to create your own circus—all authored by established experts in their fields. Each lab contains a complete materials list, clear step-by-step photographs of the process, as well as finished samples. The labs can be used as singular projects or as part of a yearlong curriculum of experiential learning. The activities are open-ended, designed to be explored over and over, often with different results. Geared toward being taught or guided by adults, they are enriching for a range of ages and skill levels. Gain firsthand knowledge on your favorite topic with Lab for Kids.
Trade Review“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 *
Table of ContentsUnit 1: Energy Basics – Let’s Do Work!
Lab 1: Convection Current in a Cup
Lab 2: Beach Basics
Lab 3: What a Gas!
Lab 4: Shadow Shaper
Lab 5: Mirror Madness
Lab 6: Ramp it Up!
Lab 7: Pendulum Swinger
Lab 8: Slinky Sound Waves
Lab 9: Sound Stopper
Unit 2: Forms of Energy and Energy Transformations – Energy is Always Changing
Lab 10: Just Bounce
Lab 11: Glowing Bright
Lab 12: Bubbling Up
Lab 13: Hot Hands
Lab 14: Black and White in the Light
Unit 3: Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy Sources
Lab 15: Candy Collector
Lab 16: Chocolate Chip Extraction Competition
Lab 17: Getting the Oil Out
Lab 18: Perforated Perfection
Lab 19: Fracturing Gelatin
Lab 20: Uranium Miller
Lab 21: Wind Does Work
Lab 22: Geothermal Heater
Lab 23: Solar Cooker
Lab 24: Biomass Bag
Lab 25: Dam Fun
Unit 4: Using Energy – Do You Have the Power?
Lab 26: Pretzel Power
Lab 27: ElectromagWHAT?
Lab 28: Generate This
Lab 29: Light it Up!
Lab 30: Chip Combustion
Unit 5: Saving Energy – Conserve and Preserve
Lab 32: Insulators to the Rescue!
Lab 33: Draft Detective
Lab 34: Lighten Up
Lab 35: Solar Water Heater
Lab 36: Watts That All About?
Lab 37: Fridge Fun
Lab 38: Monitor a Month
Lab 39: Waste Watchers
Lab 39: Carbonation Conundrum
Lab 40: Road Trip
Glossary
Resources
Acknowledgements
About the authors
Index
