Friday 16 June 2017

ReadItDaddy's First Picture Book of the Week - Week Ending 16th June 2017 - "How to be a Scientist" by Steve Mould (Dorling Kindersley)

This week's first Book of the Week makes science fun, and engages children in a whole stack of groovy experiments using ordinary household objects. Steve Mould's awesome "How to Be a Scientist"...
You don't need a lab coat or a Phd to become a scientist and in fact the very means to allow you to carry out some really cool experiments in your own home may be closer than you think.

Steve Mould, fantastic science geek and TV personality has put together a stunning book that contains a huge selection of simple but utterly cool experiments and then shows you the science behind them.

In "How to be a Scientist" you can learn more about physics, biology and Charlotte's favourite - Chemistry, and start putting together some awesome practical examples that follow the real way scientists work in their own labs.

An entirely different way of worldbuilding - exploring Geology with towels!
As you'd expect from a DK book, the illustrations and photo plates are of the very highest quality, so you'll be able to work out what you need to collect together and how to conduct your experiments with absolute ease (we really loved this towel mountain - a great way to show how the surface of the earth flexes and buckles in layers over thousands of years).

Taking apart a plant to find out which parts are which. Maybe don't try this on your mum's prize Orchids though. 
There are loads of things to try out, and sometimes it's a good idea to get a willing adult to help out with some of the trickier stuff.

This one neat trick with an ice cube will astound and amaze
Kids are naturally drawn to science, often feeling like magicians themselves when they pull off a particularly neat scientific trick and this book excels at dazzling you with really cool stuff (like this funky ice cube experiment to show ice melting and reforming around a piece of string).

Steve makes things fun and engaging in brilliant ways. Another really awesome book for young scientists that would also be ideal for class-based stuff in schools too.

The big win for us was seeing a lot of experiments we hadn't seen before, very nice to see that in a 'young scientist' book as we do see rather a lot of the same sort of thing cropping up in these titles.

Charlotte's favourite bit: Learning all about Mary Anning, fossil hunting dino-pioneer extraordinaire!

Daddy's favourite bit: Tons of amazing facts, brilliant activities all presented in typical DK top-notch fashion by someone who makes science tons of fun. What's not to like!

(Kindly supplied for review)

"How to be a Scientist" by Steve Mould is out now, published by Dorling Kindersley.