What's Up? Ace Your Plant Science Project by Robert Gardner and Phyllis J. Perry

Science is the study of the things that are all around you, every day. No matter where you are or what you are doing, scientific principles are at work. You don't need special materials or equipment to be a scientist. By making careful observations and asking questions about how things work, you can begin to design experiments to investigate a variety of questions. You can do science. You probably already have but just didn't know it!

And all around us whenever we go outdoors is the wide world of plants. Resolutely growing, growing, growing almost anywhere, even in the most relentlessly urban area, plants delight us, nourish us, sometimes annoy us, and contribute to our basic need for oxygen by their very existence. Robert Gardner's and Ann Perry's Ace Your Plant Science Project: Great Science Fair Ideas (Ace Your Biology Science Project) (Enslow) is an engaging introduction to the world of plant science as well as a useful handbook for easy, inexpensive, and very educational science projects for those middle elementary years. As always, the authors begin with a brief but thorough discussion of the scientific method, followed by safety tips for the novice experimenter.

What then follows are a series of chapters organized around the basics of plant science--"Seeds and Germination," "Leaves," "Stems, Roots, and Buds," "Plant Reproduction," and "Trees," which in themselves cover most of the objectives of the elementary curriculum. Experiments are described step by step, with diagrams, maps, formulas, labelled drawings, and material lists included within the text, and most require little in the way of equipment and adult supervision, presenting ideas without condescension to the young reader, leaving room for open-ended questions to the creativity of the student.

Backed up with a book and web site bibliography and index, this entry into Enslow's notable Great Science Fair Ideas series is a useful starting point for any student to begin preparation for that science fair project sure to be in his or her future.

Weird Science: Mythbusters Science Fair Book by Samantha Margles

It's back to the grind, and with the holidays behind, it's that time--science fairs loom ahead for schoolkids. What to do with the reluctant amateur scientist who'd would rather spend a weekend researching Genghis Khan's boot camp?

Sandra Margles' forthcoming Mythbusters Science Fair Book (Scholastic/Discovery Press, 2011) may provide just the jolly little paperback guide for the task. Margles knows her prospective readership and leads off in Chapter I (Sweet Secrets) with what must be the most ubiquitous do-it-yourself "experiment" in the pop culture--the Mentos/Diet Coke lift-off. If they haven't seen it, most kids have at least heard of this one, and the author does a good job of describing the scientific method and guiding kids through this relatively safe procedure. But more importantly, she provides alternative directions for trying out other combinations of liquids with those five or six Mentos candies--water, regular Coke, lemon-lime soda, and the real deal, phosphoric acid from the hardware store--with instructions for measuring the ensuing chemical reaction for height and length of reaction and charting findings for that requisite project display and writing the all-important conclusion.

Junk food + explosions! What kid could resist an excuse to try out this one?

Margles skillfully plays on this "hook" to lead kids through related experiments, first the common belief that soaking in Coke shines up a dirty penny and the old chestnut that Coke will disintegrate a piece of steak overnight. How about the old household tip that Coke will loosen immovable rusty nuts and bolts? And then there's the myth that eating Pop Rocks with Coke will cause a deadly stomach explosion? (This one is tried out with a pop bottle and a balloon, not the kid's tummy.) And then there's the perennial question that has plagued mankind for, well, quite a while: Does toast ALWAYS fall butter-side/jelly-side down?

Although these "experiments" themselves won't change the world, they appeal to the inherent curiosity of kids while promising some real fun along the way. Materials required are inexpensive and readily available, and safety reminders are built into all procedures (including for the Mentos experiment, the final step in the instructions--"Run!") Margle's Mythbusters Science Fair Book provides the proper framework--hypothesis, materials, procedure, observation, and conclusion--to give foot-dragging kids a little push toward putting together their own scientific investigations in time for that deadline.

Science Fair Fare: Easy Genius Science Projects with Light: Great Experiments and Ideas by Robert Gardner

In this book you will learn about light by doing experiments. Experimenting provides an understanding you cannot gain simply by reading. You will see that ordinary white light can be broken up into colors. You will find ways to mix those colored lights to form colors that will surprise you. You will learn that light can sometimes fool you. Things you think you see are not really there; they are mirages or illusions. You will discover how mirrors, lenses, and even pinholes form images, how light can be bent, reflected, polarized, absorbed and more.

The beauty of experimenting with light is that you can literally see the results.

Notable science writer John Gardner's new Easy Genius Science Projects with Light: Great Experiments and Ideas (Enslow, 2008) provides the student scientist with a graduated group of activities which increasingly dig into the properties of light in a series of easy-to-stage experiments. Light is an excellent subject for projects, requiring inexpensive materials (sources of light being easily obtainable) and delivering virtually instant results which are easily observable.

Good author that he is, Gardner begins with an simple summary of the scientific method, followed by advice for individualizing those activities suitable for use in science fair projects (marked with a special symbol throughout the book) and providing extensive safety rules for the young physicist.

The chapters build upon the subject with progressive degrees of knowledge and complexity, but none require high technology (lamps, flashlights, and sunlight are the usual light source) or danger beyond that of a pair of scissors or tabletop candle. Chapter titles are "Light Sources and Light Paths," "Lenses, Curved Mirrors, and Real Images," "Light and Color," "Light, Particles, and Waves," and "Illusions and Mirrors." Within this framework, there are activities for primary graders through high school students, depending upon the ingenuity of the practitioner in adapting the basic science to individual hypotheses.

Each experiment begins with a an index-card-styled text box featuring materials and equipment ("Things You Will Need"). Construction of the activity is set forth in numbered steps with clear color illustrations and diagrams of the set-up of the experiment, and those suitable for adaptation for science projects are clearly marked with an icon featuring a red trophy. Text boxes offering "Ideas for a Science Fair Project" and "Just for Fun" suggestions are liberally sprinkled through the chapters. Diagram and figure boxes are also offered to illustrate more difficult concepts. Those activities which require an assistant, especially an adult, are clearly indicated.

Gardner's appendix includes a sizable list of science supply companies and online sources, a very useful glossary,* a bibliography ("Further Reading") which includes web sites, and a full index.

For easy projects which teach complex concepts, books in Gardner's new Easy Genius Science Projects series are a great addition to the science book shelf. Slender, well-designed, and attractive, they offer solid knowledge for the student scientist. Other titles in this series deal with the human body, chemistry, electricity and magnetism, temperature and heat, and weather. This set, authored by the dean of science experiment books, belongs in school and public libraries and makes a good additon to the home library of science-struck kids as well.

(*The glossary lists the primary colors as red, green and blue, the additive primary (RGB) colors used in combining light, as opposed to the artist's subtractive primaries, red, blue, and yellow, used in mixing dyes or paints. Some young students may need additional explanation of this definition, as offered here. )

Science Fair Fare: 46 Science Fair Projects for the Evil Genius by Bob Bonnet and Dan Keen

Truth in advertising--this latest in the "Evil Genius" series of science books doesn't require malevolent intent or extreme gray matter from the user. It is simply a straightforward, well- thought-out guide to preparing science projects, 46 of them, to be exact, aimed at grades 6-12.

In 46 Science Fair Projects for the Evil Genius authors Bonnet and Keen give the reader a no-nonsense, time-saving, how-to book great to have at hand when science fair deadlines are looming. Bonnet begins with a to-the-point discussion of the scientific method and an overview of how projects are judged ("What Makes A Good Project?") based on his extensive experience in that role. With the concept of problem, hypothesis, prediction and procedure, evaluation, and conclusion firmly established, the authors jump right into clear-cut directions for 46 projects, all of which are crossover experiments combining several disciplines across the sciences.

Conveniently included are lists of readibly obtained materials, step-by-step procedures and instructions, and a discussion of interpreting results and documenting conclusions. The authors comment pertinently that a failure to prove the hypothesis does not mean that the project is a failure because often much is learned by discovering what doesn't work (as shown by Thomas Edison's many failures with various materials tried as the filaments for incandescent lamps).

Bonnet and Keen offer projects using the biological sciences, physics and chemistry, earth science, environmental science, and social sciences. Even observational psychology, for example, comes into play in an experiment which compares the role of gender in the number of students who violate directions which state "Do Not Open" on an unlocked box on a high school cafeteria table. Other appealing topics test the effects of storm-driven salt water on coastal landscaping plants, stock market strategies, lemon as an active ingredient vs. marketing ploy in cleaning products, and the adaptability of various age groups to changes in technology.

Simplicity of directions is ably combined with respectably complex projects for the middle and high school student in this strong addition to the science fair project book shelf. For the lighter side of how-to manuals there's the witty 51 High-Tech Practical Jokes for the Evil Genius. Other books in this series which help the harried student get on it and get it done include the scientifically serious 50 Green Projects for the Evil Genius, Fuel Cell Projects for the Evil Genius, and Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius.

Science Fair Fare: One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Science by Eric Yoder

As science fair time rolls around again, one problem with the prospective entrants is getting them up for the task. Luckily, there's a book, recently published and already a top seller, which specializes in jump-starting the scientific mind.

Eric Yoder's One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve With Science! is an entertaining and motivating mystery book which leads the reader from a puzzle to experiments to principles which solve the mystery with science. Using different branches of the sciences to tempt all tastes, this is a great choice for reading aloud in the weeks leading up to fair time.

A science mystery a day drives the ennui away, turning pooped pupils into Sherlocks of science!

A companion book, Yoder's One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Math!, sounds equally engaging and is forthcoming soon.