Product Description

Kids create 50 amazing contraptions that spin, fling, collide, and whiz! -- Kids have fun creating all kinds of gizmos and gadgets that help them understand the laws behind motion, friction, gravity, rotation, balance, and energy. -- They will build a catapult that sends marshmallows flying or send a marble on a wild ride down a room-sized marble ramp. They can even design a friction gobot, let gravity activate a dinosaur's head, meet Sir Isaac Newton, and have fun! -- This book is chock full of clear and concise explanations of scientific terms, mini-biographies of inventors, and even historical context. -- Winner of numerous science writing and education awards. -- See More NEW PRODUCTS

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157673 in Books
• Brand: Williamson Publishing Company
• Published on: 1999-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Hauser gives directions for making a bunch of gadgets, gizmos, contraptions, and doohickeys constructed with stuff often found in cupboards, closets, garages, and "junk" drawers. Materials such as plastic soda bottles, marbles, buttons, straws, and cardboard tubes are cut, trimmed, shaped, and bent in order to be glued, stapled, sewn, and taped. They are ultimately formed into objects to be tossed, balanced, spun, flung, and strung-all to demonstrate various principles of physics. Also included are nudges to encourage individual forays into the worlds of problem solving and inventing. Fun to make-and probably fun to play with-the crafts, if followed sequentially, introduce such basic topics as motion, energy, balancing, and gravity. Even if used as random crafts, they will lead to questions regarding the predictable behaviors of such objects as boomerangs and yo-yos. Classroom teachers can team this with Vicki Cobb's Why Can't You Unscramble an Egg? (Lodestar, 1990; o.p.) and Bernie Zubrowski's Raceways: Having Fun with Balls and Tracks (Morrow, 1985; o.p.).
Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Parents' Choice®
Using simple household items to create toys that spin, fling, collide, and whiz, kids will grasp the basics of concepts of gravity, inertia, balance, and energy. Projects are very hands-on. Most activities can be completed with minimal assistance. Every page is jam-packed (in age-appropriate vocabulary) with factoids, fun facts about famous inventors, and inspiration for science lovers of all ages. A 1999 Parents' Choice® Silver Honor. (Parents' Choice®)

Customer Reviews

Great Intro to Physics!
My nine year old son loves this book! It has some great projects to do (using easy-to-find materials) while also introducing famous scientists and scientific principles like the laws of motion. We were following the The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, Revised and Updated Edition and found this book to be much better than the books it recommended for Physics.

great book for scout leaders
gizmos and gadgets contains easy, readable information on scientific principles along with appropriate, fun, hands-on experiements. Makes for great reading for scout leaders, teachers or those who like to mess around at home with their kids. Good addition to any library.