Product Description

What makes the heart beat faster or slower? How do tightrope walkers keep their balance? Why does spinning fast cause dizziness? Explore the mysteries and the workings of the human body through this fascinating collection of ideas, projects, and activities. Have fun while you learn about everything from the body’s basic building blocks to how the brain receives messages from other parts of the body. Make a model of a human cell that you can eat for dessert. Make a working model of a human lung from a soda bottle, a balloon, and a garbage bag. Through these and other activities, you’ll find out how your lungs supply air to your blood and your heart pumps blood throughout your body; how your body sees, hears, feels, smells, and tastes the world around it; how you lose and regain up to five pounds of skin every year; and much more. Most of the materials you need are already part of you; the rest you will easily find around the house or classroom. Every activity has been "child tested" and can be performed safely and cheaply in the classroom, at a science fair, or at home. Also available in the series from Janice VanCleave: Astronomy for Every Kid Biology for Every Kid Chemistry for Every Kid Dinosaurs for Every Kid Earth Science for Every Kid Geography for Every Kid Geometry for Every Kid Math for Every Kid Physics for Every Kid Kids, Join the Science for Every Kid Club …See inside for details.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127976 in Books
• Published on: 1995-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780471024088
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7?This science activity book not only provides simple, easy-to-follow demonstrations, but also is a solid resource for learning about the workings of the human body. Projects utilize readily available materials, but an additional person is often needed?as an assistant or a guinea pig. The basics of cell structure; the senses; the respiratory, circulation, digestive, and skeletal systems; and genetics are covered. Each section provides a careful explanation of the activity, background information needed to understand the concepts involved, step-by-step instructions, and an analysis of the solution. The text is clearly written; simple, black line drawings and diagrams are used throughout. Robert Gardner's Science Projects About the Human Body (Enslow, 1993) contains similar material, but Van Cleave's book is more thorough in explaining concepts and getting students involved. A useful addition to science-experiment sections.?Cynthia M. Sturgis, Ledding Library, Milwaukee,
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 5^-7. Like others in the author's ongoing Science for Every Kid series, this is much more than a book of experiments. Here, VanCleave introduces various systems in the human body and explains how they function, reinforcing the facts through simple experiments and a variety of thought-provoking exercises. The experiments and exercises, which sometimes require readers to draw a conclusion from an accompanying illustration, are not equally challenging. In fact, some are too easy for the age group. Still, there's lots of good information here, and VanCleave doesn't shy away from scientific terms, which she defines with care. Plentifully illustrated, the book will draw both science-minded students and their teachers. An extensive glossary is appended. Stephanie Zvirin

From the Inside Flap
What makes the heart beat faster or slower? How do tightrope walkers keep their balance? Why does spinning fast cause dizziness? Now kids can learn the answers to these and other questions about the human body through dozens of easy activities that can be performed at home or in the classroom. In The Human Body for Every Kid, kids make a model of a human cell that they can eat for dessert. They’ll study their own heartbeats after different kinds of activity. And, with a soda bottle, a balloon, and a garbage bag, they’ll make a working model of a human lung. Kids will explore all the different systems of the body, including the five senses; heart, lungs, and circulation; muscles and bones; the nervous system; the brain; and more. Each of the activities in this book begins with a statement of purpose followed by a list of materials, step-by-step instructions, expected results, and a scientific explanation in terms that kids can understand. Parents will be glad to hear that each and every activity has been "child tested" by the author’s own students and can be performed safely and cheaply in the classroom or at home.

Customer Reviews

TRUELY a book for any kid, any age
A great teaching tool. This informative and well illustrated book is a great homeschool tool. We homeschool 4 children ages 5 to 12 and this book is adaptable to all levels of learning. Exercises and activities will keep your kids wanting to move to the next chapter. Each of the major systems of the human body are presented in a clear and understandable way. Janice VanCleave takes you and your child from human cell division all the way to reproduction.(no explicit graphics used). We particularly enjoyed the chapters on the human brain where there are many hands on activities to give the kids a better understanding of how the brain works. If you have kids and your trying to teach them something about human anatomy, THIS IS THE BOOK TO GET.

Great Activities
I'm a former science teacher turned homeschool mom and I'm using this book to study the human body with my kids (grades 1 and 3). I admit that the text in the book is probably advanced for them, but we read through the sections paragraph by paragraph and sort out what they are talking about. The drawings in the book are really well done and help in explaining what the chapter is talking about.
I would have given the book five stars if it weren't for what seems to me to be a mismatch between complexity of the text and the simplicity of the activities. My children are very excited about the activities and get a lot of science out of them. But, I think that older kids that would understand the text right away might be bored with the majority of the activities.

Be demanding like your children
My five year old is fascinated by the human body so I bought this book in additon to a basic anatomy book, What's the Big Secret? by Laura Krasny Brown and Marc Brown (creator of Arthur books), The Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie and The Human Body by Dr. Marie Rose.

The experiments featured in this book don't take very long to conduct and use the most basic household materials. Not all the experiments seemed instructive for his age but I'm looking forward to future explorations with him.

Because I have such a young audience, I had think up further applications of the concepts presented in order to make the experiments a more effective learning experience for him. For instance, the model lung we made effectively showed how the diaphragm allows us to take air into our lungs but what made a lasting impression was when I showed him how the diaphragm moves during a hiccup. Why wasn't this suggested in the book? A couple weeks later my son showed me how our neighbor smokes 'sticks' so I filled the model lung with molasses to represent how 'soot' from cigarette smoking interferes with lung expansion. The molasses made the model useless (and sticky) vividly demonstrating how 'soot' interferes with oxygen intake. I suspect VanCleave could come up with a better experiment to demonstrate how smoking harms lungs.

Other experiments are not as didactic but create intrigue about the human body. Both my five year old and three year old were thoroughly engrossed in an experiment from the chapter about modified skin cells (hair and nails) that involved testing the strength of different hair types. Although the hair experiment is memorable it's the only experiment offered in a chapter that really peaked their interest.

This book is a valuable part of our home library but I give it only three stars because my kids want to know more so I figure I should demand a little more from the title.