experiential learning
Ada Lace, on the Case: a Hunch Is Not a Hypothesis
Nina is certain an alien took the dog. Ada is certain a person did. That argument is the engine of the book, and it happens to be the most useful argument in science.
SCIENCE IN THE WILD
Stealth Science
Science that begins with curiosity. These are articles and teaching ideas; the retail shelves have closed.
gifted or struggling
Ada Lace Sees Red Is a Robot Book About a Grudge
Ada is not likeable for a good stretch of this one. She is jealous of her best friend, she will not speak to her father, and she cannot get her robot to work. Those are not three p
experiential learning
Ada Lace and the Impossible Mission: Scale and Sensors
Two third graders break into a locked school closet after hours and get past the alarm. Before you decide how you feel about that, look at what they have to understand in order to
read-alouds
Smithsonian 5-Minute Dinosaur Tales: An Honest Look
This is a bedtime book wearing a museum's name. That is not a knock on it. It just changes what you should expect it to do, and it changes the one question worth asking your four-y
gifted or struggling
Alligator vs. Python: Real Science, Made-Up Fight
It is a picture book about two reptiles having a fight that never happened, and it is one of the most reliable ways I know to get a six-year-old to read nonfiction on purpose. Both
choosing curriculum
Coral Reefs: The Comic That Teaches Real Biology
It looks like a comic and it reads like one. It is also a marine biology unit in disguise, and it leaves your child able to explain a bleached reef better than most adults can.
gifted or struggling
Science Comics Sharks: The Science and the Caution
It is a comic and it is a real science book, and the second thing is the reason to own it. The pictures are doing the teaching here, not decorating it.
gifted or struggling
Science Comics Dogs: A Genetics Book in Disguise
Your child picks it up because there is a dog on the cover and a lost ball to find. What they put down is inheritance and selection, taught properly, at an age when most children g
read-alouds
Dragons and Marshmallows: The Science and the Catch
There is no dragon biology in here, because there are no dragons. What your child actually comes away with is the method, and it is handled better here than in most science written
read-alouds
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System, and Pluto
This one does not hide the science. It hides the schoolwork, which is a different trick and a better one. The single thing to settle before you hand it over is how your copy counts
experiential learning
The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body: Real Science
The frame is a shrinking bus and a swallowed field trip. What sits underneath it is a real tour of the digestive, circulatory and respiratory systems, in the right order, with the
read-alouds
Who Was Rachel Carson? Evidence With Consequences
A friend wrote to her about the songbirds lying dead on the ground after a mosquito spraying. She spent the next four years reading everything anyone had published about it, and th
experiential learning
The Tornado Scientist: The Day That Ends in Nothing
Most days of storm research end with the radar folded up and nothing worth keeping. The book leaves that in, which is the most useful thing about it.
gifted or struggling
The Snake Scientist: A Backyard Animal, Studied Hard
The most studied snake gathering on earth is not a rare animal in a far off place. It is the garter snake, the one from the woodpile, in a heap of thousands.
experiential learning
The Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: What the Job Costs
Most books about a rare animal are about the animal. This one is mostly about getting there, asking permission, and waiting, which is what the work really is.
experiential learning
The Octopus Scientists: A Mind on Another Branch
An octopus matches the color of a rock in about a second, and it almost certainly cannot see color. The book is honest that nobody has settled how.