Join me on March 7 for Dr. Fred Bortz’s Meltdown Blog Tour. Dr. Fred will write about his path from physicist and work with nuclear reactors to writing for children and young people. It’s a fascinating story.
Here’s the tour schedule:
Spellbinders Monday 3/5/12 plus giveaway Monday 3/19/12
Simply Science Wednesday 3/7/12
USA Science and Engineering Festival Blog (perhaps on Huff Post) Wednesday 3/7/12
Writing with a Broken Tusk March 8
Liz Jones Friday 3/9/12
TFCB Blog Lerner Books Blog 3/12/12
Cynsations Giveaway 3/12/12
Nonfiction Monday is at Lori Calabrese Writes
Here’s my post!
by Buffy Silverman
Rourke Publishing, 2012
ISBN #978-1-61741-753-5
Grades 2-3
Nonfiction
“Every day, we use electricity. Electricity powers the lights in our homes and schools. Computers, music players, cell phones, and refrigerators run on electricity.”
Science writer Buffy Silverman starts with this introduction to electricity by relating the use of electricity to power our homes and favorite appliances. Zap! traces the sources of power used and explains in a simple manner how the power moves to our homes. The book defines conductor and insulator and concludes with how a battery works by making a complete circuit.
Zap! It’s Electricity is filled with large, colorful, and child-friendly photos and diagrams. Back matter includes a “Show What You Know” page, a glossary, index, and websites. The book is a terrific way to get kids interested in electricity and start to explore the power sources we use now and may use in the future.
NASA has some fun experiments and simulations with good information about electricity
Here’s another science resource page for more information on electricity.
Activity
Use the NASA site to learn how to read your electric meter. Mark your reading at the start of the day. Then read it that evening. Use your electric bill to calculate the exact price for one day. Alternatively, use the NASA figure of $0.07 per kilowatt hour.
Then try it another day and see if you can cut down on your electrical use. Compare the two days.
National Science Standard: definitions of energy; conservation of energy and energy transfer; relationship between energy and forces; energy in chemical processes and everyday life
Book provided by Rourke Publishing
Oh this looks good! My dad and brother are electricians and this would help me explain to my kids what they do!
This looks like fun and the cover is so bright and vibrant! Thanks for sharing the NASA experiments. Kids will love these.
Thanks for posting my blog tour itinerary. I have just added another stop:
Thursday, March 8, with Uma Krishnaswami’s Writing With A Broken Tusk: http://umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com/
It’s done. I’ll keep it up on the posts through the tour.
Oh wow, so amazing, and nice set of fun activities that can be done with kids as well. I agree with Lori, kids will truly enjoy this.
Thanks so much. It’s a fun book to read and so terrific to hear form you with your thoughts!
Great resource! Thanks for the review.