Why does a rolling ball stop rolling? Why doesn’t the sun burn out? Why can’t you unscramble an egg? Why can’t we live forever? These are all questions that a curious kid might ask. In What’s the BIG Idea?, renowned juvenile science educator Vicki Cobb answers these and thirty-one other fascinating questions to help kids learn more about the world through the wonders of science. A big idea is one that has no simple or easy answer, and there are four big ideas in this book: motion, energy, matter, and life. The motion of nonliving objects—rolling balls, falling stones, the moon and stars—seems so ordinary and familiar that most people take it for granted. Matter, on the other hand, comes in so many different forms—solids, liquids, gases, metals, nonmetals, living material—it is hard to imagine anything that all matter has in common. Energy is an idea that is in the news just about every day, yet most people couldn’t tell you what the big idea of energy is. And life seems mind-boggling and infinitely complicated. How do we bend our brains around it? Scientists learn by asking questions. And What’s the Big Idea? is designed to make young readers stop and think about each of the thirty-five questions before reading what scientists have learned that answers each question. They’ll be able to do simple things to see for themselves and build their own scientific knowledge in the process. By the time they’ve finished this book, they’ll have a pretty good idea of what science is all about.

Can you imaging living in a place where there is so much water some houses need to be built on stilts to protect them when the river rises? Or where it is so wet that some plants can grow on the sides of trees with their roots gathering water from the air? In This Place is Wet you'll find out all sorts of things about what it's like to live in the rain forest of Brazil. Try to imagine living there!

Product Description: Can you imaging living in a place where it's so cold your breath turns instantly into tiny ice crystals that glitter in the sun? Where temperatures can drop fifty degrees below zero and even lower and the sun only comes out for a few hours per day? In This Place Is Cold readers will learn how people and animals survive in Alaska's ferocious cold, and how because of global warming this region is now in trouble...read more

Focuses on the land, animals, plants, and climate of Alaska, presenting it as an example of a place where it is so cold your hair can freeze and break off.

Text and simple experiments introduce sound, how it is carried through the air and through objects, and how we hear it.

Explains the physics of water pressure, showing how it makes everyday products such as faucets, spray bottles, and water pistols work.

Text and simple experiments introduce electrical, magnetic, and gravitational force fields.

Text and simple experiments introduce the principles of circular motion.

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Describes how a variety of special effects are achieved in the theater.

Describes how some junk foods, such as popcorn, corn chips, and chocolate, are made and explains why they taste good and what the proper serving sizes are.

Presents the life of the Hungarian magician, including illustrations of people, places, and artifacts of the times in which he lived.

Product Description: Faster than anything in the universe! Sustainer of life as we know it! What is this miraculous, mysterious thing? It's light. And you can be its master with optics, the science of the future. Optics lets you: - Bend light around corners - Stop time with a pair of sunglasses - Capture light on a silver tray - Magnify pictures with an ice cube - Pour light into your palm - Project a big-screen image from your small TV - Fool a doorbell with a bike reflector! Once you get your head and hands into optics, the world will never look the same again...read more

Hands-on experimentation and fun facts provide beginning readers with a simple introduction to the concept of gravity in terms of how it works, why it works, and its importance in our everyday lives.

Text and suggested activities explore the sense of taste, how it works, and how it can help us detect which foods are sweet, sour, salty, or spicy.

Discusses the sense of hearing, and how the ear works to interpret sound, includes simple experiments to investigate hearing.

Examines the sense of smell, how the nose detects different odors, and how we react to different smells, and includes simple experiments to test the sense of smell.

Examines the sense of smell, how the nose detects different odors, and how we react to different smells, and includes simple experiments to test the sense of smell.

Explains how the sense of sight works and offers simple experiments to investigate.

Describes how the sense of touch works and includes simple experiments to demonstrate different sensations.

Introduces the characteristics and actions of the wind through simple hands-on activities.