PBS Teachers™
Science & Tech
recommended books archive
Published: August 2002
From the marvelous to the mundane, this visually rich encyclopedia covers technology and discovery from 3,000,000 B.C. (stone tools) to the present (self cleaning glass) and the men and women responsible.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
This up close look at arachnids, creatures often overlooked or shunned, features sixteen unusual animals such as the Crablike Spiny Orb Weaver, the Giant Vinegaroon, and the Velvet Mite and some that are as familiar as the Jumping Spider. This frequent house guest can eat up to 40 Fruit Flies in one sitting. Bon appetit! An afterward provides additional information on each plate.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2002
How do new species arise? Darwin could never solve the problem. Margulis and Sagan argue that random mutation is only marginally important and suggest that the acquisition of new genomes by symbiotic merger is more important. Symbiotic relationships are mutally beneficial relationships between creatures of different species, and if you think humans are exempt, you are forgetting eyelash mites and the bacteria found in our intestinal tracts and under our arms. It is estimated that symbionts make up 10% of our dry body weight. This book has created some critical heat, but that is not unusual in science.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2005
Riley is on Moorea, one of the Tahitian islands, with his Uncle Max. They are in the South Pacific to study spinner dolphins. When some become trapped in a lagoon, Riley is determined to help. The bright illustrations combine photos and art. The pages feature facts about other reef animals and Polynesian culture.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 1999
Authored in 1916, but newly translated by Neely Swanson for MIT Press, this book offers intellectual wisdom and scientific insights to both researchers and students from an accomplished scientist.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 1999
Readers age 10-14 will be inspired by the stories of twenty-five African Americans whose contributions were invaluable in medicine. The book also features vintage photos, a timeline, bibliography, and a glossary.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2002
A study commissioned by Symantec in 1999 found that 70% of computer users admitted to swearing at their computers. More than 30% admitted to physically attacking them. This examination of our relationship with machines illumines a 200 year tradition of resistance from the machine breaking Luddites to those who, like the author, refuse to use Call Waiting, TVs, or electric coffee grinders.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2002
In 1995, Dive Barge 269 was tethered to three tugs when Hurricane Roxanne unexpectedly reversed course and struck. The storm's thirty foot seas and ninety mph winds broke the towlines securing the barge and the crew of 245 went into the water. This exciting book tells how all but eight were rescued by the crews of the tugboats.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 1998
The Collective Biographies provides insight into the major players who revolutionized technology in the twentieth century. Through these brief biographies, Northrup gives a chronological overview of computer technology's evolution from the punch card system to the ease of Internet travel. High school students will, no doubt, find excellent role models here and learn the rewards of risk-taking and hard work.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
There are good ideas and bad ideas, but novelty will make any idea patentable. Take for example, the “partuition assistance device” that proposed to spin a laboring mother to ease her delivery. This fascinating exploration of invention looks at child care, toys, sports, entertainment, housing, food, health, transportation, advertising, beauty, and computing. Anyone interested in further study will find plenty of print and web recommendations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2003
Take a look at science from a historian’s point of view in this collection of forty activities. Do science and gain insight into the thinking of civilizations like Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Mayas, and the Aztecs. Each activity lists materials, describes procedures, and provides explanations. A glossary is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2005
Roy and Silo were two male chinstrap penguins in New York City’s Central Park Zoo. In 1998, they paired and made a nest just like other pairs, but two dads can’t make an egg or hatch a stone. When another penguin laid two eggs, a zoo staffer put one in Roy and Silo’s nest. Tango was the result. Cole illustrations are realistic, yet add humor to this story about two bewildered birds.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 1999
For middle school children and older planning to become vets, this book presents a glimpse into the work of dedicated professionals in a hospital providing 24 hours a day emergency service, 365 days a year. Be prepared, many of the animal injuries are ghastly, and the writing is direct and graphic.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 200
This book presents a representative cross section of mammals to explain how the requirements of different habitats have led to the evolution of different forms and behavior. Each of 51 entries has key facts, photos, maps, charts and graphs, and neighbor animals. This book will make a great resource for the middle school library or science classroom.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2006
There are 4,500 neurosurgeons in the U.S. Only 200 are women. Firlik was the first woman to be admitted to the neurosurgery residency program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She describes the high pressure world of brain surgery with fascinating and graphic scenes from the ER and OR. Her style is smart, witty, and humane. She’s the kind of surgeon you’d want tinkering with your brain.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2001
The Ache are hunter-gathers who live in Paraguay. Learn about a way of living hundreds of thousands of years old and discover what it’s like to be an anthropologist. Meet Magdalena and her husband Kim who have studied the Ache since 1981. For anyone interested in fieldwork, the description of Magdalena’s first foraging trip with the Ache will make clear the difficulties and the rewards.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2004
Gunpowder and cannons superceded catapults, yet in a moment of desperation Cortes tried using a trebuchet during his assault on Mexico City. The machine was destroyed by its own projectile. Students learn about advances in artillery and can construct slings, catapults, and trebuchets from clearly written directions. Plans include a materials list, step by step instructions, and illustrations. The book emphasizes safety.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
Aspirin is so common that few of us think it a wonder drug, but consider a moment. It relieves headache and muscle aches, lowers a temperature, and treats deadly disease. New evidence suggests it helps with a variety of other afflictions, including heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Jeffreys relates the strange and fortunate discovery and often stranger marketing of the closest thing to a panacea the world has yet seen.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
You have probably read or heard the theory that an asteroid impact brought an end to the age of dinosaurs. This book for 9-12 year olds describes and shows how it might have looked had you been unlucky enough to be present. Henderson makes clear with a sequence of drawings just how much energy would have been released during a collision with an asteroid six miles across. His paintings are amazing and scary. Read this and search the night sky for suspicious objects.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2004
The last time a complete Bird’s of America sold at Christie’s it went for nearly nine million dollars, yet to scrape together the money to complete his monumental project, 435 life-sized prints, Audubon traveled four times to England in twelve years. Hart-Davis reveals how a failed businessman became a celebrated artist. The book includes many of Audubon’s bird portraits.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
Audubon’s paintings and journals reveal an America long past: flocks of passenger pigeons so large they darkened the sky for hours, Sycamores so big their hollow trunks could shelter 9,000 swifts, and packs of hungry wolves driven off by flocks of geese. The events described in this illustrated biography took place from 1804-1812. Extended author and illustrator notes explain their techniques and suggest resources for further study.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2003
The author has answered more than 50,000 emailed questions submitted to his website “The Astronomy Café” since 1995. This second selection of 365 questions and answers is in ten chapters covering the earth and moon, sun, solar system, stars, universe, cosmos, and more. The book includes a glossary of “annoying terms” and set of twelve tables, including a cosmic timeline from Big Bang to a final collapse so far in the future there will be no one around to remember Elvis.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2002
Common critters, 125 insects and other small animals appear in this ingenious field guide to the backyard. Creatures found in seven areas including on the ground, around flowers, and in tool sheds are presented in two-page representative settings. Two pages of explanatory field notes follow. A section called “Be a Backyard Detective” supplies hints and project ideas. The book features a picture index. Bishop’s photographs are amazing. Wait until you read how he created them
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
In this follow up to their 1984 Where Bald Eagles Gather, Patent and Munoz document the success of conservation efforts to save our nation's symbol. This book, for readers 9-12, combines great nature writing, color photos of eagles in their natural habitats, and maps.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2002
Battlebots are homemade robots designed to rip, crush, and outmaneuver the competition. This is demolition derby for the information age and won't appeal to everyone. In three amply illustrated sections, Clarkson presents the sport, the bots, and how to build your own. This last section includes plenty of URLs for additional help. Two appendices list the winners and statistics.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 1998
No one can resist these far-out tales of mythical monsters; children age 4-8 will be no exception. The text includes full-color illustrations, a glossary, and vocabulary objectives.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2005
The honey bee has been a symbol of industry and cooperation in America since its introduction by the British in the Colonial period. Horn presents a cultural history of bees and beekeeping filled with science, ecological lessons, and fascinating anecdotes.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 2003
From African Goliath Beetle to Zinc Metallic Beetle, this alphabet book is crawling with colorful and bizarre creatures. The illustrations of each specimen are realistic and are accompanied by life-sized silhouettes. Students learn the alphabet and some entomology to boot.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2005
If you spend as much time watching the bonus DVDs explaining special effects and other film techniques as the feature itself, you’ll find Clee’s history of visual entertainment fascinating. Some of the technologies are still used today. Read about the camera obscura, magic lantern, fantascope, panorama, diorama, phenakistiscope, thaunatrope, praxinoscope, and plenty more to twist your tongue around. The second half of the book traces the development of true film. Appendices include a timeline and bibliography of print and web resources.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
This large format introduction to 5,000 years of cosmology features art and photographs depicting our growing understanding of the cosmos. Some are beautiful. Some are awe-inspiring, as is the photo showing scores of galaxies each containing billions of stars all of which could be concealed behind a pinhead held up to the night sky. Essays by different scientists, men and women, are collected in three sections: the classical universe, the modern universe emerges, and the current universe.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2004
We may one day travel in time, but chaos in the atmosphere will always frustrate those who try to predict the weather. Science may not always provide a way. Dewdney examines the limits of science and technology. Chapters address perpetual motion, traveling at the speed of light, quantum uncertainty, chaos, problems requiring infinite computer time to solve, and more.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the last completely wild places on Earth. Follow a caribou band from the Porcupine River Valley as it joins the larger herd migrating to the calving grounds on the Beaufort Sea. Hiscock’s realistic watercolors portray the changing plant and animal life along the route. A final section provides additional information on many of the animals encountered, a description of the caribou year, and an author’s note.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 2001
Matthiessen recounts his journeys to India, Bhutan, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Africa, Western Europe, and the U.S. in search of the world’s fifteen species of crane. He describes their struggles to survive and introduces readers to the ornithologists who study them and the local peoples who live with them. Bateman’s paintings and drawings make clear why cranes are venerated by many cultures.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
Don Kroodsma is an expert on birdsong and the author of The Singing Life of Birds. Stap accompanied Kroodsma and his high tech audio gear from Massachusetts to Central America to record and study and possibly discover why some birds learn their songs while others are born with them. Stap examines history, work, and personalities in an engaging account of ornithologists and their fieldwork.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 1999
The author, a renowned historian and scientist, presents compelling portraits of the people responsible for founding the study of cells.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 1998
Students age 7-11 will be amazed as they read how in 1934 Admiral Richard Byrd spent a dark winter in frigid Antarctica. He recorded the weather and confronted life completely alone in some of the harshest conditions. This telling text is complemented by Walter Krudops dramatic illustrations and also contains excerpts from Byrd's firsthand account of survival. This book is the perfect addition to a unit on Antarctica.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2005
Sometimes relevant information isn’t recognized. Why did four policemen kill Amadou Diallo, a frightened and innocent man? Sometimes too much information gets in the way. Why did antiquities experts recognize a fake statue with a glance while scientists were fooled? Gladwell presents examples of an aspect of human perception, what he terms “thin slicing” and examines the scientific research aimed at understanding a skill used by many successful decision makers.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2000
From March 11-14, 1888, before Doppler radar, before long range weather forecasting, before snowplows, the East Coast was hit by hurricane-force winds and so much snow that every city from Virginia to Canada was shut down. Hundreds died. This history of a natural disaster is filled with maps, etchings, and photographs.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2001
Although 1.5 million bobcats live in North America, they are rarely seen. This photo-filled book examines the life and habitat of the bobcat. Sidebars provide bobcat facts. Join a Vermont sixth-grade class as they look for bobcat sign.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2001
In an age of quarks, it's hard to imagine a time when respected scientists didn't believe in the existence of atoms, but that time was only a hundred years ago. Readers in middle school and up will learn the nearly forgotten story of Ludwig Boltzmann who labored for forty years for the acceptance of the atomic theory of matter and clashed with such notables as Ernst Mach, whose name is attached to the speed of sound.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2001
What makes the Big Bang science and Big Foot nonsense? Shermer’s purpose in his assessment of current big ideas is to distinguish between valid science and what he terms borderland science. In three sections, he examines theories, thinkers, and history. If science is your lens to view the world, make sure it’s clean by reading this book.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
This illustrated biography introduces a young Audubon and his early and consuming interest in birds. The pages are collages of watercolors, photographs of artifacts, journal entries, letters—a look into his muse, his naturalist’s study. Davies focuses on Audubon’s efforts to discover where birds went in winter and his first bird bandings to learn if a pair of Eastern Phoebes would return to the same nest.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2001
The Brooklyn Bridge took thirteen years and twenty lives to complete and was the world's greatest bridge for fifty years. This picture book describes its design, engineering, and construction under the direction of John and Washington Roebling, father and son. The book includes cut away diagrams of architectural details, a timeline, and technical specifications.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 1998
Learning words has never bugged you this much! Ants and other bugs will present children, grades 3-6, with new words through facial expressions, body language and sophisticated humor.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
If the cricket-spitting contest in the first paragraphs doesn’t totally gross you out, this book will introduce some amazing bugs and the men and women who study and use them in their work. Valerie Cervenka is a forensic entomologist who investigates insect evidence at crime scenes. Steven Kutcher directs insects and spiders in movies and music videos. And Tom Turpin, the guy on the cover with the really big bugs on his face, what does he do? Read the book. Cricket-spitting is just the beginning. Appendices provide more interesting facts, frequently used entomological terms, and print and Internet resources.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 1999
Children 3-6 will love the bold, bright colors and lively rhyming in this picture book. It should make a wonderful book for story time.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2000
In this companion to his PBS series, Macaulay reveals the science behind construction. He outlines developments in building technology by examining successive examples of bridges, tunnels, dams, domes, and skyscrapers, paying special attention to new design elements. In this book for all ages, Macaulay's prose is clear and his illustrations, as always, are wonderful. The book includes a glossary.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2001
First published in Venezuela in 1999 and newly translated into English, this picture book is about two sleepy children tormented by a buzzing mosquito. In desperation, they climb from their bedroom window and run into the forest looking for a creature to help. Mosquito follows. Howler monkey, coral snake, and alligator are all sleeping. Only owl is awake. After flying home on owl's back, the children discover the solution to their mosquito problem has been squatting on the windowsill from the start. Calderon's illustrations resemble woodcuts.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2004
Like it or not, we share the world, even out houses and beds, with insects. This Who’s Who of our bug buddies features color electron microscope photos, many of them full-page. The text is organized in sections titled home, food, medicine, control, crime, and pets, so if the thought of eating chocolate-covered locusts disgusts you, check out Madagascar Giant Hissing Cockroaches as pets. The photographer has included a note on technique.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 1998
Help junior high and high school students in narrowing their choices among the many computer-related professions either for research or real life. Includes interviews and suggestions for further reading, people to meet, and organizations to contact as well as a number of related Web sites.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
Have you thought about working with animals? The author outlines careers in breeding, training, caring, preserving, harvesting, and observing. She suggests how to choose the right job, provides job descriptions for animals large and small, and offers tips for job-searching.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 1999
Why are monarch butterflies so brightly colored? Why would a herd of reindeer suddenly die off? Discover the scientific research behind some of nature's most mysterious events. You and your students will be fascinated as Quinlan reveals the data, clues and explanations given by scientists.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2005
Follow a hungry panther chameleon as he searches for food. He encounters other creatures, some with fantastic camouflage and others that don’t need it, like a scorpion. Chameleon finally spots a tasty caterpillar. Bishop captures the chameleon’s lightning fast tongue as it snaps up the caterpillar. Jar-Jar Binks has nothing on this guy. Author and photographer provide information on the chameleon and the techniques used to make the photographs.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2006
Why do some gadgets succeed while others fail? The author suggests that we are willing to accept new technology when the pain of our current situation outweighs the perceived pain of trying something new. Most of us are reluctant to try something new but will if we’re given a good reason. Coburn examines recent successes and failures and predicts the next winners and losers.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 1999
How has human behavior affected climate and are we too late to do anything about it? In this book, high school students are introduced to the science of climatic change; meet the international community of scientists trying to determine if we have entered a new era of climate; and explore the links between humanity and climate, from human evolution to the destruction of civilizations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 2000
This memoir by an award winning science fiction writer takes readers on a tour of astronomy, space exploration, volcanoes and earthquakes, water, cave sand tunnels, fossils, and archaeology and more. Part science primer, part travel guide, this book is for middle school students and up.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2004
This introduction to astronomy explores what is out there, visible and invisible, and how it is studied by scientists on Earth. The last section explains what students and their families can do to explore at home. Sidebars define terms, provide biographical information, and supplement the text with data. A timeline highlights great moments in astronomy.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
Since the early 1960s, Jane Goodall has studied the chimpanzees of Gombe on Lake Tanganyika. This autobiography outlines her career from enthusiastic 22-year-old in a largely unmolested forest to her present efforts to protect what little remains of Africa’s forests and chimpanzees. The book features marvelous full-page photos, many close-ups, of chimps in their natural environment.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2000
This illustrated history for 9-12 year olds examines the development of time keeping from the sundial to the Clock of the Long Now, that will tick once a year, have a century hand that advances every hundred years, and a cuckoo that sings every millennium. A three-page foldout features the mechanisms of a number of different kinds of clocks.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
Anyone familiar with Locker's previous books knows what to expect with a book devoted to clouds. His illustrations resemble the work of the Hudson River painters. Children 4-8 can follow two figures, one old, one young, as they move through a landscape dominated by clouds at different times of the day and under different weather conditions. An appendix provides general information about clouds and images of different cloud types.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2006
A cloud is a cloud is a cloud. Until you look at the sky closely with this guide in hand. The author, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society (see: www.cloudappreciationsociety.org), describes and illustrates the low, middle, and high clouds. A final section looks at lesser known clouds. The book opens with a classification table and cloud chart keyed to chapters. The book features many line drawings and photos.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2005
This concise primer on the cosmos provides two-page spreads treating concepts about space and time from the origin of the universe to dark matter. Each concept is illustrated as well as described. The book includes star and galactic maps and data tables.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2002
After the introductory chapter discussing different seasonal changes, each season is examined in turn. Activities, festivities, and natural phenomena are highlighted. A final section is a calendar of seasonal events.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
Girls interested in environmental sciences will read about eleven women who share their interest and who have made careers pursuing it. Fields covered include botany, naturalist, biologist, electrical engineer, farm manger, entomologist, researcher, and more. Each entry examines the background, training, and career path of each environmentalist. A final section suggests ways girls can get started on their own careers.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
If you like to make things happen, here are fifty experiments from the gross to the eatable. The book opens with eleven absolutely essential life-preserving and mother-pleasing lab rules. Read them well. Each activity lists what you need, how to do it, and why it works. A glossary is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2001
Amy is an African elephant who was spared when her family group was destroyed in a "cull." Transported to the United States, she was taken in by Bob Norris, a cowboy and former Marlboro Man. Norris helped Amy overcome her trauma, her distrust of humans, and her fear of the world. This book relates her days as a ranch hand and circus performer and tells of her return to Africa.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 lasted a minute and destroyed 25,000 buildings. The fire that followed left 250,000 homeless. The quake and fire killed 700, though some estimates have the total three to four times greater. Winchester looks at the San Francisco quake as well as others not so well known, such as the New Madrid Sequence of 1811 that caused the Mississippi River to run north, and explains the underlying geology.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
This is a guide to creating your own instructional multimedia such as computer-based training and presentations. Sections present the basics; the how and why of instructional design; types of media: text, audio, visuals, video, animations; interactivity; screen design; and storage Appendices provide tips, checklists, and other tools.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
This photo-packed introduction to deep-sea life is divided into three sections providing a tour through the ocean layers; a selection of ocean creatures, from sharks to dragonfish; and finally a descent to the longest mountain range, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and hydro-thermal vents. If you are a monster movie fan, wait until you see the deep-sea dragonfish, then sleep soundly knowing the largest is only a foot long.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2005
When the sun goes down and the moon comes out, nocturnal animals like raccoons, owls, crickets, possums, and coyotes mooch about. This picture book introduces the concept of diurnal and nocturnal life in a playful, reassuring manner.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 1998
The capers of the world's greatest criminals, inner workings of the world's top spy and police agencies, and crime-solving science and technology are presented in this richly illustrated reference book for kids age 9-12.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2006
If forensics interests you, you might want to try one of these twenty activities for your next science fair. Projects include examinations of blood and DNA, eyewitnesses, prints and other traces, and documents. Side bars discuss careers, techniques, history, and provide tips and suggestions for further research. The book has many illustrations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2006
This introduction to the sciences employed by forensics experts opens with three cases that attentive readers will be able to solve after reading the book. No clue is too small. Even a fragment of a pistachio shell found in a trouser cuff can help establish that a suspect was at the crime scene. Chapters look at evidence, counterfeits and forgeries, computer crime, identification, and the crime scene. Along the way, readers have a chance to display their crime solving skills.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2004
The author looks at human behavior through the lens of physics. How do trail patterns develop or cities grow? How do people make decisions? How do they vote? How are financial markets influenced by networks of social and business contacts? After looking at traffic, economics, cyberspace and other aspects of society, he considers whether physics can help predict as well as describe. Can physics help us avoid problems?
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2004
Young readers follow a black bear cub as he encounters other creatures, some harmless, others dangerous. Sycks provide realistic illustrations of bears and habitat. The book concludes by answering common questions about the American black bear.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 1999
Young adults will appreciate the authors' discussion of the high tech crimes committed by "hackers, crackers, and phone phreaks" using computers.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2006
How is the cosmos like a computer? Everything is information, argues the author, every creature on earth, every particle in the universe. Seife provides an overview of Information theory: how it began in code breaking, underlies computer science, and is increasingly used to talk about genetic material, the behavior of light, and the weirdness of quantum mechanics.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2005
Earthquakes have their Richter Scale. The wind has its Beaufort Scale. Set down in 1806 in nearly its present form by Sir Francis Beaufort, the scale defines an everyday phenomenon—the movement of air. That is the simple version of history. In reality, others contributed to its development: Defoe, Cook, Bligh, and Darwin. This is an engrossing investigation of science in the age of sail.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2006
Learn how to get the most out of your digital camera and software. Eight chapters cover the basics, camera tricks, color and light, composition, close-up photography, subjects, optical illusions, and advanced editing. There are plenty of photographs, a glossary, and useful charts.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
This look at the ethical issues inherent in artificial intelligence is written for a general audience. The author, a physicist and science writer, explores What is consciousness? Can computers be conscious? Should thinking and feeling machines be entitled to human rights? Will we evolve into biomechanical race? And Should we worry about being taken over by machines?
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2005
If you know a dinosaur fan who is worried that all the cool fossils have already been found, you can reassure her or him that most have not. Gibbons has created a primer covering 165 million years—the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods. She describes the discovery of fossils, their preservation, and the major classes of dinosaurs. The end papers are a world map locating dinosaur fossil sites.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
Artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins spent his life trying to recreate the ancient creatures we call dinosaurs. This wonderfully illustrated biography relates his first triumphs in Victorian England; his efforts in New York to build a museum in Central park, which were thwarted by the corrupt politician, Boss Tweed; and, his return to England. Extensive notes provide additional information about aspects of Hawkins career and time.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2000
Even the charging Tyrannosaurus rex on the cover of this monster of a book will make you glad you live in the age of mammals, but wait till you look inside. Readers 4-8 will meet Gigantosaurus, which is the longest and heaviest meat-eater ever discovered, or the Utahraptor, which may have been the deadliest dinosaur to ever live and at 20 feet probably made Velociraptor look like a lapdog.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 1998
Dorling-Kindersley's encyclopedia can make anyone feel like a scientist! Not only will students find fascinating facts on everything from atoms to zephyrs, but will also discover the 'science' of being a scientist! Topics are organized thematically and will be sure to occupy students age 9-12 for days. Also included is a "Fact Finder" section in the back, with charts, tables, and maps to use with each section.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
Nobel Prize winner James D. Watson’s history of the genetic revolution covers the speculations of the Ancients, Gregor Mendel’s insights into inheritance, the discovery of the structure of DNA, and the possibilities of the future. He presents a solid foundation for considering today’s social and ethical questions. The book contains 159 color and black and white illustrations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2004
Do you pronounce Friday Fri-dee or Fri-daa? You’ll find an extended and fascinating entry in Feldman’s latest (#10) collection of imponderables. Why is peanut butter sticky? Why are wells round? Why are new CDs released on Tuesdays? Or is it Tues-dees? You find more than 100 answers to questions and a comprehensive index of all ten collections.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2000
Dinosaur fans 4-8 will meet more than 70 animals, including some of the newest finds such as the feathered dinosaurs from China. Each entry provides pictures, vital statistics, and other interesting facts about dinosaurs and paleontology. A reference section answers frequent questions, supplies a glossary, and suggests other books to read.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2000
After graduating from college in 1906, Andrews went to New York City where he took a job washing floors in the American Museum of Natural History. He was named its director 28 years later. In the years between, he led five expeditions to the Gobi Desert in search of fossils, narrowly escaping death on so many occasions that Indiana Jones movies seem old hat. Speaking of hats, Andrews wore one too. After reading this book, adventurers 9-12 will want to grab a pick and head for the boondocks.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2002
Lawyer and law professor, Steven Wise has been a pioneer in animal rights law for twenty years. The fundamental question in the debate over legal rights for nonhuman animals is: where do we draw the line? Wise examines intelligence in animals from his son to dolphins, elephants, parrots, dogs, and honeybees. He shows how some creatures meet the legal criteria for personhood. This is an intelligent discussion of a subject that often inspires strong emotions.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 1999
Originally published in 1965, this newly illustrated edition for children 4-8 describes different kinds of ducks and their behavior, particularly preening, which helps keep feathers dry. Davie's watercolor, pencil, and pastel illustrations are gorgeous. The book includes an experiment to prove why ducks stay dry and a bibliography of books and Web sites about ducks.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2000
Children, and observant adults, spy creatures as they do chores, board school buses, garden, play, swim, and get ready for bed. This book for children 4-8 suggests we take time to be careful about the animals that share our yards and neighborhoods. Ryder's verse and Wolff's detailed illustrations are a great combination.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2004
Geologic processes, for the most part, happen too slowly for us to notice, but nevertheless, Earth is constantly changing. Fortey, who has written previously about life and trilobites, takes his readers on a tour of islands, volcanoes, continents, oceans, mountains, fault lines, and Earth’s center. The book has photos and line drawings.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
Do your parents have a kitchen drawer stuffed with widgets, “great ideas” that never lived up to their promise? The author selected one hundred doodads from his collection of more than four hundred 19th and 20th century curiosities and to include in this photographic museum. Sections feature items from the home, kitchen, business, medicine, transportation, and more. Each full page photo is accompanied by a short, entertaining description.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2002
From Greek mythology to an eighteenth century mechanical duck and the chess-playing “Turk” to the artificial intelligence lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this book explores our attempts to create mechanical life. More historical overview than philosophical essay, the book will interest anyone curious about Thomas Edison’s talking dolls or MIT’s lonely robots
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
Birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, crustaceans, insects all lay eggs. This celebration of eggs features striking watercolors of eggs of all sizes, shapes, and colors. The author explains the biological advantages of coloration, texture, and shape.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2004
Einstein never warmed to quantum mechanics. "I still can't believe that the good lord plays dice," he said. This book examines scientific debate at the personal level, the opposed visions of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
El Nino and La Nina are driven by cyclic temperature fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean that lead to world wide disasters as seemingly unrelated as an outbreak of Rift Valley fever in East Africa and uncontrollable forest fires in Borneo. Nash has provided a history of the scientific observations that have added to our understanding of El Nino.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2002
Young inventors get a crash course in gadget building: illuminated forks, bumper cars, robot hands, and more. The book opens with a discussion of the tools and materials required. Directions for making three kinds of switches used in the projects are provided as well as step-by-step instructions for each gadget. Plans for a more sophisticated switch, the joy stick, conclude the book.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 1998
This hands-on book will make a junior detective out of any student by looking closely at "evidence" all around them in their natural world. Among the activities are testing for acid rain, making an ant farm and starting a mini-compost pile. Kids will not only learn how to investigate but, will learn that they can make a difference, too.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
This book about sharks has plenty to keep readers occupied: jokes, activities, coloring pages, fun facts, games, puzzles, and plenty of information about a group of toothy animals as fascinating as T.rex., and still with us. This would be a perfect book for summer vacation travel.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 2006
This collection of awesome projects includes some that can be taken on by 9-10 year olds and some that require the manual dexterity and maturity of high schoolers and adults. Projects include cannons, demolitions, motors, strings, vehicles, controls, particles, illusions, lasers, communications, instruments, and electricity. Each project includes adequate warnings (yes, some more than one) and provides science and math explanations for those who want to understand why they are having so much fun.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 1994
American Scientist and Booklist both hail this work as a kid-friendly, appealing introduction to the science and technology of cheesemaking. Appropriate for readers ages 4-8.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2006
If you want to start your own blog or ezine, this introduction will get you started. Two sections cover the basics and provide mini-guides with plenty of illustrations and pointers. Appendices list helpful print resources and websites.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2004
This summer take a tour of the universe. Greene addresses questions about the nature of space and time and the likelihood of existence without space and time. How might time machines and teleporters work? Consider an eleven-dimensional multiverse. Explore Black Holes, the Big Bang, Superstring theory, M-theory, and more.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2000
For middle school students and older, this book is a personal look at the space program written by one its leading figures. Kranz started with the Mercury program, was flight director for Apollo 11 and the first moon landing, and headed the team that successfully returned the Apollo 13 crew to earth. This is an exciting and eye-opening read.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2005
Fall leaf color is limited to three regions: parts of eastern Asia, central South America, and North America. This photo-rich guide explains the science of kleaf color, presents the trees and shrubs of countryside and city, and tells you where and when to see the best color in North America.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September, 2004
Innovation doesn't guarantee success, as this look at twenty designs for buildings, vehicles, bridges and towers illustrates. And sometimes, as in the case of Apollo 13, failure can be turned into success. The representative projects are accompanied by photos, maps and diagrams. A glossary is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 1999
Feeling a bit rushed? Wonder why we need words like "multitasking" and "real time"? Author James Gleick tells why in this witty compilation of facts about the increasingly quick pace of life at the end of the millennium.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 1999
In July 1994, a series of errors led to the deaths of fourteen firefighters in a forest fire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. Maclean examines why experienced men and women, smoke jumpers from Montana, hotshots from Oregon, and helitacks were trapped by a blowup, a violent, widespread burst of flame. This book is appropriate for high school students.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 1999
This book on physics for young adults is a revised, expanded, and updated version of the out-of-print Sympathetic Vibrations by acclaimed science writer K. C. Cole. Readers tour the wonders of modern physics, including quantum mechanics and the general and special theories of relativity, and eavesdrop on conversations with Richard Feynman, Victor Weisskopf, R. Robert and Frank Oppenheimer, and Philip Morrison.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2000
A young boy imagines what he would do if he were a clownfish. This picture book is a colorful introduction to life on coral reefs for children 4-8. A key at the end of the book identifies all the creatures pictured. The author provides interesting facts about the main characters and describes the biology of corals and reefs.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2002
In 1999, the author watched a colleague exit an elevator... thighs up all human, thighs down all robot, a cyborg. According to Brooks, director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, robots will never take over the world, but it might become very difficult to distinguish between robots and humans. Citing organ transplants and cochlea implants, he argues that the future will bring a merger of flesh and machine and the rise of robot-people.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
If the title doesn’t grab your attention, consider that there are about one million known insect species in the world or that for every pound of humans there are 70 pounds of insects. This entertaining collection of short pieces looks at butterflies and moths; ants, bees, and wasps; flies and mosquitoes; and others. It examines insect and human relations, insect biology, and insect ecology. Bug factoids are sprinkled throughout. Did you know that a honey bee makes 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime?
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 1999
The Flu of 1918 killed 40 million people, and no spot on Earth was remote enough to be free of disease. Entire villages of Eskimos disappeared. This exciting medical detective story for high schoolers and older follows scientists as they search for the 1918 flu virus and actually find bits of it in human remains frozen in the Arctic and in tissue samples preserved in a government warehouse.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2006
We use plumbing everyday but probably notice it only when it breaks. The author’s own interest started with a cracked section of PVC and its seemingly easy repair. He traces the development of plumbing from China seven thousand years ago to Australia’s water-saving dual-flush Caravelle.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2003
Five children on the dunes of North Carolina fantasize about flying while the Wright brothers prepare to make their first 12-second flight. The children's imaginings outline the history of flight from Kitty Hawk to the Moon landing. The final two-page watercolor is a timeline of manned flight.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2003
An introduction to flying takes the form of a description of a young boy's first flight in his grandfather's home-built biplane. Generously illustrated with photos, diagrams, maps, and drawings, the book provides the basics in navigation, safety, maneuvers, flight control, and building a biplane.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2006
No look at the future would be complete without a look at what the past thought the present might look like. Filled with contemporary illustrations, many from pulp science and science fiction of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, this book presents 20th century predictions of what might be in store for transportation, computers and robots, war, cities, medicine, and space. A final chapter makes predictions about life in 2050. Considering some of the "medical" content, the book is best suited for a teacher resource.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
Follow crime investigators as they collect evidence at the crime scene, establish identities, and analyze evidence. Chapters end with summaries and recommended websites. Plenty of photos illustrate techniques.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2004
Bishop’s incredible photos reveal the diversity of animal life right at our feet. Seven two-page spreads show more than 130 life-size creatures and plants in natural settings. Each photo, as the author explains in an end note, is actually a composite of 60 separate photos. He provides plenty of creature information and an identification key for backyard naturalists.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 1999
The Newbery Medal-winning author of My Side of the Mountain hits a home run again with the third installment in her trilogy about Frightful, Sam's falcon. In the latest book, Frightful is reintroduced into the wild.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2006
A vernal pool is a seasonal pond, one that fills and dries out over the course of the year. It may not always be full of water, but it is full of life. This beautifully photographed book will introduce readers to the yearly cycles of one vernal pool and the creatures: insects, amphibians, and reptiles that live in it.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2004
What would life be like if there was no winter? Could Life survive? Retreating polar ice caps and melting glaciers seem to indicate a drastic climate change. The author who has made a career of cold meditates on wind, water, snow, ice, ocean currents, and weather cycles while traveling to Tierra del Fuego and Spitsbergen.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2005
This picture book introduces some of the basics of astronomy: the planets, early scientists, the race to the moon, constellations, zodiac, and more. Each letter features a rhyming quatrain and factoids. The book concludes with a short quiz.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
Using his pulse to measure how long it took a pendulum to swing through its arc, seventeen year old Galileo determined that no matter how small or great the oscillation it took the same time. Isochronism, the principle behind a pendulum’s swing, is a fundamental system in nature. The author examines biorhythms, calendars, early clocks, pendulum clocks, marine chronometers, the physics of pendulums, oscillations of sound and light, and the quantum.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
This beautiful book catalogs the loss of creatures from the Upland Moa in 1500 to the Atilan Grebe in 1989. What was lost with the extinction of the included 103 birds, mammals, and reptiles is made evident by Schouten’s detailed full-page, and in some cases two-page, paintings. As Flannery’s introductory essay “The Age of Extinction” states, this is only the tip of the extinction iceberg. Many species have disappeared without being collected or drawn, some having never been discovered. This is a book to pore over and to take to heart.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2006
Nature can suggest new products. Velcro’s inventor George de Mestral was inspired by burs sticking to his dog’s hair. The Lotus’s self-cleaning ability led to the development of Lotusan, a self-cleaning paint. The secrets of the Gecko’s foot may not enable us to cling to the ceiling like Spiderman, but it could produce better tape. Forbes examines bio-inspiration—engineering based on nature’s nanotechnology. This is an exciting tale of applied science and the scientists who look closely at nature for new ideas.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2001
Is the water you drink safe? The author’s intention is to educate his reader’s about the science underlying many of today’s environmental fears. It appears that many of us are well intentioned but misinformed. This entertaining exploration of chemistry looks at health, food, sanitation, asbestos, methane, soap, and a lot more.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2002
Gears are cool, and this introduction to gears provides a built-in motor, gears, and other mechanical parts to accompany the text. Learn gear basics and tinker with spur gears, compound gears, rack and pinions, crank and rockers, and planetary gears. The final sections provide instructions on building a working gizmo and a pegboard to experiment with your own doodads.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2006
Endangered animals from around the world are featured in this Caldecott Honor Book. Each animalÂ’s entry has a stylized letter and information on class, habitat, range, threat, and status. More details on each creature are grouped at the book's end.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 1999
This book recounts the Lewins' 1997 trip into the Impenetrable Forest in Uganda and their experiences with endangered mountain gorillas in the wild. Although rich watercolors add appeal to the story, students in need of material for research reports will want to seek additional sources of information.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
Dad's hair may be gray, but what if he weighed 500 pounds, had an arm spread of eight feet, and ate 50 pounds of plants a day? This book for readers 4-8 examines the three subspecies of gorilla and features full-page color close ups of young and adult gorillas. Some of their facial expressions require no translation.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
Long Pond Cay, a Bahaman refuge for bonefish and osprey, is a favorite haunt for twelve-year-old Trey and his mute seven-year old brother Lou. Strange things begin to happen when a development group threatens to turn the cay into a resort. Trey and Lou are transported into a future drastically different from their own time, and Lou is welcomed as the mythic hero destined to change both the future and the present.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 1999
This book for preschoolers invites children to draw conclusions about habitats and the animals who live there. Pop-out hidden pictures and verbal clues provide help along the way.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 1999
Swinburne's book invites readers age 3 and up to learn all about light and shadow through full-color photographs and a shadow hunt game.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
Follow apprentice ironworker Kristen as she puts in a typical day’s work. Learn the different duties performed by the experienced men and women who build skyscrapers. Roth’s wonderful illustrations are constructed from photos, paper cups, envelopes, rice and mulberry paper from Japan, a pair of her own worn out blue jeans, and many other things from her overflowing closet.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
Gould argues in this his last book that the assumed conflict between the sciences and the humanities is a false one, that both are necessary "to any life deemed intellectually and spiritually 'full.'" Gould specifically rebuts the arguments in E.O. Wilson's book Consilience.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2002
Henry David Thoreau was one of our earliest naturalists and nature writers. In 1845, he built a ten by fifteen foot cabin near Walden Pond for $28.12. This picture book describes how he cut and hewed twelve trees; bought and used bricks, boards and shingles; and employed the help of friends like Emerson and Alcott. A final author’s note provides additional information about Thoreau’s cabin.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 1998
This colorfully illustrated hardback gives parents and children a connection in the kitchen, as they whip up treats like Bananarama Bread and Cha-Cha Chili and ponder recipe-related ecological factoids ("Don’t kill the yeast, it is a sensitive fungus.") Later sections include recipes for non-food items like homemade glue and tie-dyed socks, using environmentally responsible ingredients.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2003
Quarks are in the protons and neutrons that make up most of the universe’s known matter. The author explains what they are, how they behave, and why physicists believe they exist, even though no one has ever seen one. This brief, nonmathematical tour of quarks demands attention.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2001
Dennis Kunkel is a microscopist and photographer. He’s made scientific discoveries about bacteria, nerve and muscle cells, and protozoans. The photographs in this book are amazing. You’ll see a budding hydra, a dust mite, a series of increasing magnifications of an Asian Tiger Mosquito’s wing, and a lot more.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2000
In telling the tragic last voyage of the Hindenburg, this picture book reviews the career of Hugo Eckner and the development of dirigibles, lighter-than-air ships that could be steered. O'Brien supplies maps, detailed diagrams, and pictures filled with action and drama.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2000
This reference for Internet searching lists popular search engines and presents selected sites for homework, reference, math, language, history, geography, and science. Each site entry includes a copy of the homepage, URL, general description, and student testimonial. For students 9-12, this is the perfect book to keep by the computer.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
When an earth dam on the Colorado River failed in 1904 destroying the Imperial Valley’s irrigation system and flooding valuable farmland, it became clear that the next dam would need to be extraordinary. This history of the Hoover Dam project is filled with illustrations, maps, diagrams, and contemporary photographs revealing construction details and the lives of the thousands who helped build the dam during the Great Depression. Sidebars provide quotes from men and women who worked on the dam. A four-page foldout gives a bird’s-eye view of the construction site in 1934.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2003
This is the companion book to the Ken Burns film on the first road trip across the United States. In 1903 when there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the whole country, Horatio Nelson Jackson drove with a mechanic and a bulldog from San Francisco to New York City to win a $50 bet. His was not a Jack Kerouac adventure. The contemporary photos present a very different view of the open road. The book has 146 illustrations and one map.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 2002
In the past two hundred years, Ben Franklin has saved countless lives with his lightning rod. In this picture book history of accomplishment, you will follow the trail of discovery that led to Franklin’s invention and, in a series of “digressions,” learn about many others. An author’s note reveals even more Franklin firsts.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: December 2006
An epistemic game is a game that creates the epistemic frame of a community by recreating the process individuals use to develop the skills, knowledge, identities, values, and epistemology of that community. The author shows how video and computer games can teach children to think like engineers, urban planners, journalists, lawyers, and other innovative professionals. He offers a view of what education could become.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2006
Are inventors isolated geniuses? The author thinks not. He argues that inventions are the sum of many contributions from others. He examines the airplane, steam and engines, and printing and books tracing the steps that produced the final product.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2006
This is a fabulously visual exploration of inventors and inventions (hits and flops). Think Where's Waldo with more content. Units cover lenses, steam, electricity, internal combustion, transistors, and gunpowder. Each unit opens with a four-page spread filled with facts and pictures. Don't forget to look for Brainwave. He'll be pushing a wheelbarrow from page to page collecting gadgets.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2000
These wonderful books combine photographs of the author, cartoon-like drawings of dogs and cats, and useful information about how you can talk to your pet. Readers 4-8, learn what your dog or cat is saying with barks and growls, purrs and meows, body and tail postures, and facial expressions. And if you don't have a dog or cat yet, read one of these books to your mom or dad. It will help soften them up.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2007
Build the sixteen cool projects described in this graphic do-it-yourself. Projects include a PVC marshmallow shooter, a bottle rocket charged with a bike pump, and a whoopee cushion made with a wire coat hanger and a washer. Along with the projects are ideas for setting up a workshop, equipping a tool bucket, and learning about the different tools. A glossary is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
Claire Montgomery, Monte Montgomery, and Hubert is a fifteen year old Sumerian who takes after his inventor mother. She disappeared when a gust of wind caught her umbrella. Hubert invents the wheel. It takes time for the new technology to catch on. Some of his neighbors think it’s a new fangled table. Trouble starts when the enemy, the Assyrians, decide to use the invention to attack Ur. The humor and anachronisms should spark a lot of discussion.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2004
This is an up to date presentation of what paleoanthropologists know about our ancestors. This National Geographic book features many photos, illustrations, diagrams, and supporting essays describing the methods used by scientists investigating human prehistory.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2000
In 1916, young Tom Elson encounters an endangered animal, the farivox, in a crate on a stranger's wagon. The creature has a monkey's face, a weasel's body, a fox's tail, a lion's feet, a lynx's ears, and an owl's beak. And it can talk. When Tom tells the stranger he wants to buy it and has money at home, the farivox tells him to hurry. This picture book for children 4-8 is adapted from a story by Harry Hartwick.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
A boy takes the moon for a walk. Along the way, he and the moon observe the world around them. Curtis’s verse and Jay’s illustrations are engaging. The author has included a final science section on the moon and nocturnal creatures. PreK-2
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2001
Each animal in this picture book is introduced with a description and picture of its tail. Visual clues provide information to guess the animal's identity. Flip the page and the animal is identified. This book would be a great way to begin unit on habitats and adaptations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2001
If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of familiar things, like chewing gum, piggy banks, or animal cookies, this picture book will answer your questions. It describes the beginnings of fourteen common objects from high heel shoes to pies. Each two-page spread includes factoids.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2000
November. Snow covers the ground, the trees are bare, and animals have burrowed deep to sleep till spring. Humans do special things in November too. This picture book for children 4-8 is a poetic introduction to seasonal change and would be perfect for a unit on hibernation and dormancy.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
No matter where you are if you look closely you'll discover animals observing you. That is the premise of this beautifully illustrated book. Weismuller presents an eye and an environment with enough verbal clues for attentive readers to determine who the eye belongs to. Stumped? All the animals are named on the last page. Readers old enough to remember black and white Tarzan movies should keep their eyes on the trees for a pictorial pun.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 1999
Today art and science are popularly thought to be opposed, but both provided inspiration for the intellectual revolution of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Focusing on the scientific and technological advances of a huge cast of well-known and little known figures, Jardine shows how discovery grew out of everyday life. This book is for high school students and older.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 1998
Elementary school students will delight in the playful language and hysterical illustrations of this book while learning about 21 different spiders and insects. The pages are filled with realistic, colorful pictures and thoughtful, informative poems. This is one group of bugs children will love to have at home!
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
This book examines issues in planning, designing and developing interactive multimedia. It highlights multimedia applications in different settings. Individual chapters provide case studies of multimedia development and use in language learning, cartography, engineering education, health sciences, and science.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
This alphabet picture book features sea creatures, from anemones to zooplankton. Children 4-8 year will find a lot to look at in Jenkins's paper collages. Told in rhyming couplets, this book would make a good introduction to a unit on the sea.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2001
What was Philo T. Farnsworth’s contribution to television? What was Stephanie Kwolek’s contribution to bulletproof vests? This generously illustrated, large-format history examines important inventions and their inventors. Innovations in medicine and healthcare, transportation, energy and environment, computing and telecommunications, and consumer products are featured. An appendix lists print and Internet resources.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2001
Some of us look at clouds and see rain. Some see sheep. Meteorologists distinguish types of formations: cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus. These terms were first used by Luke Howard in a lecture he delivered in London in 1802. Howard’s precise terminology influenced not only science but also literature and art. This is an engaging story about an overlooked scientific pioneer.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2004
Both Freud and Einstein were frustrated by an apparent lack of evidence, at least evidence as 19th century science defined it. Panek describes their creation of two new sciences, cosmology and psychoanalysis, built upon the next level of scientific data—the invisible.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2006
Remember the last "kiss" your dog gave you? Well, it wasn't a kiss. When a wolf pup licks the face of an adult in the pack, the adult regurgitates some yummy fast food. Your dog retains some of its wolf habits. This book examines wolves and dogs and explains some of your dog's curious behaviors like digging, howling, rolling over, and mousing. The book has many color photos. Cat lovers shouldn't miss Bidner's companion volume: Is My Cat a Tiger?
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
Newton invented calculus (though Leibniz was the first to publish) and explained gravity, yet he tried to use the Bible to predict the future and was secretly obsessed with alchemy. In fact, some of his more unusual behavior may have resulted from his habit of tasting and inhaling his own concoctions. This biography presents the whole Newton. The author recommends other books and websites.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 1999
Travel back to Galveston, Texas in 1900 to learn about the most devastating hurricane in American history. Larson's suspenseful tale focuses on Isaac Cline, the Weather Bureau's officer in Galveston, and the events of his day on September 8, 1900.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 1999
This is the fourth collection of science experiments created by VanCleave, whose activities cover stars, plants, insects, and more. More than 200 illustrations supplement the simple text instructions.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2004
From illegitimate immigrant to world celebrated artist, Audubon’s story is the classic American tale. Rhodes has written the first full scale biography of Audubon in forty years. This comprehensive look at the man and his work contains line drawings, maps, portraits, Audubon’s art, and photographs of his sons and wife.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2006
John Muir was a farmer, shepherd, inventor, scholar, writer, and naturalist. This illustrated biography reveals some lesser known aspects of his life—his early childhood in Scotland and Wisconsin, his inventions-including a bed that stood a person upright when it was time to rise, and his opposition to the Civil War.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 1999
The author catalogues 99 inventions in alphabetical order, covering items like blue jeans, fly swatters, and baseball hats. The trivia is fun and whimsical, but the lack of illustrations may be a drawback.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
No two people see the same rainbow. Though it sounds corny, it is literally true, even if they are standing side by side. This collection of 46 questions about the sky and what you can see in it provides concise and readable answers and fun activities. The book is filled with photos and illustrations. It also includes a glossary.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
If you’re just getting into digital photography, this guide can give you a good foundation. Seven chapters discuss digital basics, cameras, picture taking, software, the Internet, printing, and projects. A glossary is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2002
Approximately 40,000 Americans die each year from drug-resistant bacteria. By over-prescribing antibiotics and using them in food production, we have unwittingly created superbugs. Scary? You bet. This book examines the problem, the scientists, and medicine’s hopes in Komodo dragon saliva and frog skin.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 1999
James Burke, the best-selling author and host of television's Connections series, presents a fascinating view of history, finding connections between disparate subjects such as champagne bottling and wallpaper.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 1999
Sis has created a beautiful picture book about the real life Komodo dragon in this adventure as a boy and his family take a trip to Indonesia. The boy wanders off into the jungle and his fantasy of meeting a dragon actually come true! Students will love the colorful illustrations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
If the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can influence weather patterns thousands of miles away, imagine what an exploding volcano can do. The dust raised by Krakatoa’s destruction stayed in the atmosphere for years, causing unusual sunsets and colder than normal temperatures. Winchester examines the scientific and social impact of the event, from the immediate tsunami that killed 40,000 to anti-Western killings during the Banten Peasants Revolt five years later.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 1998
Denise Vega sets sail on an online adventure complete with pirates and a trusty parrot. Along the way, kids pick up valuable Internet know-how and navigation skills.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2005
Everything in the natural world captured da Vinci’s attention. In his last thirty years, he did research in astronomy, anatomy, zoology, geology, botany, and paleontology. This biography focuses on da Vinci the man of science. An appendix lists his known notebooks. The author recommends books and websites.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2003
Leonardo turned his genius to many things as this and visually packed biography reveals. The end papers are a collection of Leonardo’s thoughts. Sidebars provide added details. The text addresses Leonardo’s interests, projects, and methods. You’ll find a timeline, bibliography for further reference, and plenty of intriguing illustrations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
Ants have been around for more than 100 million years. They knew the birds when they were only dinosaurs. This illustrated natural history examines ant communication, family structure, architecture, anatomy, work, yearly cycles, and more. It provides plenty of interesting facts on one of Earth’s strongest creatures.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2002
The evolution of life on earth over 3.8 billion years is presented in timeline form in this picture book. Jenkins has illustrated representative life forms at critical periods. The diversity of life is explained in a discussion on Darwin and his theory of evolution. Jenkin's cut paper and mixed media art would make an inspiration for an interdisciplinary project.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2004
Native Americans gave each full moon a name to mark the passage of time. Rylant and Siegel celebrate a year of moons in verse and art.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
This illustrated history of glass traces its origins to Egypt or Mesopotamia 4500 years ago. From faience beads to optical fibers, the author describes the processes that created fashion, art, and technology.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2004
A newborn fawn lies still and waits for his mother’s return. Is he lost? The field mouse and cardinal think so. This beautifully photographed picture book portrays the first hours of a deer’s life and introduces young readers to other creatures and the concept of camouflage. A final page challenges readers to find other “lost” animals in the pages of the book.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2002
In the 1950s when leading experimental psychologists employed the word “proximity” to refer to a close relationship, Harry Harlow persisted in using “love.” How close do you have to stand to connect? He would ask a behaviorist. Harlow’s experiments with monkeys painfully demonstrated the reality of love. This fascinating biography examines the career of love’s unlikely champion, a man who ultimately sacrificed his own family to pursue his research on affection.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
Follow a migrating herd of wooly mammoths as they watch for predators, hunters, and a snow storm on the trail to greener forage. Cyrus’s scratchboard and watercolor illustrations are perfect for depicting the coats of the mammoths.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2005
In 1957, Robert Noyce and seven others started their own transistor company. Ten years later, Fairchild Semiconductor had 11,000 employees and $12 Million in profits. This was only the start. In 1968, Noyce helped found Intel, the world’s largest producer of semiconductor chips. This biography examines the inventor and entrepreneur.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
Before Global Positioning Systems, sailors determined longitude by comparing local time and homeport time, and before accurate clocks were invented many ships became lost, sometimes with disastrous results. This picture book tells how the British Parliament offered a prize worth a million dollars for a reliable means of determining longitude. It describes some technically difficult or outlandish proposals, but focuses on John Harrison's successful series of five chronometers which took him a lifetime to perfect.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2001
In 1973, William Smith, a canal digger and engineer, noticed that the rock he was digging was layered and that each layer contained different fossils. In turn, Smith realized that by following the fossils he could trace the layers of rock across England. This he did for the next twenty years, finally producing in 1815 a huge hand-painted geological map of England. This is a compelling story. Smith's fortunes, from son of a blacksmith to father of modern geology to pauper and recluse to royal pensioner, had enough ups and downs to make a Dickens' novel.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 1999
This introduction to maps and cartography is for readers 9-12 and outlines the science of map-making from one of the oldest known examples, a Babylonian clay tablet from around 500 B.C., to Geographic Information systems (GIS) that make it possible for anyone with a computer to make a map. Anyone who likes to pore over maps and wonder will love this book.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 1999
This picture book is a fictionalized account of astronomer Maria Mitchell's childhood growing up with eight siblings in the early 1800s. Although Maria is kept busy helping her mother with housework, she longs to join her father on the rooftop and look through his telescope. A glossary includes astronomy terms.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2005
Ilya and his mother find a crow with a broken wing in a Moscow park and bring it home to bandage it. He calls it Martha. The vet says that she will never fly again and that it would be kinder to put her to sleep. Ilya objects. He is determined to help Martha, and with his parent’s help, he succeeds. The narrator, Ilya’s father, is an artist. Spirin’s watercolors include many details of an artist’s work and Russian culture.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 1999
In 1799, 11 year old Mary Anning discovered the fossil of an ichthyosaur, a sea reptile, in Lyme Regis, England. This picture book for children 4-8 tells the exciting story of her discovery and portrays a young woman who was determined to pursue a career in science.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2003
Twenty medical breakthroughs are briefly presented in this history of medicine, as well as the men and women who risked all to advance science. Five sections address the body, germ theory, cures, mind, and surgery.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
In this overview of the senses, the narrator demonstrates how she uses her senses to experience her pizza lunch. In addition, she explains in simple terms how the sense organs function. A final pictorial chart lists some of the things the senses can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2006
Exotic animals have played an important role in human history. The author examines this relationship beginning with elephants in warfare in Alexandria and concluding with Giant Pandas as diplomatic gifts in the National Zoo. This is a fascinating, if sometimes gruesome, unnatural history.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2007
Meinertzhagen was a renowned ornithologist as well as war hero and secret agent. He had a room named for him at the British Museum. Recent scholarship, however, has revealed his exploits to be mostly imaginary. As an ornithologist, he stole specimens from museum collections and relabeled them with dates and localities crediting himself. The resulting distributions maps are now recognized as unreliable as is the extensive collection he left. This is an enthralling story of a would be scientist who created more than he observed.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
Written by a U.P.I. reporter who covered the story in 1979, this illustrated history describes a nuclear disaster narrowly averted at Three Mile Island. He provides an eyewitness, hour-by-hour report. Hampton also provides chilling insight into what could have been when he examines the effects of the bombs dropped on Japan at the close of WWII and the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2006
This book has nine projects with solids, liquids, and gases. Each experiment is followed by a explanation and ideas for science fair projects. The introduction gives safety tips. And don’t miss the ten experiments in Energizing Science Projects with Electricity and Magnetism (April 2006).
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2003
In 1961, thirteen women were secretly tested in a program to prepare America's first female astronauts, yet it would be twenty years before Sally Ride rode the Shuttle into space and another decade before Eileen Collins piloted the Shuttle. This is a fascinating and frustrating account of how qualified women were denied their chance by the "Boy's Club" in NASA and on Capitol Hill.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2001
We take our mirrors for granted, but the Countess de Fiesque once wrote that she sold "a nasty piece of land that brought in nothing but wheat" to buy a beautiful mirror. Royalty did not live by bread alone. In this extended essay, the author examines the origin of the mirror and its manufacture and the changing significance of the mirror in society, including its philosophical, psychological, and moral associations. You won't look in your mirror the same way after reading this book.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2005
At a time when women were not encouraged to have scientific careers, Henrietta Leavitt discovered a law that made it possible for astronomers to measure the universe. Leavitt’s observation of variable stars, stars whose brightness increases and decreases regularly, was the key to determining what had been until then undeterminable. This brief biography celebrates the contribution of an almost forgotten woman of science.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2004
When Mrs. Seahorse lays her eggs, she puts them in Mr. Seahorse’s pouch for safe keeping. Mr. Seahorse is not the only non-traditional dad in the sea. As he swims, he meets others. In addition to a look at undersea childcare, Carle includes fish that protect themselves through camouflage. Mr. Seahorse passes these unaware of their presence, but readers can reveal them by lifting an acetate sheet.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2007
The author has gathered forty experiments and demonstrations in magnetism, effects that at first appear to be magic. Mystify your audience with magnetic cereal, super levitrons, and magnetostatic linear accelerators. Some activities, like the magnetic “hedgehog,” require adult supervision and great care. The author has provided ample cautions, instructions, and sources for materials.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2005
What do you do after you walk on the Moon? As Gene Cernan once said, “It’s tough to find an encore.” The author interviewed the nine surviving men who landed on the Moon and returned to teach, preach, paint, politic, and fight depression and alcoholism.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
As in his previous book Cloud Dance, Thomas Locker sets out in Mountain Dance to illustrate a natural phenomenon, the birth and death of mountains. The poetic main text relates the slow dance of creation and destruction. An appendix presents thumbnails of each painting and a more detailed explanation of the geologic forces of creation and erosion.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2003
Paul Farmer is a doctor, Harvard professor, infectious disease specialist, anthropologist, recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, and according to some a world-class Robin Hood. Motivated by the belief that there is only one real nation – humanity, Farmer has set out to change the world by taking modern medicine to places like Peru, Haiti, Cuba, and Russia. Kidder, who has written fascinating accounts of computer design, house building, and teaching, provides insight into a rare human being.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
Animals move in different ways. Jenkins and Page have used cut and torn paper to illustrate animal movement, walking, waddling, flying, and leaping in mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects. The picture book ends with an invitation to children to move so the book could be used as an introduction to a physical education lesson. An appendix provides fascinating facts about all twelve creatures.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
Mummies are fascinating, and their discovery can have unexpected results. In 1983, the discovery of a mummified human head in England caused a local man to confess to killing his wife 23 years before, but radiocarbon tests revealed the head to be almost 2,000 years old. Readers 9-12 will find themselves wrapped up in this amply illustrated introduction to mummies and the scientists who study them.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
Bang’s dynamic illustrations and spare prose trace the transformation of our sun’s energy. The sun’s heat drives the water cycle and aids in producing hydroelectric power. Air currents allow the production of electricity with windmills. Photosynthesis fuels plant growth and food production. Kids learn about ancient forests and coal beds and solar cells. The book opens with the sun’s rays falling on Earth and ends with city light returning to the stars.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
Could crumbling tin buttons have contributed to Napoleon's defeat in Russia? Tin begins to deteriorate at low temperatures, exactly the conditions his army faced in the winter of 1812. The authors explore tin and sixteen other groups of molecules that have influenced history. Chapters cover ascorbic acid, nitro compounds, silk and nylon, molecules of witchcraft, salt, and more.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
This super science classroom resource is a compilation of three previously published activity books. Sections provide things to do during all seasons and in all weather. There are projects for animals, plants, art, music, cooking, ecology, and a lot more. The large format will make it easy to leave it open on a table.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2005
It took a better microscope to begin to reveal the secrets of the nervous system. It took also the work of two doctors: Santiago Ramon y Cajal and Camillo Golgi. Rapport, himself a neurosurgeon, tells the exciting story of their research and rivalry. The book contains photos and a glossary.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2004
If you had the President’s ear, what policy recommendation would you make? This collection of twenty-five earfuls takes on the big issues: energy and climate; environment, health, and safety; and natural resources. A fourth section examines the use of information and statistics in decision making.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2004
This large-format and well-illustrated encyclopedia explains the science underlying many phenomena we encounter everyday. Four sections look at matter and motion, forces, elements, and chemistry. Each entry is cross referenced to related entries.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 1998
First published in 1988, this classic text has been updated to provide an even richer experience for readers age 10 and up. Detailed illustrations and supporting text explain the ins and outs of all sorts of gadgets, from can openers to cameras to helicopters.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2005
If you want to be able to look at the night sky and say more than wow, this spiral-bound guide to stars and astronomy will set you on the right path. Lynch examines stars, the planets, the moon, asteroids, and comets. He has sections on seasonal constellations. He takes a look at telescopes. Three appendices cover locating planets, the brightest stars in New York, and resources. Lynch has or will have guides for other states too.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2004
This father and son tour of the solar system includes some of the latest science theorizing and space exploration. The cut and torn paper illustrations are engaging and the concepts of size and distance are presented in an easily grasped and yet still mind-boggling manner. For example, if we traveled at 60 miles per hour 24/7, it would take 177 years to reach the sun. Are we there yet?
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 1999
Now available in the U.S., this science book for ages 9-12 was first published in Canada in 1996. Activities and experiments in astronomy and nature are designed to develop an understanding of the world after dark. Each daytime and nighttime activity lists materials required and procedure and provides an explanation when needed.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2004
Most extinctions result from a combination of factors—habitat destruction, over exploitation, introduced species, and secondary extinctions. With the exception of extinctions brought about by human action, however, there is no inclusive theory to explain extinction. This book examines theoretical causes like meteor impacts, disease, and hunting. Ellis also looks at recently discovered species, or as he calls them anti-extinctions, and species rescue programs, some as cutting edge as the proposed cloning of the Tasmanian Tiger and the Mammoth.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2003
Past Nobel Prize winners in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Economics, Mathematics, and Peace answer twenty-one intriguing questions, such as why can't I live on French fries?, why do mom and dad have to work?, and why does 1+1=2? Fourteen essays concern science and Mathematics. A brief biography is included for the author of each essay.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2002
Industrial melanism was the term attached to the purported natural selection of darker moths in England in response to air pollution and was used to support Darwin’s theory. H.B.D. Kettlewell’s photos of dark and light moths were a familiar feature of science textbooks for years. Unfortunately, most of the evidence was unreliable, and in some cases faked. This is a true tale of scientific ambition gone awry.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 1999
Myers, a frequent author in "Highlights for Children," has authored this engaging book that covers eleven explorations into the animal kingdom with practicing scientists.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 1999
Rockwell and Halsey's text presents a clear account of seed germination and plant growth for very young botanists. Richly detailed illustration brings the story to life.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 1999
Here's a guide to kid-friendly sites in cyberspace that also serves as an invaluable introduction to online computing. Written in a lively style accessible to children ages 8-14, this resource guide and activity book shows kids how to access educational and entertaining sites on the most popular online services. It's obvious Gralla knows his audience with site ratings based on "Coolness" and "Usefulness." Also included are activities like taking a virtual tour of Washington D.C. and how to create your own Web page.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2006
The invention of more than 400 common items is described in this ABC of gadgets. Many of the brief entries are accompanied by advertising or patent drawings and photographs. With no index or cross-referencing, the book is best for browsing.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2002
Children learn about sex, violence, and commercialism from songs on the radio, Internet access, television, and movies. Steyner is a Stanford University professor and founder and chairman of JP Kids, a family and educational media company. In this disturbing book, he examines how we have let media bombard children. He offers practical solutions.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2005
Watch an apple tree as it changes through the seasons, from spring blossom to harvest. Young children will learn the role of bees in pollination and the creation of fruit. Digman’s illustrations combine whimsy and realism. The concludes with a recipe for apple crisp.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
Humans and apes have a common ancestor. We share behaviors, specifically violence, with chimps. Some of our better traits, however, are more evident in another ape—the bonobo. In the author's words, we are the "bi-polar ape." De Waal has studied primates for twenty years. In this book he explores the relationship between chimp, bonobo, and human behavior.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
A child snuggles in bed and listens to a bed time story. The story pursues the theme of nests from birds in trees, cats in piles of clothes, hens in hay, and mice in discarded gloves and gradually enlarges the concept of nest to include a harbor and the cosmos itself. This rhyming tale is accompanied by reassuring illustrations for an uncertain age.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2005
We will start to run out of fossil fuels by the end of the century. The author suggests that by the time we have used it all up, we may have left the planet uninhabitable. Goodstein begins his assessment of our energy future by looking at energy myths and by providing a brief history of energy. He looks at electricity, radiant energy, heat engines, entropy, and technological fixes.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
Readers 9-12 will get an eyeful with Simon's latest book. A collection of 36 photographs taken with standard cameras, scanning electron microscopes, and the Hubble Space Telescope provide images of things rarely seen: the inside of a living heart, paths of sub-atomic particles, nebulae, the head of a ladybug, and more.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2001
Young readers will get a close look at some of the world’s rats and mice in this science picture book. The full-page color photos; x-rays; dissections; and details of paws, teeth, and tails are riveting. The text contains many questions to focus observation. This book includes a glossary and an appendix with more questions and information.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2001
Tiko was a 3- year old Red-lored Amazon Parrot when he was adopted by Dr. Joanna Burger, a biologist and professor at Rutgers University. Trained as a Behaviorist, Dr. Burger once thought it was bad science to attribute human thought, feelings, and language ability to animals. She has changed her mind. She writes "no one who has lived with a parrot will for a second doubt that they have thoughts and feelings similar to ours."
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2007
Simon describes generalized penguin behavior, and then looks at Emperors, Kings, Gentoos, Macaronis, Rock Hoppers, Adélies, Chinstraps, and some lesser known varieties. Full-page, color photographs of different species of Antarctic penguins in their natural environment make this book a winner. The book includes a glossary and index.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2007
Meet the elements in an illustrated guide to the Periodic Table. Elements are grouped in families to highlight their chemical similarities. Each entry includes vital statistics, description, and a mini-chart showing the element's position on the Table. Glossary and wall poster are furnished.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
The sturgeon has been swimming for 250 million years, but in the last twenty, sturgeon populations have dropped seventy percent. Part of the problem is the popularity if caviar, which can sell for as much as a hundred dollars and ounce. The author examines the fish, those who profit from it, and those who are trying to save it.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
Phineas Gage was a railroad construction foreman in 1848 when an explosion sent a thirteen-pound iron rod through his brain. Incredibly, Gage was conscious and talking when taken for medical attention. He lived another eleven years, although his personality was radically changed. This fascinating account examines the man, the accident and damage to his brain, and the science that explains his survival and alteration.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2002
This third edition of a classic has been revised, updated, and expanded. The author, a former physics professor at Yale, examines aspects of the game: the flight of baseballs, the swing of the bat, pitching, batting, bats, running, fielding, and throwing. The book contains many charts, graphs, diagrams, and formulae.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 1998
First published in 1981, Branley and Illustrator Kevin O'Malley have given this book about the planets and solar system a facelift that's out of this world! Ms. Frizzle's class tour around the planetarium is complemented by a list of relevant Web sites and simple projects for students.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2001
When the first specimens of the platypus reached England in 1799, the creature was thought a hoax, a colossal colonial joke. What real animal could have webbed feet, fur, and the bill like a duck? Moyal has written an exciting and entertaining account of the discovery by Europeans of the platypus and how its existence upset theories of creationism, evolution, and the classification of species.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
Where do new biological adaptations come from? The authors propose a new theory: facilitated variation. They argue that conserved components of life facilitate evolutionary change by reducing the amount of genetic change required to generate phenotypic novelty. Sounds complicated? Think of the molecular components as Legos that can be rearranged and linked in new ways. And more surprising, the authors argue that the molecular biology of the cell fosters biological novelty when plants and animals need them, not just when chance generates them.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2004
Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877 launched the recorded music industry. Until then, the experience of music was limited to live performance. In this brief history, Coleman outlines the development of recording technology from wax cylinders to MP3 files. Does your dad drive you crazy by calling a CD a record? A lot has changed since 1982, so be patient.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2007
Crocodiles are not the only fascinating creatures from Down Under. The author examines marsupials in this photo-filled book. Kangaroos and koalas are familiar, but meet bandicoots, bilbies, numbats, quolls, and more. The book has maps and sidebars with interesting facts. Did you know that wombat poop is almost perfectly cube-shaped? When dry, it can be used as blocks.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2005
Talking about an eight foot Terror bird isn’t as engaging as seeing a life-size picture of its head with lemon-size eye and boot-size hooked beak. Jenkins has created cut-paper illustrations of the very big and the very small to satisfy anyone fascinated with prehistoric life on Earth.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
Human muscle differs only slightly from other animals. The same stuff propels the very very big and the very very small. Vogel, a leader in biomechanics, explains how muscles work, or at least what we understand so far, and how connecting muscle to a skeleton increases their efficiency. He examines tools, beasts of burden, limits to performance, and even meat eating, and makes a good argument for moderate consumption.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2001
This ABC examines some elemental and cutting edge concepts in science and even takes on sacred cows, such as the notion that water in the Northern Hemisphere really spins counterclockwise as it goes down a drain. Schwartz says that it can go either way and that its direction is determined by other factors. Fill a sink and experiment. This enlightening and entertaining book is loaded with marginal illustrations. It also has a glossary.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2004
The chair you're sitting on is solid on one level, but on another level, the realm of the very small and fast, it is mostly empty space. The author, former director of the American Institute of Physics, explains the world of quantum mechanics and its big ideas: granularity, wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, the nature of borons and fermions, superposition, and entanglement.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2006
Join a team of scientists, explorers, and a photographer as they climb high into Papua New GuineaÂ’s cloud forest in search of MatschieÂ’s tree kangaroo. It looks like a bear, climbs trees like a monkey, and has a pouch like a kangaroo. Bishop has captured the expeditionÂ’s action and exotic plant and animal life of an isolated environment.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2004
Extinctions are natural. Of all species that once lived, 99% are gone, but what makes the loss of the Ivory-bill Woodpecker and many other creatures in the sixth wave of mass extinctions unusual is that Man is the cause. A series of maps depicts the dwindling habitat that doomed the Ivory-bill. This account of the attempt to preserve it in the U.S. and the tantalizing 1980 sightings of the bird in Cuba makes for exciting reading.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2005
Perhaps the ultimate innovation is that of humanity engineering its own evolution. Garreau argues that we are already doing so with advances in genetics, robotics, information, and nanotechnologies. Yesterday’s comic strip superpowers are nearly today’s reality. The critical question to consider is whether innovation will lead to heaven or to hell. Garreau includes an extensive reading list for further research.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
In June 1995, David Hahn’s Tom Swiftian quest for an atomic energy merit badge from the Boy Scouts ended when a team of moon-suited men from the EPA chain sawed and vacuumed up every scrap of his parent’s potting shed. This brief and exciting book tells how a high school student researched, procured materials, and nearly built a breeder reactor, endangering the 40,000 residents of his small town.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2000
"It was hot." So begins Stojic's colorful tale of the rain returning to the African savanna. In succession, animals use different senses to anticipate the rain. When it comes, life flourishes, and when it stops and the savanna bakes once again. The last page echoes the first, making this book for children 4-8 a powerful introduction to cycles in nature.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2000
An astronomer and an artist help children 4-8 become rainbow experts. They will learn about the importance of rainbows in ancient cultures, why bending light creates colors, and how to make rainbows at home. A page of "rules" explains differences in the appearance of rainbows.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
Marent has visited rainforests on five continents for sixteen years photographing plants and animals. This large format collection opens with panoramas of forests, and then provides glimpses of diversity, cycles, and societies. An photograph of Marent waist-deep in swamp muck is in sharp contrast to the beauty of his photos. A concluding section locates the world’s rainforests. A CD of rainforest sounds in included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2000
Meet Alf Wight, the real Yorkshire vet behind the popular books, movies, and television series. His son traces his father's career from Glasgow boy to Yorkshire vet, and tells how his father managed to keep his life as a famous writer from interfering with his family and veterinary practice.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2001
Widespread use of DDT nearly destroyed the Osprey. Gessner's book chronicles a spring in his Massachusetts town in which more young Ospreys survived than had in more than 50 years. He watched four pairs on Cape Cod from March to September. He details their lives and describes the landscape they inhabit. Be advised, the author uses strong language to convey his emotional states.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2004
As Howard Dean's campaign manager in 2004, Joe Trippi used the power of Internet to make the little-known former governor of Vermont a presidential contender. Trippi describes the Dean campaign and how the power of the Internet has changed political campaigning, as television changed it nearly fifty years ago.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2001
The author developed an intense interest in the compass when his father, a ship captain, let him take the helm. Aczel provides a history of the compass filled with tales of exploration, fascinating characters, and science within an intellectual detective story, the author's search for Flavio Gioia of Amalfi, the purported inventor of the compass.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2004
Young robot fans will have fun exploring a world inhabited entirely by robots. Created in our own image, they do exactly the sorts of things we do from celebrating Boltdays to getting their “hair” blow-dried at the salon. Told in verse, this book would make a good starter for a unit in robot design.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2001
This book contains a work commissioned by the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York. Page has created a pictorial timeline of life on Earth. Each of her 544 panels in 11 sections for the 11 geological periods represents a million years and includes fossil plants and animals that might be found together by paleontologists in the field. The book ends with a small format overview and an appendix identifying key species in each panel.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2006
This introduction to rocks and minerals opens with an essay on their uses and ecological significance. The main attractions are the full-color, and often full-page, photos of crystals, gems, rocks, and fossils.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2002
Watson, Crick, and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in 1962 for their work in discovering the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, who worked in Wilkins’s lab, produced the x-ray photographs that supported the double helical structure, and yet she received no credit and has been largely forgotten. This biography gives Franklin her due and examines the politics of the scientific community fifty years ago.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2002
Suzuki argues that the environment is so fundamental to our existence that it must transcend politics by becoming central in the values off all members of society. There is no environment "out there." We are part of it. Suzuki suggests how we can meet our needs and still create a life that is sustainable, fulfilling, and just. The last chapter lists practical approaches in changing the way we think and live.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
Can you tell a trout from a salmon? Learn the natural history of the salmon family. This book for 9-12 year olds examines the life cycle of salmon, environmental factors endangering their survival, and the conservationists who work to preserve them. This book has a glossary.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2003
During the years Darwin lived at Down House in Kent, he took a walk every day, rain or shine, around his Sandwalk. In this ingeniously conceived graphic novel, Hosler, a biology professor, explores the mechanisms of evolution by imagining a conversation between a curious follicle mite and Darwin as he takes his daily walk. We all have mites in our eyebrows, by the way. Annotations for the chapters provide additional biographical, historical, and scientific information.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2003
This beautifully illustrated volume contains high points in the history of science. Each entry is a two-page spread covering 35,000 BC to AD 2000, from the origin of counting to the human genome sequence. Entries are cross-referenced to related discoveries, inventions, and insights. The detailed contents section and easy opening format make it an ideal classroom reference.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2003
If you have ever held a ball or racket or Frisbee and wondered why it looks the way it does or why some people care if a baseball bat is made of hemlock or ash or maple or even aluminum or graphite, then you will have fun reading this look at the science underlying sport. This reissue of a book first published in 1992 looks at 16 sports from billiards to surfing.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
Fun verse and fun illustrations help get science out of the lab. Each poem deals with a concept or subject and parodies a nursery rhyme or well known poem by Poe, Frost, Lewis Carroll and others. The author provides a list of inspirations. A CD of the author and illustrator reading is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 1999
This collection of 26 essays from Scientific American explores different aspects of brain research: mapping the brain, reasoning and intelligence, memory and learning, behavior, disease of the brain and disorder of the mind, and consciousness. The difficulty of reading varies from article to article, but on the whole, the book seems most suited for high school students and older.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
Come face to face with a moray eel and a nudibranch. Well, maybe not face. Earle's clear writing and Henry's wonderful underwater close-ups introduce some of the major animal families found in the sea. A chart at the end of the book orders animal life from the Porifera (sponges) to the Chordates (sea squirts, turtles, whales).
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2003
Tyrannosaurus rex is a frequent player in movies and nightmares, but what about Kronosaurus queenlandicus? This grinning marine reptile swam during the Cretaceous eating anything. Its skull was twice the length of T-rex and its teeth were 11 inches long. Ellis introduces some of the overlooked creatures of prehistory: the ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, and the mosasaurs. The text features many black and white illustrations by the author.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2006
Follow the life cycle of a Barbour’s sea horse in this beautifully illustrated natural history. The author has included an index and encourages his young readers to use it to find specific information. Lawrence’s vinyl engravings are striking.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2001
Dust might seem a dry subject, but after reading this book you’ll think differently. Examine everything from space dust to soot, the tiny particles that float on air, drift in cracks, and fill our lungs. Dust became the earth we inhabit. It affects our weather. It can cause disease. Learn abut some of the creatures that live in dust, and meet the scientists who study it. A generous appendix lists related Websites for each chapter.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
There are almost 8,000 reptile species in the world. Scientists classify them is six groups. Most of us are familiar with snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises, crocodiles, and alligators, but what about the legless amphisbaenians or the tuataras that have survived 200 million years? This book provide plenty of interesting facts about unusual reptiles and uses see-through pages to demonstrate adaptations and behavior
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2005
This beautifully photographed book is a primer on seeds. It illustrates germination, dispersal, size, shape, and use as food for animals and humans. It would make a perfect unit starter on seeds.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2002
Without the advantage of high tech tools available to professional astronomers, amateurs can still make discoveries. Ferris's book recounts his own experiences in astronomy, reports on the current revolution in amateur astronomy, and finally examines the objects out there. Appendices cover observing techniques, notable periodic meteor showers, bright stars, messier objects, planets and their satellites, further reading, star maps, and a glossary.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2001
Do you remember the Iceman discovered in the Italian Alps in 1991? Once he was recognized as an ancient death, the author attempted to collect DNA from bone tissue. He succeeded and was able to trace a living descendent of the Iceman, a woman living in Great Britain. Still more amazing is the author's claim that after plotting thousands of DNA sequences from around the world, he found all people of native European decent could trace their ancestry back to seven women. This is an exciting examination of the uses of DNA analysis.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2000
This book for middle-school-aged students and older tells how Aeneas Mackintosh supported the Shackleton attempt to cross the Antarctic in 1915. Even after losing his ship the Aurora and all its supplies in a gale, Mackintosh and his band scavenged from previous expeditions to accomplish their mission, unaware that Shackleton's party, frozen in ice, would never need them.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2000
Intended for readers 9-12, this generously illustrated introduction to the forces that shape Earth, covers volcanism and plate tectonics; erosion by water, wind, and ice; and changes resulting from plant and animal life.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 1999
Dramatic and inspiring stories of eight unwanted shelter dogs are presented in Kehret's text and Farrar's photographs. Meet canines who climb to movie stardom, shepherds trained to help the handicapped, and other dogs in this text for readers ages 3-8.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2001
Genetic engineering isn’t all that new. Humans have practiced it for thousands of years to create animals and plants that suited their needs. Hubbell relates four such instances of domestication: the development of corn, silkworms, cats, and apples. Along the way, she highlights some of the problems that have arisen.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2002
If you want to learn more about birds than just their names, Sibley has prepared a short course (154 pages) in birding and ornithology. He describes what equipment you will need, where to look, and how to identify birds. He includes chapters on behavior, voice, and anatomy. You will discover there is more to feathers than color
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2001
During the Cold War, Craven was considered so important by the Soviets they assigned a full-time KGB agent to spy on him. Craven was the chief scientist on the Navy’s Special Projects Office and headed the Deep Submergence Systems Project and the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle Program. You’ll get an insider’s view of the design process. If you liked The Hunt for the Red October, read about a real rogue Soviet sub that sank off Hawaii and the chilling scenario suggested by what was discovered.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2005
Songbirds learn to sing much as humans learn to speak. Kroodsma presents what science understands about the development of birdsong and why the songs of individual species vary from place to place. He examines male and female song and the dawn chorus. Spectrogram graphics illustrate many of the songs. The book includes a CD with 98 tracks illustrating the text.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2002
For each letter a skull is presented but not named. The reader must discover the identity of the animal by using clues hidden in the pictures. Some may require research. In addition, portraits of the presidents are concealed. All the answers can be found on a two-page spread of non-mammal skulls. Masiello’s realistic skulls provide a resource for talking about adaptations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2006
During the Great Depression a boy and his out of work father watch the Empire State Building rise four and a half stories a week. When it is finished, it is the tallest building in the world and will remain so for more than forty years, until the construction of the World Trade Center. This book commemorates the men who built it.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
This tribute to women and girl scientists presents stories as familiar as Jane Goodall’s work in Gombe and Mary Leakey’s discoveries in Olduvai Gorge and others as surprising as young Maria de Sautuola’s discovery of the Altamira Cave paintings and fourteen-year-old Rachael Charles’s experiments with solar puddles. The book is filled with eye-catching graphics. Appendices list organizations encouraging young people in science, Websites, and print resources. A selected timeline outlines 700 years of discoveries by women.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2002
More than just connecting users, Weinberger argues the Web is functioning as a permanent public space that gathers value every time someone adds to it. In the course of this philosophical rather than technical examination, he introduces some inhabitants of this second world and sets the Web in a social and intellectual context.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2006
After some preliminary guidance and safety tips, this collection of science activities tells you how to drop, catapult, and stack stuff as well as fling, swing, and zing things. Read the introduction carefully because many of these activities create a wonderful mess. Each activity tells you what you need, what to do, and what’s going on.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2000
Jeremy Seal is a man who takes the bull by the horns. Afraid of snakes, he traveled to Africa, Australia, India, and the Southeastern United States in search of the deadliest. This book for high school and up combines travelogue, social history, and introspection. Read it, and then shake out your boots.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2002
Do you like to tinker with machines? Do you dream of building a gadget to make some job easier? This picture book looks at nearly forty inventors, men and women, and explores what it takes to become an inventor. It combines humor and fascinating information. The book includes a short biography of each inventors and a brief bibliography.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2000
Is information technology our future or our doom? This book for middle school and up argues that hypesters and gloomsters both fail to see where technology is really leading us and that many tools, jobs, and organizations seemingly destined to disappear actually provide useful social resources we will fight to keep.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2006
Manya Sklodowska graduated at the top of her high school class but had to wait eight years before she could afford to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. As Marie Curries she would win two Nobel prizes and establish mobile x-ray units during WWI. She shunned publicity and refused to profit from her discoveries. This book has many contemporary photos.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2006
This anthology collects 32 examples of space opera, a sub-genre of science fiction, from pulp magazine beginnings to 21st century new wavers. SF aficionados will find stories by Cordwainer Smith, Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, and others. An introduction describes the development of space opera, and each story includes an author biography.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2003
The Brazilian Spix’s Macaw is one of four blue macaws, so rare they can sell for $40,000 on the black market. The last wild Spix’s Macaw lived alone for fourteen years after his mate was captured by poachers in 1987. This exciting and moving account tells of international attempts to prevent its extinction.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2006
Explore the science of sport with twenty-six activities in balance, reaction time, aerodynamics, safety, and speed, in ball sports, swimming, running, and more. Each activity is described and illustrated and includes a list of required equipment.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2003
If you want to learn how to identify stars and constellations this summer, this book offers a novel approach. Two sequences of sky charts introduce some of the more prominent stars and constellations in a manner as entertaining as it is effective. An epilogue recaps what you learned and a next steps section sends the enthusiastic to other resources and viewing tools.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2005
Stikky Trees is in three sections. Each section is meant to be read separately and in order. Practice after each section reinforces what has been read. The first section focuses on leaves. The second looks at bark, tree shape, and other distinguishing features. You will learn how to estimate the age of a tree as well. The last section introduces examples of specific members of the generalized tree groups first presented. Chunking and repetition help make this an effective teaching tool.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2003
Ok, so maybe the Kang brothers didn’t really invent paper, but this humorous and informative tale gives them ample motivation for doing so. Once again, Ting, Pan, and Kuai are in trouble, and once again, they manage to come out on top. The book concludes with a historical note on paper and a recipe for homemade garden paper.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2004
This is the first volume in a projected series of six telling the story of science. The first looks at physics and chemistry from the creation of the universe and early stories to explain the creation to the early voyages of exploration. Many chapters include feature sections which are coded to identify subject areas: science, math, language arts, technology and engineering, geography, and philosophy. The book has many illustrations and marginal supplements.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
Hakim tells the story of scientific discovery after the Middle Ages. Chapters cover the discoveries of Brahe, Galeleo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Boyle, and others into the 19th century. Feature sections examine contemporary science, math, technology, geography, philosophy and religion, art, and music. The book is well illustrated with art, charts and diagrams, and photographs. Eager students will find an annotated suggested reading section.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
When Charleston Harbor was blockaded by Union ships during the American Civil war, the submarine Hunley seemed to offer the Confederacy hope. George Dixon piloted the Hunley when it sank the U.S.S Housatonic on February 17, 1864. The Hunley disappeared the same night. Hawk tells the Hunley’s story from its design to rediscovery in 28 feet of water in 1995, as well as Dixon’s from his wounding at Shiloh to his disappearance. Queenie’s coin adds a poignant note to the story. The book features illustrations by noted Civil War artist Dan Nance and photos of the archaeological work.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2004
The New York Subway has more than 700 miles of track, some of it as deep as 180 feet. This illustrated history of underground trains focuses on the NYC system but also describes work on the London Tube, BART, and the Chunnel. It explains the advances in technology that made underground transportation possible.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2000
In this poetic picture book, a child reflects on the sun and what it provides. Repetition and striking images make this a great introduction to a unit on poetry or the sun and the solar system.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
A house is a pretty amazing machine with a number of interrelated systems that we take for granted until they break. This book shines light on water, waste management, power, communications, and heating and cooling systems. The narrator investigates everything from a toilet to a furnace and reports his findings in 16 case files. Final sections look to the future and suggest further reading.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2000
Acceptance of new ideas doesn't always come easily. Proponents of neurofeedback claim benefits for epileptics, suffers of A.D.D., golfers, and opera singers. This book for high school students and up describes how neurofeedback practitioners have struggled with the health-care industry for acceptance, and how they have even been denied the funding for studies that could prove the effectiveness of the procedure.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2000
With the digital age came digital crime. This book for technology and crime buffs, middle school and older, offers an inside view of cybercrime based on interviews with investigators, prosecutors, hackers, and security experts. Appendices include a glossary; US laws and international treaties; resources and publications; and an affidavit in the Ardita case, in which a 21 year-old Argentine hacked into Harvard's computer network and used it as a base for other crime.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2006
Three men went to the moon on Apollo 11. Two walked on the surface. The team of scientists and engineers that made it possible would fill ten large stadiums. This exciting recreation of the first lunar landing is filled with archival photographs. A glossary is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2003
This book is an argument for a closer connection to the natural world and a more ethical attitude toward other creatures. It is an effort to create a safer and more tolerant world. Ten chapters in two voices, Goodall’s and Bekoff’s distinguished by plain type and italics, elaborate their ten guidelines for human behavior. The book includes a large list of related Websites.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2000
Acclaimed author Peter Matthiessen traveled to the Russian Far East and other remote tiger territory to access the tiger's future. In this natural history, higher schoolers and up will learn of the species' origin and evolution, grow to appreciate its importance to the cultures and mythologies of the people who have shared its habitat, and meet some of the scientists who are trying to preserve it. Hornocker's photographs of tigers in the wild are unforgettable.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2001
We take time for granted, at least the uniformity conferred by Standard Time. Imagine trying to travel by plane or train in an age where time was determined locally. This book provides a brief history of time and tells the story of Sandford Fleming who built the scientific consensus that finally established the Prime Meridian and the twenty-four time zones.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2007
The author argues that the apparent design observed in the living world results from the interaction of two “machines”: Darwin’s natural selection and Bernard’s homeostasis, or the tendency of living systems to regulate themselves at a particular state. An example of homeostasis is the regulation of body temperature. His thesis is that organisms are designed not because natural selection has made them that way but because agents of homeostasis built them that way. What appears to be intentionality exists and evolves in the absence of a brain or an intelligent creator.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2002
The Wright Brothers decided as young boys they wanted to fly, and much of their time was spent playing with and making flying toys. Their handmade kites were famous in Dayton. This biography of Wilbur and Orville presents the inspirations, experiments, failures, and refinements that led to their historic first flight. The fifteen chapters and epilogue are accompanied by Parker’s arresting full-page and two-page watercolors.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2000
Rumors of a rogue elephant on India's North-East border killing dozens of farmers draws Dinesh Choudhury, a licensed elephant hunter, and Tarquin Hall, a journalist who can't believe that an elephant can be guilty of such mayhem. But the rumors prove to be accurate. Middle and High school readers will find this book about an endangered species in an endangered forest an exciting read.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 1999
Jenkins's cut-paper collages and dramatic, realistic depictions of an Everest expedition make this book a must-read for kids age 9-12. Jenkins effectively combines scientific information about weather, altitude, and climate with information about Sherpas, native cultures, and geography to create an altogether engaging experience.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2007
In 1990, oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer's mother showed him a newspaper article about hundreds of Nike sneakers that had washed up near Seattle. His search to discover their origin resulted in a career turn. With the help of beachcombers, Ebbesmeyer tracks trash in an effort to protect marine environments. The book features many photographs, charts, and maps.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
Have you ever wondered how dental floss was made? Or jelly beans? Or work gloves? Learn how 69 common products are made—toys, household items, clothing and fabric, and building materials. The manufacture of each product is described with text and illustrations. Sidebars provide fascinating factoids. A glossary is included.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2004
When Captain James Cook sailed to Tahiti in 1771, it was to observe the Transit of Venus in which the second planet crosses the solar disk and throws its shadow on Earth. Look to the sky this June and again in 2012 to see it. Transits comes in twos. Your next chance will be in 120 years. The authors provide a history of Transits from ancient China to 1883 and provide a guide to the Transits of 2004 and 2012. Be careful. As when observing any solar eclipse, use adequate eye protection.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2003
Charles Darwin was twenty-two years old when he embarked on the H.M.S. Beagle for a five year voyage that would give direction to his life and change our view of nature. Sis's book takes the form of a well-illustrated journal providing a brief biography as well as an overview of Darwin's discoveries, experiments, and theories. This is an excellent introduction to the life and work of a major scientist.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2002
Unimpressed by a conjuring show at the court of Maria Theresa, the empress of Austri-Hungary, Wolfgang von Kempelen said he could do better. Six months later he returned to court with a chess playing mechanical man. The Turk toured Europe for 85 years. This fascinating history tells of an earlier time when many were convinced a machine that could think had been made. A final chapter examines Big Blue.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2007
This book opens with a brief history of the Web from the first browsers to blogs, wikis, and social networks. The next chapters examine advances in Web technology, with an emphasis on languages, formats, and standards; core Web 2.0 technical mechanisms (APIs, Web procedure calls, and their mash-ups, rich Internet applications, and tagging); sample frameworks, (AjaxTK, OpenLaszlo, and Ruby on Rails); and the impacts of the next generation of the Web, including data ownership, software as a service, and the socialization and cocreation of content, which includes social networks and social software. The book ends by contrasting Web 2.0 with the Semantic Web.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2003
This book explains what genes and DNA are and how they work, describes how traits are passed on, traces the development of DNA science, looks at some current controversies, examines bioethics, and provides a reference section with timeline, who's who, glossary, and facts and figures. Internet links are given for more visual presentations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2004
Every time we take a vitamin or apply a beauty aid or use a cleaning product, we expect it to work. Why do they? Emsley explains the chemistry behind the ingredients in lipstick, sunblock, Vitamin C, Viagra, hydrogen peroxide, Prozac, chewing gum, and more and enlivens his discussion with anecdotes.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2006
The author, a chemist, examines products such as lipstick and sunscreen, margarine and vitamin C, Viagra and diamonds, hydrogen peroxide and ozone, Prozac and lithium, and chewing gum and disposable diapers. He explains the chemistry underlying the products and argues that “natural” chemicals are no safer than “man-made.” This book is best used as a teacher resource.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2007
When the subject of venomous animals is raised, snakes, bees, and spiders are quickly mentioned, but what about caterpillars, toads, water bugs, shrews, the hooded pituhui (a bird), and even the red eft? YouÂ’ll find more than a few surprises in this natural history. The book features many full-color photos of poisonous creatures in their natural habitats on land, in the water, and in the air. The author has included a glossary, bibliography, and webliography.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2005
From Atmosphere to Zero, meteorological terms and concepts are defined and illustrated in this picture book. Each letter/term is introduced with rhyming verse and supported with technical details.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2001
This picture book presents the life cycle of the butterfly. Follow the development from egg to caterpillar to butterfly on pages that grow correspondingly. Also included are sections on the natural history of butterflies, flower and butterfly identification, and gardens designed to attract butterflies.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2006
If you spend summer days around lakes, ponds, and streams, you’ve encountered countless insects and possibly the molted skins of nymphs on trees and boathouses. This guide to common insects is an entertaining introduction to forms of life easily overlooked or dismissed as pests. The first chapter introduces the orders. Other chapters explain where they live, how they breathe and eat, get around, protect themselves, and cope with climate. You’ll also learn how entomologists work.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2001
In 1997, the authors led a team of paleontologists and geologists to the badlands of Argentina, an area renowned for its spectacular dinosaur specimens. They discovered a dinosaur nesting ground covering more than a square mile. Among the tens of thousands of unhatched eggs, they found the first fossils of embryonic dinosaur skin. This book covers both the 1997 and 1999 expeditions.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 1998
If you've read Walter Wick's I Spy or A Drop of Water, you know how his incredible photography and engaging activities can lure readers into a better understanding of science. Optical Tricks will mystify and delight readers age 4-8; at the end of the book, the author explains how each illusion was created.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2004
Only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh and less than 1/3 of it is usable for humans. This series of maps presents information about water as a finite resource, uses and abuses, health, environmental change, conflicts, and what we can do to use water wisely. A final section has tables of water data by country.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2001
A young girl and her family vacation in the cabin her grandfather built long ago. She revisits secret places and does things she used to do with her grandfather. She eats berries, skips stones at a waterfall, and greets an otter. Watson's egg tempera paintings are filled with details of plant and animal life.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2005
It’s bedtime, and as a young girl climbs into her bunk bed she imagines that it is a tall tree in a rainforest. With each two page spread, she encounters a new creature: an ocelot, parrot, gecko, and finally her father. The last page reveals that the creatures are her stuffed animals.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2006
A graph known as the “hockey-stick” represents the predicted sharp increase in Earth’s average surface temperature during the 21st century. Global warning is driven in part by CO2 emissions. Some estimates say we need to reduce emissions by 70% by 2050 to reverse current trends. If you still have doubts about humanity’s role in climate change, Flannery makes a convincing case.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
Perfection in Web design can be better approached with help from this book. Common design mistakes in content, task-support, navigation, form, search, text and writing, link appearance, and graphics and layout are discussed and illustrated with real Web examples. One of the appendices lists all Web sites represented.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2006
Washington thought a canal providing access to the lands west of the Appalachians would help foster national expansion, but his plan was to build a canal in Virginia. It failed. Jefferson though a canal joining Albany and Lake Erie was “little short of madness.” The Erie Canal took seven years to complete, and when it opened in 1825 its 363 miles and 83 locks were the technological wonder of the age. The book contains many illustrations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2004
Some ideas are too strange to be accepted easily, yet they eventually become the foundation of our understanding of the world. As the author says, “Science and common sense often don’t mix.” Fisher, who has investigated the science of donut dunking, looks at some nutty ideas and the scientists who persisted in investigating them despite ridicule, oppression, and persecution. Of course, some ideas really are a crock. Fisher looks at some of those as well.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2002
Animals of different species sometimes form helpful relationships. The clown fish and the sea anemone are a well-known pair, but this picture book presents the Blind Shrimp and the Goby, the Ostrich and the Zebra, Red Ants and the Large Blue Butterfly, and other surprises. This is a great introduction to symbiosis for young scientists. Anyone familiar with this team’s 70 other books will be pleased with the gentle humor of the illustrations.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
Noses, ears, tails, eyes, feet, and mouths are spotlighted in this consideration of evolutionary biology. Five examples of each unattached part are presented on a two-page spread giving children a chance to guess who the owner is. The following two-page spread shows each example reunited with its owner and provides an explanation of its biological advantage. A final section has more information on all thirty animals.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2002
This collection of essays on the Internet written between 1992-2001 is a time capsule of personal reflections on a developing technology. Gleick’s assessments were some times very wrong, as was his dismissal of the Internet as an effective medium for pornography. His 1995 essay on Microsoft, on the other hand, seems prophetic.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2004
Gee argues that playing video games can be good for cognitive development. The best games aren't passive. They require complex thought and make intellectual demands on their players. He looks at how individuals develop a sense of identity, grasp meaning, pick role models, and perceive the world. He presents 36 learning principles of videogames that he believes are applicable in schools.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2006
Often the process of science starts with an insight. In this collection, 109 scientific thinkers write about ideas they believe to be true but cannot prove, at least not yet; for example: Richard Dawkins on design and evolution, Paul C.W. Davies on extraterrestrial life, and Janna Levin on external reality.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2004
Mr. Whiskers believes children learn about science by exploring. He has seven stations in and outside the classroom for discovery with water droppers, gloop, oobleck, ice and water, rocks, water tubs, and sand and mud. Seven sections portray students doing science at each center. Each section ends with a big idea about matter. The book ends with a list of needed materials and sources of materials.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: August 2007
Pluto may not be considered a planet any longer, but it still orbits the Sun. Take a look at the astronomical advances that have furthered our understanding of the solar system and the universe. The book features many illustrations, a glossary, and suggestions for print and web resources.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2007
The projects in this collection are potentially dangerous and require close adult supervision. That said, nightlighters, pulse jets (the power behind the German V-1), elastic zip cannons, mechanical toe, and more will furnish plenty of experience in following directions, building from plans, and getting a charge out of the physical sciences. All projects list materials and sources, provide photos of steps and completed projects, and stress safety.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: May 2001
In this picture book, children will find nine baby animals and the repeated question "Whose baby am I?" Turning the page, they'll find the answer and a picture of the mother. At the end of the book is a two-page spread of babies and adults to match and another page with the names for the young of each animal.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 1999
Finally, a book that answers all of the questions you and your students have about computers and the Internet! The CompuDudes are well versed in this area since they've had a radio show to help kids with computers since 1989. Now, they take their humor and know-how to the pages of this useful guide. The CompuDudes have truly mastered the art of forming simple, fun and easy to understand explanations for everything from floppy disks to zip drives.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: September 2005
Some of the answers in this fun look at animals are silly, some sensible, and some scientific. The scientific ones are marked with an asterix. Why do hyenas laugh? Why do rhinos have horns on their noses? Why do walruses have mustaches? You’ll enjoy fourteen critters, countless yucks, and solid science.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2000
Can you imagine a place where crabs climb trees and birds swim underwater? Explore a mangrove swamp with Jim Arnosky. See cottonmouth moccasins, barred owls, alligators, anhinga, and more. This picture book for 4-8 year olds is a great introduction to an unusual environment.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: March 2003
This poetic introduction to wild birds and bird watching features common backyard visitors. Each bird is pictured in its usual niche demonstrating typical behavior. An identification key is provided along the border of the copyright page to assist fledgling birders.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: November 2003
This photo collection spotlights the incredible color displayed in the natural world, from the rainbow-hued bill of the Keel-Billed Toucan to fields of lavender in province. The text provides interesting facts about each subject.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2008
Learn to identify the tracks of North American mammals, birds, and reptiles. ArnoskyÂ’s guide has dozens of tracks, many life-size. Compare the tracks of our two largest bears: the Grizzly and the Polar bear. Why do you think one has larger feet? In addition to the tracks, Arnosky includes natural history for the different animal groups covered.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 1999
Every child who's ever rescued a sick or baby bird will be engrossed In this true tale of wildlife veterinarian Kathleen Ramsay's work in New Mexico. Readers will learn about bird rehabilitation and release back into the wild.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: January 2001
In this book for high school students and older, Gilmore employs Dorothy and her companions to explore the world of subatomic particles. Encounters with the Witches of Mass, Charge, and Color and the Weak Witch help clarify the difficult concepts underlying the building blocks of the universe.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: July 2004
Morrow explores two approaches to nature—that of the trapper and that of the beekeeper. She writes poetically of the history and culture, Native American and European, of the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York and reflects on the lives of friends who have influenced her life.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: February 2002
From 1990-1996, the Dutchers lived with and filmed a captive wolf pack in Idaho's Sawtooth Wilderness. They tell of their attempts to be accepted by the wolves, the making of their award-winning film, and the unfortunate end of the pack when the pack is moved and their primary caretakers resign.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2000
Anyone interested in horses, young and old, will enjoy this book. After discussing the historical relationship of humans and horses, the author examines horse society, intelligence, communication, domestication and breeding, vision, and what we still don't know about them.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 1999
Wherever you are, there is a spider within a meter of you. So begins the author of this Sierra Club book for middle school students and older. Explore the world of spiders and learn about their success, lives, predation, and relationship with humans. Linger over incredible photographs, such as the trapdoor spider peering from under its lid. Oh, and sleep tight.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: June 2005
Visit different environments in air, on land, and in water and try to identify the creatures that live in them. The book features 45 animals. A concluding four page spread combines all the previous sections. A final section identifies the animals and gives some interesting facts. Toft’s brilliant illustrations were drawn and painted on silk.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2003
Kids can go on safari in their own backyards with this picture book. Reinhart provides an insect overview: anatomy, life cycle, origin and distribution, then serves up twenty-six chapters on specific insect groups. He concludes with information on humans and insects, including insects as food. And if you believe insects, at least, are safe from environmental encroachment, an estimated 60,000 types disappear every year.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: October 2005
Edison said genius was one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration. Dooling fittingly portrays the labor. Largely self-taught, Thomas Edison patented 1,093 inventions. Dooling shows and tells how “The Wizard” started as a young boy mixing chemicals in his cellar lab to become a successful inventor with 250 employees and 45 inventions in development at one time.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech
Published: April 2003
In the first section twenty-five experiments and activities are presented and record sheets are provided to collect data. In a second section, vocabulary and concepts for each are explained. In addition to other appendices, the book features a matrix linking each activity to the National Science Education Standards.
Resource Type: Recommended Non-PBS Book
Subject: Science & Tech