Stomp Rockets, Catapults, and Kaleidoscopes: 30+ Amazing Science Projects You Can Build for Less than $1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I HAD THE PRIVILEGE of working with many fine peo ple to make this book happen Juan Jose Padilla and Lorena Onofre of our Students Teaching Project shot and posed for many of the photos Gustavo Hernan dez my assistant extraordinaire shot and posed for many photos did a lot of editing and kept hundreds of projects and parts organized in our cramped space Araceli and Frankie Ortiz and Erick Torres also helped with some photos Paul Doherty of the Exploratorium Teacher Insti tute kindly proofed these activities for content and Pat Murphy in Exploratorium Publications and of the Brazen Hussies gave a lot of useful advice Much appreciation goes to my wise superiors in the City of Watsonville's Department of Public Works and Utilities Tami Stolzenthaler Nancy Lockwood Bob Geyer David Koch and also to Carol Thomas and Al Smith all of whom gave great sup port for this book Thanks also to Watsonville city manager Carlos Palacios and the city council for all their support of the Watsonville Environmental Sci ence Workshop past and future Finally thanks for the support and ideas from other community science workshop directors across the
Most of the ideas here originated or were signifi cantly developed by students and staff at the Wat sonville Environmental Science Workshop Like folk tunes science projects such as these are constantly being changed and improved upon as they pass from hand to hand shop to shop I ve given credit within the chapter for ideas that I recall picking up from a distinct person or place whether or not that was the true
A Note to Adults The projects in this book do not include laboratory exercises structured discov ery lessons or experiments in the formal sense of the word Students learn from firsthand experience in the process of trying to build the projects and make them work Each project demonstrates several science or math concepts that can be found in most curricula and lists of standards Each project has been tested in between 10 and 30 classes over the course of four years I can be confi dent when I say the projects work You can have great times with your kid while building stuff Here are some pointers to make the process work Don't take over your kid's project If you get so excited about it that you grab it from them to do the next step you’ve overstepped your mandate There are safety issues to be sure but don't let the off chance of a small cut or scrape stand in the way of your youngster's learning to use a new tool or build a great
Don't demand perfection Even built crudely most of these toys will work Polish comes with practice The kid's pride in completion is the priority Let kids make mistakes Many times a mistake will teach more than will a first time success Know your role you are the assistant If you want to build your own toys wait until your kid goes to bed I'm serious if your kid sees your success to be better than his or her own the child may be put off from trying another project But if you can work together with your kid in a way that demonstrates you're helping without taking the lead you’ll have hours of fun together I find a good technique is to be fiddling with something unrelated nearby That way I can easily step in and out of the kids work with advice and help without hav ing to twiddle my thumbs as they slowly learn how to do something I already know The toys here span the technical sub jects physics including sound light mechanics electricity and magnetism chemistry geology and biology Usually several topics can be explored with a sin
