Build it Yourself
Series · 10 books · 2007-2015
Books in series
#1
3-D Engineering
Design and Build Your Own Prototypes
2015
How did somebody come up with the idea for bridges, skyscrapers, helicopters, and nightlights? How did people figure out how to build them?
In 3D Design and Build Your Own Prototypes, young readers tackle real-life engineering problems by figuring out real-life solutions. Kids apply science and math skills to create prototypes for bridges, instruments, alarms, and more. Prototypes are preliminary models used by engineers—and kids—to evaluate ideas and to better understand how things work.
Engineering design starts with an idea. How do we get to the other side of the river? How do we travel long distances in short periods of time? Using a structured engineering design process, kids learn how to brainstorm, build a prototype, test a prototype, evaluate, and re-design. Projects include designing a cardboard chair to understand the stiffness of structural systems and designing and building a set of pan pipes to experiment with pitch and volume.
Creating prototypes is a key step in the engineering design process and prototyping early in the design process generally results in better processes and products. 3D Engineering gives kids a chance to figure out many different prototypes, empowering them to discover the mechanics of the world we know.
#5
Timekeeping
Explore the History and Science of Telling Time with 15 Projects
2012
Explore the History and Science of Telling Time travels through the past and into the future to explore how humans have measured the passage of time. From ancient civilization’s earliest calendars and shadow clocks to GPS and the atomic clocks of today, kids will track the evolution of timekeeping devices, meet the inventors of calendars and clocks, and learn interesting facts and trivia. Hands-on projects and activities include making a shadow clock, using a protractor to create a sundial, measuring time using water, and creating your own calendar. Kids will understand how civilization’s vague abilities to track days and months has transformed over the centuries into a sophisticated ability to keep time to the millionth of a second.
#10
Garbage
Investigate What Happens When You Throw It Out with 25 Projects
2011
Kids become “rubbish warriors” in Garbage: Investigate What Happens When You Throw It Out. Encouraged to think about the choices they make that generate garbage in the first place, readers learn ways to reduce, reuse, recycle—and rethink their actions. Along the way, kids explore the science of garbology, discover fascinating information archaeologists learn by excavating middens, and use projects to investigate the world of trash. Activities include whipping up a delicious edible landfill, brewing natural dyes for a T-shirt, and comparing the effects of commercial and homemade cleaners.
Kids will learn that the battle against the world’s overwhelming waste problem begins with them.
#24
Seven Wonders of the World
Discover Amazing Monuments to Civilization with 20 Projects
2011
Over 2,000 years ago, ancient Greek scholars named seven of the most wondrous monuments to civilization, including the Pyramids of Egypt and Statue of Zeus at Olympia. Through the centuries these treasures were known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Because all but the Egyptian pyramids have been lost to the ravages of time, a new list of seven wonders was established in 2007. These monuments, including Machu Picchu in Peru and the Great Wall of China, symbolize the creativity and ingenuity of human civilization.
Seven Wonders of the World introduces kids ages 9–12 to the seven wonders on the original list and the seven wonders on the new list. Learning about these icons of world culture offers opportunities to discover amazing civilizations, technological innovations, and our shared world heritage. Sidebars, fun trivia, and entertaining illustrations break up the text, making it easily accessible and engaging, while hands-on projects encourage active learning
#30
Skyscrapers
Investigate Feats of Engineering with 25 Projects
2013
This activity book stands as an invitation for young readers to explore, from antiquity to modernity, the innovation and physical science behind the towering structures and buildings in cities around the world. With a blend of trivia and fun facts that illustrate engineering ingenuity and achievements from the ancient pyramids to the Empire State Building, readers will discover how engineers and laborers experienced triumphs and tragedies in their pursuit to build tall. They will also develop an understanding of how modern, sophisticated building techniques and materials evolved over time. Activities and projects encourage children to explore the engineering process as they engage in hands-on explorations of wind, test Newton’s Laws of Motion, and experiment with the strength of different shapes. In the process, they will learn about gravity, inertia, oscillation, and static electricity and, with the use of various materials and engaging in trial and error, readers will construct their own towers and skyscrapers.
#39
Build Your Own Periscope, Flashlight, and Other Useful Stuff
2011
Make a periscope with some empty milk cartons. Build a pet feeder from empty coffee cans. Create a flashlight with some batteries and spare wire. With just a few things found around your house, you can build all sorts of useful things!
#43
Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself
2007
The amazing accomplishments of the ancient Maya as well as the Maya currently living in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula are highlighted in this collection of 25 creative, educational, hands-on projects. Covering everything from the 20-base numbering system to the Maya's extensive trade relationships, kids learn about appeasing the gods with a "jade" ceremonial mask, language development with a screen-fold book for drawings and hieroglyphs, and Maya astronomy with a sand art picture of the cosmos. Informative text and sidebars teach about the Maya's impressive achievements in science, math, language, music, medicine, and architecture; and their daily activities and management of natural resources.
#54
Inca
Discover the Culture and Geography of a Lost Civilization with 25 Projects
2013
Revealing legends and legacies, Discover the Culture and Geography of a Lost Civilization with 25 Projects offers engaging insight into the continent-sprawling ancient Inca culture. The text and activities invite learners on a journey along the Inca Trail. They'll visit the city of Cuzco and the majestic Machu Picchu, built on a jagged ridge thousands of feet above the Urubamba River. Kids will learn about cultural beliefs, rituals, scientific advances, and languages. They'll create Salar de Uyuni salt crystals and build a tropical cloud forest. This captivating educational tool also features unique illustrations, informative sidebars, fun-fact questions, and vocabulary that will interest readers from start to finish.
#57
Comics
Investigate the History and Technology of American Cartooning
2014
Comics have a rich and varied history, beginning on the walls of caves and evolving to the sophisticated medium found on websites today. For a kid, comics can be more than entertainment. Comics can be a lifeline to another world, one in which everyone has the potential to become a superhero and children are welcome to all the power adults have overlooked.
Investigate the History and Technology of American Cartooning follows the trajectory of comics from their early incarnations to their current form. Kids learn how to sketch comic faces and bodies, invent a superhero, draw manga characters, and create their own graphic novel or webcomic. Short biographies of famous cartoonists provide inspiration and introduce specific comic styles. Comics introduces the technology available to budding young cartoonists, while they channel their creative powers and develop their storytelling skills.
Part history, part instruction, pure fun, Comics entertains and informs young readers while challenging them to join the cartooning conversation.
This title meets Common Core State Standards for literacy in language art, and social studies; Guided Reading Levels and Lexile measurements indicate grade level and text complexity.
#63
The Industrial Revolution
Investigate How Science and Technology Changed the World with 25 Projects
2011
Imagine a world without brand-name products! Before the Industrial Revolution it was not possible to produce enough of the same item to have a brand, but in 100 years the world changed from make-your-own everything to a society of manufactured goods. The Industrial Investigate How Science and Technology Changed the World introduces the dynamic individuals who led this revolution and how their innovations impacted the lives of everyone, rich and poor, city-dwellers and farmers alike. Elements of history, biography, civics, science, and technology combine with activity-driven enrichment projects that kids can do with minimal supervision. Activities include creating a water-powered wheel, designing a steam ship, building a telegraph machine, and making a pinhole camera.
Authors
Carla Mooney
Author · 11 books
Carla Mooney is an award-winning author of more than 25 books for children and young adults, in a variety of subjects. "
Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt
Author · 3 books
Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt, a military brat, graduated from the University of Texas (Hook 'em, Horns!!) and has the framed diploma to prove it, though she can't quite remember where she put it. Ah, UT: Beautiful buildings, beautiful people, beautiful cars. But, with 50,000 students, it's an easy place in which to lose your soul. Sheri's fondest memories? The stench of pigeon poop, (oh so pungent after an Austin rain), a firm bum courtesy of the long haul between classrooms, and the time she wore a "Jesus Saves" T-Shirt to class and droves of students parted before her like the Red Sea. Sheri used to have a "real" job, but these days she's an award-winning magazine writer and editor. She also writes books for kids. Her latest, a picture book illustrated by the fabulous David Slonim, is about a very James Bondish Tooth Fairy. The publisher is Chronicle Books, her wonderful editor, Susan Pearson. Sheri wrote the book after the Tooth Fairy made a late night appearance, during which she demanded that Sheri set the record straight. "I'm a technology chick," Sheri swears the Tooth Fairy declared. "The whole fairy dust thing is soooo old school." Sheri's first middle-grade novel, about a kid who'd rather live anywhere but the junk lot he calls home, is currently with her agent. To read a bit of the novel, click here. If you're an editor, please, please, please talk to her agent. To contact Sheri about personal visits, email her at Sheri@Bell-Rehwoldt.com "
Linda Formichelli
Author · 12 books
Linda Formichelli spent 25 years writing for top publications and brands, from Good Housekeeping and Inc. magazines to Best Buy and Intel. She's also the author or coauthor of a dozen books, including the classic The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success.
