Margins
Build it Yourself book cover 1
Build it Yourself book cover 2
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Build it Yourself
Series · 15
books · 1850-2017

Books in series

3-D Engineering book cover
#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.
Timekeeping book cover
#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.
Garbage book cover
#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.
Fault Lines & Tectonic Plates book cover
#13

Fault Lines & Tectonic Plates

Discover What Happens When the Earth's Crust Moves With 25 Projects

2017

The ground beneath your feet is solid, right? After all, how could we build houses and bridges if the land was moving all the time? Actually, the ground beneath us really is moving very slowly all the time! In Fault Lines and Tectonic Discover What Happens When the Earth’s Crust Moves, readers ages 9 through 12 learn what exactly is going on under the dirt. When slowly drifting continents bump up against each other along fault lines we experience earthquakes, volcanoes, and tidal waves! Mountains and trenches are visible results of the slow movement of the earth’s crust, as tectonic plates create the landscape of our world over time. With science-minded projects such as a homemade earthquake “shake table” and edible tectonic boundaries, this book makes the complex and fascinating topic of plate tectonics accessible for kids. Readers learn the geological reasons behind earthquakes and also practical ways of behaving in those types of natural disasters. Links to online primary sources and videos make concepts clear and encourage kids to maintain a healthy curiosity in the topic. Guided reading levels and Lexile measurements place this title with appropriate audiences.
Bioengineering book cover
#20

Bioengineering

Discover How Nature Inspires Human Designs With 25 Projects

1850

A NSTA \Recommends\ Book! In Bioengineering: Discover How Nature Inspires Human Designs, young readers explore designs and innovations that come from nature. Leonardo da Vinci studied birds’ wings to draw his design of a man-made flying machine and engineers still look to birds when attempting to make planes more aerodynamic. And a burr on your shirt from walking through a field sticks like Velcro, doesn’t it? The plant and animal world provides engineers and scientists with a host of ideas to apply to the human world to make it a better place to live. Bioengineering explores different fields, including communication, transportation, and construction, and follows the process of engineering from the raw material of the natural world to the products we use in the human world every day. Activities such as building cantilevers and inventing a new fabric that mimics pinecone behavior require kids to think critically about their own needs and find creative ideas to fulfill those needs using designs from nature. Essential questions and links to digital and primary resources make this book an engaging and illuminating experience.
The U.S. Constitution book cover
#22

The U.S. Constitution

Discover How Democracy Works with 25 Projects

2016

Where did the American democratic tradition begin? From ancient civilizations in Greece and Rome to the Enlightenment in Europe, democratic ideas throughout time have influenced the development of democracy in the United States. In The U.S. Discover How Democracy Works, children ages 9 through 12 learn about the foundation of democracy and how the documents crafted hundreds of years ago still have an impact on our country today. They explore the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, among others. These documents provide a framework with which we make the laws and processes that help keep democracy a vital paradigm. Through hands-on projects, which include analyzing how the promises made in the Preamble of the Constitution were put into practice and investigating how to balance the freedom of speech in the digital age, students investigate how American democracy operates. With colorful illustrations, interesting sidebars, and links to online primary sources, this book asks readers to consider the effect of technology on democracy and make predictions about future documents that will be important to the preservation of democracy around the world.
Seven Wonders of the World book cover
#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
Skyscrapers book cover
#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.
Build Your Own Periscope, Flashlight, and Other Useful Stuff book cover
#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!
Amazing Maya Inventions You Can Build Yourself book cover
#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.
The Underground Railroad book cover
#49

The Underground Railroad

Navigate the Journey from Slavery to Freedom With 25 Projects

2017

Would you risk traveling on the Underground Railroad? In The Underground Navigate the Journey from Slavery to Freedom, learn about the tens of thousands of African American men, women, and children who risked their lives to gain their freedom, and the thousands more who risked their lives to help.
Inca book cover
#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.
Comics book cover
#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.
The Industrial Revolution book cover
#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.
The Oregon Trail book cover
#66

The Oregon Trail

The Journey Across the Country From Lewis and Clark to the Transcontinental Railroad With 25 Projects

2017

Westward ho! If you travel across certain parts of the United States, you can still see wagon wheel ruts where people crossed the west in search of more opportunity and better lives more than 200 years ago! The Oregon The Journey Across the Country from Lewis and Clark to the Transcontinental Railroad offers readers ages 9 to 12 a fascinating look at the explorers and settlers who traveled this route during the westward expansion of the United States. When America received its independence in 1776, the new country was made up of 13 colonies that became the United States of America. European immigrants continued to arrive in the new country, eager to make new lives for themselves and their families. By 1803, there were 17 states and a need for even more space. The United States doubled its land area with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery to explore and map a territory that had only been seen by fur trappers and the Native Americans who lived there. The expedition into the American west, more popularly known as the Lewis and Clark expedition, left from Independence, Missouri for more than two years of exploration that produced a route for American settlers to take. The route was the Oregon Trail, also known as the Oregon and California Trail. In The Oregon The Journey Across the Country from Lewis and Clark to the Transcontinental Railroad, readers ages 9 to 12 can delve into the explorations of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and other explorers. They can learn about the more than half a million people who followed during the nineteenth century. What challenges did these pioneers face on the 2,170-mile journey? How were Native American tribes and nations affected by this mass migration? Primary sources allow readers to feel like a part of the Oregon Trail experience while biographical sidebars will introduce the compelling people who were part of this time in U.S. history. Investigative, hands-on projects and critical thinking activities such as writing a treaty and researching artistic impressions of the Oregon Trail invite readers to further their understanding of life on the trail, early towns and forts, and the Transcontinental Railroad that followed the wagons into new lands and territories that would eventually become states. Nomad Press books in the Build It Yourself series integrate content with participation. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

Authors

Carla Mooney
Author · 12 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
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
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.
Kathleen Reilly
Kathleen Reilly
Author · 3 books

It all started with a four-inch book written in green crayon on peach paper, called "The Rabbet and Dog and Cat." Yes, I realize that's not how rabbit is spelled. I know that now. But when I was five, I wasn't worried about the spelling. I was too busy creating my masterpiece ("illustrated by the author"). Today, I write on the computer (look, Ma, no crayons!) — my books include chick lit (HALFSIE), nonfiction (Nomad Press series), a middle grade (REGINALD PEPPER) and an upcoming young adult novel (SHE). I'd love to talk about books with you!

Judy Dodge Cummings
Judy Dodge Cummings
Author · 2 books
Judy Dodge Cummings has published 21 books for the school and library market, most of them on historical topics. She was a high school history teacher for 26 years and has a MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Teenagers from Hamline University. Judy's favorite way to research history is through the soles of her feet–meandering through museums, racing up redoubts, and rambling through historic ruins. The number one item on her bucket list is time travel!
Karen Bush Gibson
Karen Bush Gibson
Author · 5 books
Karen Bush Gibson (also known as K.B. Gibson and Karen Gibson) has been writing, well, forever. She has written a little bit of everything, but got her start writing articles and features for magazines. Karen began writing children's nonfiction in 2001 with Capstone and loves bringing nonfiction to life for kids. Since then, she has worked with several publishers, including Chicago Review Press and Nomad Press. Karen has more than 30 books published (stopped counting at 30) and stays so busy that she's having trouble returning to her other love, mystery writing. "A Class on Murder" was released in 2012.
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