Janice VanCleave

This book initially intrigued me because it was a trip down memory lane since I used Janice VanCleave books back in middle school to help give me ideas for science fair projects. While I realize this book was more for an elementary or middle school level, I found some activities that could be used as fantastic demonstrations in the high school classroom. Think a transparent earthworm home to demonstrate niches, or an ant farm to clearly show how division of labor works in a colony, or 3 show more different plants with 3 different watering treatments to show the effects of acid rain. All such simple activities, but the way she puts these activities in the context of ecological concepts made reading this book SO worth while! show less

An excellent book with information on dinosaurs and a descriptive informative lab activity to further expand what was discussed/read, from a more abstract theory, into a more concrete idea for children. A wonderful book for elementary through middle school children. A must for every homeschool library! Christians will want to balance some of the info on "dating" with their own creationism views though but still a great book. Also included are suggested books with descriptions on each.

This book is really neat! The book is divided into two parts. The first part talks about different types of scientists. The second part discusses individual scientists. I rated this book a 5 out of 5 because each category contains pictures and text. The text highlights vocabulary words with definitions. My favorite part of this book is that at the end of each description is a lesson plan to use in the classroom that has to do with that topic. Each topic also includes a “More Fun With…” show more section which extends the lesson to even more activities. show less

I enjoyed this book because it can be used for older grades such as 4ht and 5th grade science projects. I like this book because at the very beginning, it gives a step-by-step process about logging and designing and experimenting during the science project. It tells how to collect data, how to come up with a hypothesis, and how to do topic research. This would be a very good book to use in the classroom. It is an in depth book to read so I would recommend letting the older grades benefit show more from this book as opposed to younger grades. show less