The Big Book of Nature Projects Book

The best way for kids to learn about nature is to discover it for themselves. Here are more than fifty activities, projects, experiments, and field trips that children can do at home, in the countryside, and at the seashore to discover the natural world around them. Written in a clear, accessible style for children eight to fourteen and older, and vividly illustrated with more than 400 color photos, these exciting investigations will show kids how to:

* Dissect a live sponge and watch it reassemble itself under a microscope. (You can order living sponges by mail!) * Build a bird-feeding and observation station. * Explore a seashore ecology by setting up a transect line and doing a species survey. * Collect crickets and keep them in a home terrarium. * Analyze the diet and habits of owls by dissecting an owl pellet. * Witness the complete metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a monarch butterfly at home.

These projects are drawn from the highly acclaimed real kids/real science series of books and have all been thoroughly "kid-tested." They are adapted from the programs of the Children's School of Science in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where kids, science teachers, and scientists gather every summer to study the natural world together. Organized into six subject areas, these unique explorations of nature show kids how, when, and where to observe all kinds of plants and animals, how to be safe when going out and collecting in the wild, and how to build appropriate home environments to help them study what they find. In the process, kids will learn to think like scientists themselves, coming up with their own "what if?" hypotheses and designing experiments to test them. A comprehensive Glossary defines all scientific terms, and a special Supplies page is provided to explain quick and easy ways to order any specimens and equipment that kids can't find in their own area. In addition, a new Contacts page offers listings of many museums and national organizations that encourage and assist natural science studies. With The Big Book of Nature Projects, naturalists of all ages will have a powerful new tool to unlock the scientific wonders of the living world around them. Produced in association with the renowned Children's School of Science in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.