Where Puddles Go: Investigating Science with Kids

Where Puddles Go, Investigating Science with Kids is a fabulous book on the investigation of basic chemistry principals. The format of the book is very simple and is easy to explore. The book is divided into nine different sections. Each section begins with a couple pages of dialogue between a child and a teacher/parent. Following the dialogue is a complete textbook style summary of the major concepts and the details behind them. The next section involves experiments to provide proof for the topic. The section finally ends with questions used to drive home the major themes, followed by an extra help/further investigation section for teachers and parents. Overall the book does a fantastic job in addressing the major themes of physical science (chemistry). The use of constructivist language in the dialogue section was a wonderful example on how to approach/teach science to children. Unassumingly, it teaches children to think and explore topics through a scientific approach. In other words, it teaches kids how to be scientists. All the experiments offered by the book fit perfectly into the topic. The experiments are easy to do, and the materials for them are everyday household items. Alterations to the initial experiment are offered to further enhance the child's grasp of the topic. Then there are questions that lead the student to perform they're own experiments. Not only does this further there interest on the topic, it teaches the `scientific frame of mind' of hypothesizing and testing of hypothesis. The book then offers more advanced experiments for teachers to complete within a chemistry lab. I personally loved this book for its wide range of uses in the home and at school. I would recommend this book for any adult with a child over six years old. It presents science as a fun interesting topic, and that is its most important aspect. As a middle/high substitute teacher I cannot emphasize how many times I hear the ugghhh or yuk exclamation when the students discover that I plan to teach bio/chem. This book is definitely a breath of fresh air for science. It reminds me of the old television show Mr. Wizard, and the wonderful approach he took to introduce science.