Kathy Ceceri

Believe it or not, there's a lot of inventing going on in the kitchen. Unless you only eat fruits and veggies right off the plant, you are using tools and techniques invented by humans to make food more tasty and easier to digest. When you cook food, you start to break it down into a form your body can absorb. When you add chemicals to make it thicker, gooey-er, or puffy-er, you turn a bunch of boring ingredients into a mouth-watering snack. Edible Inventions: Cooking Hacks and Yummy Recipes You Can Build, Mix, Bake, and Grow will show you some unusual ways to create a meal, and help you invent some of your own. Projects include: 3D printing with food Chemical cuisine and molecular gastronomy Prepared foods like jellies and pickles at home Growing your own ingredients Cooking off the grid

Cooking Hacks and Yummy Recipes You Can Build, Mix, Bake, and Grow

Edible Inventions

Paper is amazing stuff. It's cheap, easy to use, and easy to recycle. It's lightweight and easy to cut or tear--but incredibly strong when folded, layered, or rolled. It can stand stiff as a board, pop up like a spring, or hang softly like a silk scarf. It's disposable, but it can last for centuries. Its surface can be rough, or creamy smooth, or shiny. Sometimes it's so thin you can see through it; other times, it's thick enough to hold globs of paint. But it can also be beautiful, all on its own. The projects in Paper Inventions were inspired by the many different varieties of paper, from fancy artists' watercolor paper to recycled copy paper, and the many different ways it is used. Whether you like to make crafts or play with electronics, there's a project that will challenge you and unleash your creativity. Projects in this book include: DIY flavored edible paper and ink Self-folding paper models Light-up paper projects Paper sensors and switches Paper windmill and paper machines 3D designs with paper Origami and other fold and cut designs

Machines That Move, Drawings That Light Up, and Wearables and Structures You Can Cut, Fold, and Roll

Make: Paper Inventions

Provides a look at the origins of myths and legends, summarizes the characters and stories used to explain the natural world and human behavior, and includes hands-on activities, fun facts, and modern-day connections.

25 Projects You Can Build Yourself

World Myths and Legends

Offers an introduction to the field of robotics, looking at the history of the field and where it is going, as well as how robots are built, made to move, made to perform actions, and sense their surroundings.

Discover the Science and Technology of the Future with 20 Projects

Robotics

What does the 13,000-year-old mancala game have in common with today's Minecraft? They both require logic, critical thinking skills, and creativity! In Video Games: Design and Code Your Own Adventure, readers discover that the video games they play today have their roots in the games kids played in the deserts of Ancient Egypt, and they'll learn how to design their own games from the initial idea to the final blips on the screen. Video games are everywhere, from iPods and tablets to video consoles and the latest virtual reality headset. By diving into this familiar, engaging topic, kids will get the chance to explore the neuroscience behind the attraction of video games: what makes them fun, what makes them hard to put down. They'll even tackle the age-old question--are video games good for us or bad for us? Readers will deconstruct video games to learn why the characters behave the way they do and how real-world physics compares to game physics. As kids design their own games, they'll develop skills in storytelling, technical writing, communications, graphic design, computer programming, and teamwork. They'll have so much fun they won't realize they're learning about geometry, statistics, probability, physics, logic, psychology, and neuroscience. Activities in Video Games include creating text-based adventure quests, designing board games, and programming using free, kid-friendly software such as MIT's Scratch. For kids who just can't get enough of video games, here's a chance to visit behind the scenes at a game company to explore the entire design process, from idea to market. Video Games meets Common Core State Standards for reading nonfiction and math. Guided Reading Levels and Lexile measurements indicate grade level and text complexity.--

Design and Code Your Own Adventure

Video Games

Jenny Williams

Corrina Lawson

The editors of GeekMom, sister site to Wired's GeekDad blog, offer a range of cool projects and parenting advice centered around raising kids in the tech age.

Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families

Geek Mom

Hands-on STEM activities, essential questions, and coding challenges

With Makerspace Activities for Kids

Bots! Robotics Engineering

For anyone who's ever dreamed of ruling over their own empire, here's your chance! Micronations are imaginary countries that have a lot of the same things as real ones: laws, customs, history, and their own flags, coins, and postage stamps. Micronations: Invent Your Own Country and Culture takes readers step-by-step to create their own unique realm, using examples from real nations, micronations, and fictional lands. What makes a country a country? What symbols and systems define a country and help it function? Learn about geography and government, technology and the environment, art and culture, and the literary device of "world-building" used in works like The Hobbit and Harry Potter. Kids get to invent their own language, music, games, clothing, food, and holidays to fit their micronation's tradition. Whether they create a land of time travel where every city exists in a different epoch or an underwater monarchy whose chief export is fish, Micronations: Invent Your Own Country and Culture will engage kids' imagination and teach make-believe rulers how the real world works. This title meets Common Core State Standards for literacy in language arts, history and social studies; Guided Reading Levels and Lexile measurements indicate grade level and text complexity.

Invent Your Own Country and Culture with 25 Projects

MICRONATIONS

Making Simple Robots is based on one idea: Anybody can build a robot! That includes kids, school teachers, parents, and non-engineers. If you can knit, sew, or fold a flat piece of paper into a box, you can build a no-tech robotic part. If you can use a hot glue gun, you can learn to solder basic electronics into a low-tech robot that reacts to its environment. And if you can figure out how to use the apps on your smart phone, you can learn enough programming to communicate with a simple robot. Written in language that non-engineers can understand, Making Simple Robots helps beginners move beyond basic craft skills and materials to the latest products and tools being used by artists and inventors. Find out how to animate folded paper origami, design a versatile robot wheel-leg for 3D printing, or program a rag doll to blink its cyborg eye. Each project includes step-by-step directions as well as clear diagrams and photographs. And every chapter offers suggestions for modifying and expanding the projects, so that you can return to the projects again and again as your skill set grows.

Exploring Cutting-Edge Robotics with Everyday Stuff

Making Simple Robots

Natania Barron

It’s fast becoming a geek world out there, and all moms need to show off their tech smarts and superhero-like skills in order to keep their savvy kids entertained and engaged. Geek Mom: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st-Century Families explores the many fun and interesting ways that digital-age parents and kids can get their geek on together. Imaginative ideas for all ages and budgets include thrifty Halloween costumes, homemade lava lamps, hobbit feasts, and magical role-playing games. There are even projects for moms to try when they have a few precious moments alone. With six sections spanning everything from home-science experiments to superheroes, this comprehensive handbook from the editors of Wired.com’s popular GeekMom blog is packed with ideas guaranteed to inspire a love of learning and discovery. Along the way, parents will also find important tips on topics such as determining safe online communities for children, organizing a home learning center, and encouraging girls to love science. Being geeky is all about exploring the world with endless curiosity. Geek Mom is your invitation to introducing the same sense of wonder and imagination to the next generation.

From Roman times until the Age of Exploration, the Silk Road carried goods and ideas across Central Asia between two major centers of civilization, the Mediterranean Sea and China. In The Silk Road: Explore the World’s Most Famous Trade Route, readers ages 9–12 will learn about the history, geography, culture, and people of the Silk Road region. Marco Polo was just one of many who set out on the Silk Road in search of wealth, power, or knowledge. These adventurers braved vast deserts, towering mountain peaks, warring tribes, and marauding bandits. Silk garments, wool rugs, and fine glass were the prizes for those who survived the trip. Activities using everyday materials bring the Silk Road to life. Young readers will see how ideas in math, science, religion, and art were spread by travelers along with the treasures they found. The Silk Road takes readers on an exciting, interactive adventure to a faraway place and celebrates its important role in human history and development. .

Explore the World's Most Famous Trade Route with 20 Projects

The Silk Road

All societies have their own myths and legends, but they're much more than just stories. Myths and legends tell us about a people’s history, science, and cultural values—the things they knew, the things they believed, and the things they felt were important. World Myths and Legends retells tales from the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. From the Greek myths to ancient epics like Gilgamesh and the trickster tales of Anansi the Spider, it helps readers think about why the same themes, characters, and events may show up in different parts of the globe. Along the way kids will also find lots of fun and interesting projects that let them experience the stories first-hand. World Myths and Legends unveils wonders of the ancient world as it takes readers on a fascinating adventure of mystery and imagination.

People have been playing music on homemade instruments for thousands of years. But creating new instruments is much more than an art form. When you want to make a note sound higher or lower, you have to change the sound waves coming out of the instrument. That's science! When you explore the way different materials produce different sounds, that's engineering. When you speed up or slow down a song, you're counting beats -- using math. And technology makes electronic instruments and devices to record and play back music possible.

Kathy Ceceri

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