Juvenile Fiction - Science & Discovery Archives -

The Magic School Bus Solar Energy To The Rescue Contest

Let’s kick off the official first day of summer (summer solstice) with a contest and a ride on “The Magic School Bus” to learn all about solar energy! Find out answers to these questions and more!

How can solar energy turn into electricity? What are green house gases? What does global warming do to our polar ice caps?

We’re giving away 3 hot new science sets so enter now by clicking here. Remember to write Magic School Bus in the subject line. The contest ends on Monday, July 5 so your kids can have time to play and experiment all summer long. Please click here for the rules.

Magic School Bus Solar Energy to the Rescue (The Young Scientists Club, www.kidsciencekits.com, $19.99, Ages 5+)

Ms. Frizzle and her students take Young Scientists on a wild ride with solar energy to the rescue. Young Scientists explore the greenhouse effect, collect real carbon dioxide, recreate global warming in a bottle, use a solar panel to spin a fan, make a solar secret code, design solar spinners, watch solar energy inflate balloons, and much, much more!

In this kit you’ll

Make solar spin art
Melt polar ice caps
Learn about the greenhouse effect
Make a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher
Make a fan spin
Store solar energy
Experiment with working solar panels
Collect carbon dioxide
Watch solar energy lift a bead
Recreate global warming in a bottle
- The mission of The Young Scientists Club is simple – to offer children quality, science-related products that will fascinate them with the wonders of scientific discovery and spark their interest in future scientific endeavors.

One Very Curious Cat

Here’s regular contributor Debbie Glade’s impression of this smart and stylish series. “I love Candlewick Press books! Oscar and the Snail: A Book About Things We Use is unique, creative and educational.” Read more below:

This “Start with Science Book” features Oscar the curious white kitten, who loves to explore both inside and out, like kittens often do. But this special cat asks a lot of questions about why things are the way they are. Through his snail friend, Oscar learns about how birds use items they find like sticks and feathers to make their nests, why rocks don’t float and even how glass is made. Oscar and the Snail introduces very young children, age 4 and up, to the science of making things out of different materials and why we use those materials. At the end of the book is a simple chart that summarizes what Oscar learned in the garden and where the materials come from. Written and illustrated by Geoff Waring, this simple little book is really quite sophisticated. Click here to read about more books in the “Oscar” series.

Debbie Glade is the author, illustrator and voice talent of the award-winning children’s picture book The Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly: Costa Rica, published by Smart Poodle Publishing. She visits South Florida schools with her reading, writing and geography programs. For years, Debbie was a travel writer for luxury cruise lines. She writes parenting articles for various websites and is the Geography Awareness Editor for WanderingEducators.com. She blogs daily at smartpoodlepublishing.com.