Science Resources

Sometimes the best way to teach a subject is to lay some ground rules and then let students actually "do" what they're studying. This is especially true of science, a study predicated on activity, experimentation and the observation of physical properties. It's also one of the best ways to get kids interested in science in the first place.

If he hadn't stood atop the Tower of Pisa dropping things off the edge, Galileo would never have made his observation that objects of any weight fall at the same rate in a vacuum. Archimedes had to get in the tub to discover that it is volume that displaces water. And the only way Newton could discover calculus was by scribbling numbers on pieces of paper.

Your kid probably isn't the next Einstein, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't learn as much about science as possible, or that he should do so with his hands tied behind his back. The problem with a lot of science textbooks is that they emphasize book knowledge without taking into account the hands-on nature of science and science learning. Observation is often touted as an essential part of the science process, but rarely is it enforced in the typical school curriculum.

Science resources can change all that. There are plenty of fact-based books (particularly those from Usborne) that pair facts with vivid illustrations, and those are fun for rainy days—kids are a lot better at acquiring and retaining raw information than we often give them credit for. But those are just a place to start; the options are limitless.

One of the best sorts of science resource are books filled with experiments. Whether it's Explorabook from Klutz Press which focuses on fun activities and includes everything you need to complete them, or Vicki Cobb's Bet You Can! experiments using household items, or the more advanced Science for Every Kid books by Janice VanCleave, you aren't likely to run out of options.

Astronomy is more observation-oriented, and we offer plenty of books on that topic, too. The Stars by H.A. Rey is a now-classic guide to the night sky for beginners, while Starry Messenger explains some of the basic tenets of modern astronomy through the (detailed and beautifully illustrated) life of Galileo Galilei. Isaac Asimov has written a number of books on space science, as has Seymour Simon.

Just letting your kids outside with notebooks and maybe a magnifying glass is as good as any book for helping them develop a love of nature and nature study, though manuals to help them identify plants, animals, rocks, etc. is a good idea. One of our favorite such books is the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock.

Keeping a well-stocked chemistry lab is a good idea for older students. Many experiments require chemicals, ingredients and equipment you aren't likely to just have lying around, so you'll need to be intentional about keeping a lot of those things stocked. Field trips are always a good idea as well, whether to a local laboratory, observatory, zoo, factory, or anywhere else that strikes your kids' fancy and has educational potential.

Whatever else you do, keep an open mind while guiding your kids' science education. The beauty of God's world and the excitement of learning about it should always be kept in view; whatever difficulty there is in physics, biology or chemistry should be met head on but not dwelt on or made cause for discouragement. Have fun, and don't restrict your science time to reading stuff—take time to actually do science, and you might find along with your children that it isn't such a bad thing to study after all.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.

 

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106 Days of Creation Studies
by Sonya Shafer
from Simply Charlotte Mason
for 3rd-Adult
in Simply Charlotte Mason (Location: CUR-SCM)
Anatomy Coloring Book
by Wynn Kapit
4th edition from Pearson Education
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$29.99
Arts of the Sailor
by Hervey Garrett Smith
Reprint from Dover Publications
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Backyard Ballistics
by William Gurstelle
from Chicago Review Press
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Backyard Ballistics
by William Gurstelle
Second Edition from Chicago Review Press
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$16.95
Beekeeping
Storey's Guides
by Richard E. Bonney
from Storey Publishing
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Biology Coloring Workbook
by I. Edward Alcamo
from Princeton Review
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Birds of the Willamette Valley Region
by Hall Opperman, Harry Nehls & Tom Aversa
1st edition
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Body By Design
by Alan Gillen
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$13.59
Book of Old Ships
by Henry B. Culver, illustrated by Gordon Grant
from Dover Publications
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Brendan Voyage
Modern Library Exploration
by Tim Severin
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Buried Alive
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Concerning the Nature of Things
by Sir William Bragg
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Creation and Change
by Douglas Kelly
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Creation: Facts of Life
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Creative Haven Beautiful Birds - Coloring Book
Creative Haven
by Dot Barlowe
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Darwin Strikes Back
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Darwin's Black Box
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Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds
by Phillip E. Johnson
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$18.00
Discover Nature in Water & Wetlands
by Elizabeth P. Lawlor, illustrated by Pat Archer
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Discovery of Design
by Donald DeYoung
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Early Oregon Days
by Edwin D. Culp
1St Edition from Caxton Press
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Elements of Faith Volume 1: Hydrogen to Tin (old)
by Richard Duncan
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Fabric of the Cosmos
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Field Guide to Bacteria
by Betsey Dexter Dyer
from Cornell University Press
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$9.00 (1 in stock)
Forager's Harvest
by Samuel Thayer
from Forager's Harvest
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$27.95
Genesis of Germs
by Alan L. Gillen
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$17.59 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Genius of Birds
by Jennifer Ackerman
from Penguin Books
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Gray's Anatomy
by Henry Gray, edited by T. Pickering Pick and Robert Howden
1901 edition from Running Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Great Alaskan Dinosaur Adventure
by Buddy Davis, John Whitmore, Mike Liston
from Master Books
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Great Dinosaur Hunters and Their Discoveries
by Edwin H. Colbert
from Dover Publications
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Great Physicists from Galileo to Einstein
by George Gamow
from Dover Publications
Biography for 9th-Adult
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$16.95
Guns of Navarone
by Alastair MacLean
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Home Machinist's Handbook
by Doug Briney
1st edition from McGraw-Hill
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Honourable Schoolboy
by John le Carre
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Hyperspace
by Michio Kaku
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Illustrated Book of Trees
by Eric A. Bourdo Jr., consultant editor
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In the Heart of the Sea
by Nathaniel Philbrick
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$17.00
Insects of the Pacific Northwest
Timber Press Field Guides
by Judy Haggard, Peter Haggard
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It Couldn't Just Happen
by Lawrence O. Richards
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Junk Drawer Ecology
by Bobby Mercer
from Chicago Review Press
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Landscapes of Promise
Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books
by William G. Robbins, Foreword by William Cronon
from University of Washington Press
for Adult
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Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
from Penguin Putnam
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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Moby-Dick
Wordsworth Classics
by Herman Melville
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Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
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$2.50 (1 in stock)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region
2nd edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$23.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Fishes
2nd ed. from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects & Spiders
by Lorus and Margery Milne
Later Printing from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$25.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Shells
Reprint from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$24.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky
First Edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$24.95
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees: Western Region
by Elbert L. Little
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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$26.00
Natural History of Shells
by Geerat J. Vermeij
1995 paperback from Princeton University Press
for Adult
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
New Answers Book 1
by Ken Ham, Jonathan Sarfati & Carl Wieland
from Master Books
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$4.00 (2 in stock)
Ocean Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
from Storey Publishing
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$18.99
Owls of the Eastern Ice
by Jonathan C. Slaght
from Picador
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Pacific Northwest Insects
Timber Press Field Guides
by Judy Haggard, Peter Haggard
from Seattle Audubon Society
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$34.95
Peterson Field Guide to Insects
Peterson Field Guides
by Donald J. Borror, Richard E. White
2nd edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 6th-Adult
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Physics of Superheroes
by James Kakalios
2nd edition from Avery
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Physics of the Future
by Michio Kaku
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Physics of the Impossible
by Michio Kaku
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
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Planets, Stars and Galaxies
by A. E. Fanning, revised by Donald H. Menzel
1966 Dover edition from Dover Publications
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast
by Jim Pojar, Andy MacKinnon
from Lone Pine Publishing
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Pocketful of Pinecones
by Karen Andreola
from Charlotte Mason Research and Supply Co.
for Adult
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Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism
P.I.G. series
by Christopher C. Horner
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
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$13.00 (1 in stock)
Safe and Simple Electrical Experiments
by Rudolf F. Graf
from Dover Publications
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$4.50 (1 in stock)
Scientific Creationism
by Henry M. Morris
2nd edition from Master Books
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$8.00
Sea Around Us
by Rachel Carlson
from Oxford University
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Sharing Nature with Children II
by Joseph Cornell
from Dawn Publications
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Six Easy Pieces
from Basic Books
for 9th-Adult
in Physics (Location: SCI-PHY)
$15.99
Squirrels of the West
Lone Pine Field Guide
by Tamara Hartson
from Lone Pine Publishing
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Stargazing with a Telescope
by Robin Scagell
Revised from Firefly Books
for 6th-Adult
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
by Gail Damerow
3rd edition from Storey Publishing
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Summer for the Gods
by Edward J. Larson
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Tales From a Northwest Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
1st edition from Caxton Press
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Team Moon
by Catherine Thimmesh
from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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2007 Robert F. Sibert Medal winner, 2007 NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
The Martian
by Andy Weir
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Totality: Eclipses of the Sun
by Mark Littman and Ken Willcox
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Trees and Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest
Timber Press Field Guides
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$29.95
Victorian Internet
by Tom Standage
from Walker and Company
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Western Port Ferries Past and Present
by Arthur E. Woodley
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
What Is Creation Science?
by Gary E. Parker, Henry M. Morris
Revised from Master Books
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$9.00
Why Read Moby-Dick?
by Nathaniel Philbrick
Reprint from Penguin Press
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Wildflowers of the Columbia Gorge
by Russ Jolley
from Oregon Historical Society Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Wildlife Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
1st edition from Storey Publishing
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$18.99
Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest
Timber Press Field Guides
by David Moskowitz
from Timber Press, Inc.
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$29.99
Wright Brothers
by David McCullough
Reprint from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
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