Cover Image: How to be a Scientist

How to be a Scientist

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Member Reviews

As a homeschool family, I'm always looking for fun ways to get through the school year. Being a working homeschool family, I'm never as organized as I should be. This book fit in perfectly. It was engaging enough that my oldest enjoyed assisting my youngest with the experiments, and since even I learned a thing or to it was productive all around!

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Very inspirational book. Be prepared to be pestered into going out for supplies/ingredients immediately. Not that I mind. I loved to see my kids discover the way the world works.

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Fun book for the kids. My kids may be a bit to old for this book but the younger kids would love this one.

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As I've come to expect from all books from DK, this is an engaging and useful title.

The book begins with a "Thinking like a scientist" page that highlights 7 key attributes. I was pleased to see that "scientists share their ideas". Good science is based on discussion, argumentation, and consensus, and being able to communicate and work with others is important. I agree with all of the tips and it was nice to see a book emphasize that scientists are creative and not afraid to look for contradictions.

The book covers a range of topics in biology, chemistry, and physics with ample illustrations and instructions for inquiry. The activities use common materials and help emphasize that science is all around us everyday. This book is perfect for my first-grade daughter who loves science, and would be appreciated in any K-3 classroom.

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I’ve found that introducing fun and wonder into learning has always allowed children to learn to a greater extent. How to be a Scientist does just that in a selection of cool science experiments that cover topics in the natural world, human body, chemistry, earth science, physics, and space. As I’ve come to expect from DK books, this book has attention grabbing sections and lots of photos. The book also includes a glossary of STEM terms that the child might not be familiar with. One of my favorite parts of this book is that among the more than 40 experiences listed in the book, it is exciting to learn science concepts using objects that they’re already familiar with. For example, it teaches about the Fibonacci sequence using pine cones, artichokes, and pineapples. I wish they would have added a comprehensive list of supplies for each section. However, I do like that most of the items needed are easily accessible. I think this is good book for some hand-on science learning.

I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.

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We LOVE this book!! Seriously. I have 2 boys and we tried a few experiments in this book when I got a copy from NetGalley but then the book expired and my kids were bummed.

Kids bummed over a science book? This book earned itself a permanent spot on our bookshelves. We haven’t done a ton of experiments, but we do pull it out every couple of weeks and try something. What I love about this book is that most of the experiments are easy to do with items we already have around the house. So many times we’ve wanted to do experiments we’ve seen in other books or online only to find that we didn’t have all the ingredients or items needed. Then the excitement over the experiment waned, and I would never go buy the missing items. With this book most of the experiments use things around the house or that most people already have in their homes. It makes it super easy to go from idea to execution. This is easily THE BEST science experiment book we own.

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This book is a good blend of experiments for kids to perform, info on scientists, and info about the different disciplines of science. Well done!

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This book is awesome! Having looked through the digital copy, I anticipate purchasing a physical copy for my budding scientist. She's always asking questions and has the inquisitive mind this book is perfect for. The images and illustrations are well done and easy to understand. Suggested projects are generally simple enough for kids to do either alone or with a grown up (perfect for parent-child time!) and cover a wide range of topics. This is one title I think will be a great asset to STEM/STEAM materials.
This book was provided to me via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

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DK books always set the benchmark for children's books, and this book is just another fine example. Its a great book for budding scientist to help them make decisions about science fair projects and learn more about the natural world.

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This was a very interesting book. It is set up with different explainations of scientific information, information on scientist, and experiments. The book is sectioned into types of science. It has experiments and information on The natural world, human body, chemistry, earth, physics, and space. I loved the format of this book and they types of experiments and activities it has for kids to do. It really makes science relevent to the world around kids and helps them think of themselves as sceintists. I would highly recommend this book for elementary and middle school students. I received a copy of this book for free from Net galley in exchange for a review.

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This book is informative, easy to read, well-formatted, and has fascinating illustrations. There are many interesting activities, information about "big ideas" in science, famous scientists, and information about how to think like a scientist. This is a wonderful book for individuals and small groups of children. A fine choice for home or classroom.

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How To Be A Scientist by Steve Mould offers readers a bold and playful approach to science that makes the subject relevant to kids and encourages them to discover it in the real world with more than 40 fun questions, science games, and real-life scenarios. It tackles questions that children have such as; Why does mold grow? Why is the sea salty? and What makes day and night? The book helps them learn how to think like a scientist and look at the world to figure out how science works. More than 40 simple activities have undetermined answers, encouraging curious young readers to find new ways to test ideas, and fun questions, games, and real-life scenarios make scientific concepts fun and relevant. The stories of the great scientists and their discoveries—and failures—are told in an entertaining way to provide even further inspiration for little budding scientists.

How To Be A Scientist is exactly what I expect from DK. It is well written and organized, accessible to young readers and with bright, colorful images that enhance the text. THe diagrams, photographs, and varied page layouts keep readers from getting bored, and if everything goes right, will get them a little more excited about science. While the book does list facts about famous scientists, it pairs that information with experiments to balance out the learning experience with some hands on options. There is plenty of information within these pages, but it is well balanced with the photographs, diagrams, and info boxes in a way that is engaging and easy to understand. It hits the balance of learning, fun, and activities pretty much perfectly. The book is well organized, allowing readers to focus on a single subject at a time if that is what they want. The beginning of the book features instructions on how to use the book, the types of tools and materials you may need, and then breaking down the concepts explored into categories such as the Natural world, chemistry, and so on.

How To Be A Scientist is a book that will appeal to a wide age range, and will encourage children (and their parents and teachers) to do some more research and some science on their own.

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A great science primer for kids who are interested in, well, science. It was also helpful for me, as an adult who never did very well in science class. Like, ever. I actually learned some things with this book. So if you have kids, definitely do some of these experiments with them, you might re-learn some long-forgotten concepts.

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I automatically like any book that gets kids interested in science. This book does an exceptional job of not only putting out information but laying it out in an easy to understand, yet still fun way. It starts with how to use the book, the types of tools and materials you may need, and then divides concepts/experiments into categories such as the Natural world, chemistry, etc. I also love how they mention important scientists and try to simply illustrate their ideas and scientific breakthroughs.

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How to be a Scientist, by Steve Mould is an informative book that provides a fun way for children to learn about various aspects of being a scientist.

With over 140 pages, this book focuses on learning about science and includes various interactive activities intermixed with intriguing artwork and photographs. There are six main sections, which are titled: Natural World, Human Body, Chemistry, Earth, Physics, and Space.

According to the Introduction, "You will learn how to think and act like a scientist. The book is full of fun activities that can be done at home, as well as simple scientific explanations and a look at some of the most famous scientists of all time."

How to be a Scientist is a quality resource for children, particularly ages six to ten, yet it's worthwhile for all grade school students.


Note: I received this book from NetGalley, which is a program designed for bloggers to write book reviews in exchange for books, yet the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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Wow! I just cannot wait to dive into this book with my children. There was so much covered and so many fun activities. There was enough information to grab interest while not being overwhelming and I can see a child learning a little bit about a topic and doing an experiment and then being excited to continue and learn more. With bright pictures this is a great starting place for developing an interest in the many areas of science.

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I enjoyed this book because of the art and pictures! Wonderful book! My 13 yo son is a hard guy to get into books but he really enjoyed this after I read it and was telling him about it.

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As always DK excels in their graphic interface in this book. Various branches of science are introduced with simple but effective experiments- most just 2 or 3 steps. Good brief biographical details of famous scientists complete the sections. Will be a hit in science classrooms in lower primary.

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Right off the bat, after a quick picture walk, I know this book will be a blast - the brightly colored photographs, pictures and diagrams used in interesting and varying layouts will pull in children and their parents, and excite them about science!

My second reading was more thorough, and I took some notes along the way: this book will appeal to a wide audience of readers, from preschoolers through middle elementary and will guide their questions and even offer answers to questions they might not have thought to ask! Listing facts about famous scientists alongside the experiments rounds out the learning experience as well.

I have used many of these experiments in my preschool science curriculum, but each one in How To Be A Scientist had ways to make me a better teacher. I'm SERIOUSLY excited to add a copy of this book to both my personal and professional libraries! Thank you, Net Galley, for the opportunity to preview it and provide feedback.

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A great book for kids that get easily bored and need more stimulation. Great for curious kids, great for any kid really. This book would have made science so much better for me as a child!

Can't wait to do scientific experiments with the kids!!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

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