Amazing Arctic & Antarctic Projects You Can Build Yourself

The faraway lands of the North and South Poles are examined in this revealing guide, enabling children to explore the coldest places on Earth from the warmth of their homes. From polar exploration and penguins to Inuit cultures and the tundra, simple yet thorough explanations are provided for a range of Arctic and Antarctic topics while copious vocabulary notes and fun factoids enrich the material. More than two dozen interactive projects and experiments—ranging from making an Inuit boat, polar bear paw prints, a model of a dog igloo, midnight rations, and snowshoes—provide children a chance to see polar principles in action, without major adult involvement or fancy materials.

Summary: Great Resource For Student, Parent and Teacher
Rating: 5

Kudos to author Carmella Van Vleet and her publisher Nomad Press for their dedication to publications about the environment aimed at being informative, educational and fun for middle grade and young adult readers. Amazing Arctic & Antarctic Projects You Can Build Yourself encourages independent reading and exploration. The book is full of interactive activities and fascinating factual tidbits. Words to Know, Did You Know and Fun Things to Try are featured on every page so that the reader never faces boring blocks of tiresome text. More detailed projects are contained on Make Your Own pages. These include several projects that with a little creativity could serve as the basis of a prize winning science fair or social studies fair project. For example, the Make Your Own Toboggan with Wheels could be combined with using different mixes of ice for an experiment on how pollutants affect vehicle movement. Similar additions could be made to Make Your Own Neutrally Buoyant Cup. I bought this book for my 6th and seventh graders but it is an important source of information for students, parents and teachers.