What's the BIG Idea?: Amazing Science Questions for the Curious Kid
By Vicki Cobb
()
About this ebook
A big idea is one that has no simple or easy answer, and there are four big ideas in this book: motion, energy, matter, and life. The motion of nonliving objects—rolling balls, falling stones, the moon and stars—seems so ordinary and familiar that most people take it for granted. Matter, on the other hand, comes in so many different forms—solids, liquids, gases, metals, nonmetals, living material—that it is hard to imagine anything that all matter has in common. Energy is an idea that is in the news just about every day, yet most people couldn't tell you what the big idea of energy is. And life—what life is—seems mind-boggling and infinitely complicated. How do we bend our brains around it?
Scientists learn by asking questions. And this book, now in paperback, is designed to make young readers stop and think about each of the questions before reading what scientists have learned that answers each question. They'll be able to do simple things to see for themselves, and they will build their own scientific knowledge in the process. By the time they've finished this book, they'll get the big picture of what science is all about.
Vicki Cobb
Vicki Cobb is the author of many award-winning science books for young people. With degrees from Barnard College and Columbia University Teachers College, Vicki enjoyed an early career as a science teacher. She now devotes all her time to writing and speaking to teachers, children, and librarians all over the country. She frequently writes for the Huffington Post and is also the founder and president of iNK Think Tank, an organization dedicated to getting high-quality nonfiction books into classrooms. To find out what recent science experiment Vicki has been cooking up, visit her online at www.vickicobb.com.
Read more from Vicki Cobb
Science Experiments You Can Eat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Dare You!: Hundreds of Science Bets, Challenges, and Experiments You Can Do at Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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What's the BIG Idea? - Vicki Cobb
WHAT’S
THE
BIG
Idea?
Also by Vicki Cobb:
Bangs and Twangs: Science Fun with Sound
Feeling Your Way: Discover Your Sense of Touch
Follow Your Nose: Discover Your Sense of Smell
Harry Houdini: A Photographic Story of a Life
How to Really Fool Yourself
Light Action! Amazing Experiments with Optics
Marie Curie: A Photographic Story of a Life
Open Your Eyes: Discover Your Sense of Sight
Perk Up Your Ears: Discover Your Sense of Hearing
Science Experiments You Can Eat
Sources of Forces: Science Fun with Force Fields
Squirts and Spurts: Science Fun with Water
We Dare You! Hundreds of Fun Science Bets, Challenges, and Experiments
You Can Do at Home
Where’s the Science Here? Fireworks
Where’s the Science Here? Junk Food
Where’s the Science Here? On Stage
Where’s the Science Here? Sneakers
Whirlers and Twirlers: Science Fun with Spinning
Your Body Battles a Broken Bone
Your Body Battles a Cavity
Your Body Battles a Cold
Your Body Battles an Earache
Your Body Battles a Skinned Knee
Your Body Battles a Stomachache
Your Tongue Can Tell: Discover Your Sense of Taste
WHAT’S THE
BIG IDEA?
Amazing Science Questions
for the Curious Kid
VICKI COBB
Sky Pony Press
New York
Copyright © 2010 by Vicki Cobb
First Sky Pony Press edition, 2013.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
Sky Pony Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.
Sky Pony® is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.
Visit our website at www.skyponypress.com.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in China, March 2013
This product conforms to CPSIA 2008
ISBN: 978-1-62087-685-5
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Cobb, Vicki.
What’s the big idea? : amazing science questions for curious kids / Vicki Cobb.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-61608-013-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Science--Miscellanea--Juvenile literature. I. Title.
Q163.C688 2010
500--dc22
2009046866
CONTENTS
What’s a Big Idea?
Big Idea: Motion Is Not What It Appears to Be
Why Does a Rolling Ball Stop Rolling?
How Do We Know the Earth Is Moving When It Looks Like the Sky Is Moving?
If the Earth Is Spinning, Why Don’t We Feel It Move?
Which Falls Faster, a Bowling Ball or a Marble?
Why Can’t You Stand an Egg on Its End?
Why Doesn’t the Moon Fall to Earth?
We Say That an Apple Falls Down to Earth. Why Doesn’t the Earth Fall Up to the Apple?
Which Takes Longer, a Big, High Swing or a Small, Low Swing?
What Is a Swinging Object Good For?
Big Idea: Energy Is Part of Everything
What Does It Take to Move a Piano?
How Is a Wound-up Spring Like the Top of a Waterfall?
Do Hot Things Weigh More Than Cold Things?
Does Water That Boils Faster Cook Faster?
How Does a Pot Holder Work?
Why Is the Sky Blue? Why Not Green or Yellow?
Who Ever Heard of Light You Can’t See?
What Does Energy Weigh?
Why Doesn’t the Sun Burn Out?
Big Idea: Matter Is Made of Simpler Stuff
Which Weighs More, a Pound of Feathers or a Pound of Gold?
How Can You Make Gold?
Why Does an Ice Cube Float?
How Much Does Air Weigh?
Why Don’t You Feel Air Pressure?
How Is Warm Air Different from Cold Air?
Why Isn’t the Earth Egg-Shaped or a Cube?
How Does Wood Burn?
Why Can’t You Unscramble an Egg?
Big Idea: Motion, Energy, and Matter Make Life Possible
What Makes a Living Thing a Living Thing?
What Is the Smallest Living Thing?
Why Are Plants Green?
Why Is Blood Red?
How Are All Living Things Alike?
What Makes a Pea Plant a Pea Plant, a Fruit Fly a Fruit Fly, and a Person a Person?
Why Can’t I Live Forever?
How Long Can We Live?
Scientific Terms
Index
For Further Reading
About the Author
WHAT’S A BIG IDEA?
Abig idea is one that has no simple or easy answer. There are four big ideas in this book: motion, energy, matter, and life. The motion of nonliving objects—rolling balls, falling stones, the moon, and stars—seems so ordinary and familiar that most people take it for granted. Matter, on the other hand, comes in so many different forms—solids, liquids, gases, metals, nonmetals, living material—that it is hard to imagine what any of these forms have in common. Energy is an idea that is in the news just about every day, yet most people couldn’t tell you what the big idea of energy is. And life—what life is—seems mind-boggling and infinitely complicated. How do you bend your brain around it?
Science tackles big ideas. How? The same way you eat an elephant: one bite at a time. Science goes after big ideas by asking simpler questions that can be answered by doing something. If you ask a scientist, How do you know?
a scientist doesn’t say, I just know,
or Everyone knows,
or I read it someplace.
A scientist says, This is what I did. If you do what I did, you’ll know what I know.
In other words, scientists answer their questions