ScienceWiz - Inventions

Description

Build, Build, Build! with Coils, Coils, Coils! Discover more about Inventions with coils by entering this ScienceWiz Portal. Extend your understanding with delightful animations that show how the electronic components used in the Inventions kit work. Watch video demonstrations uploaded by others who actually completed the Inventions projects. Explore links to additional information that will amuse, astonish and enrich your knowledge while adding to the content in the Inventions book and kit.

Ages 8 to 80 40 page science book with materials

Major Awards

Scientific American Young Reader's Book Award
American Specialty Toy Association Award - Top Picks
National Parenting Magazine Award: Gold
Creative Child Magazine Award
Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Franklin Foundation

4 Major Projects to Build

A spinning motor
A clicking telegraph
A light flashing generator
A real radio

Step-by-step, highly visual instructions lead a child successfully through each invention. Full color illustrations present central scientific concepts which allow children to discover the "why" as well as the "how". The use of everyday materials demystifies the workings of common electronic components.

The animations that compliment the book on the website deepen and extend comprehension. Although designed for 8 year olds, Inventions has an extraordinary history and following.

It has been used at MIT to mentor high school students in physics.
It has been used at U.C. Berkeley to mentor women in science.
It has been used similarly at other institutions including the Fermi Lab and the University of Texas at Austin.
It was rumored that a number of physicists at U.C. Berkeley were spinning the handmade motors on their desks competing to see which motor would spin the fastest!

Inventions received a rave review from the Women's Society of the IEEE after using it for camp programs for elementary school students. The IEEE's review boasted, "The projects actually WORK....even for large groups where individualized attention is not possible."

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