WACKY CONTRAPTIONS: Gadgets That Whiz, Whoosh, Whirl, and Twist with Hands-On Engineering Activities

WACKY CONTRAPTIONS: Gadgets That Whiz, Whoosh, Whirl, and Twist with Hands-On Engineering Activities
LAURA PERDEW (illus. Micah Rauch)
Nomad Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$24.95 hardcover, $19.95 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In Wacky Contraptions: Gadgets That Whiz, Whoosh, Whirl, and Twist with Hands-On Engineering Activities, young engineers ages 9 to 12 brainstorm, design, and build devices using the engineering design process. Kids learn about simple machines, mechanical advantage, forces, energy, motion, electricity, and other physical science concepts while creating fun and fascinating prototypes that do different kinds of work. A hands-on project book for kids who love building wacky contraptions!

How do we make contraptions that zoom, bounce, tower, and collapse? By using hands-on STEAM engineering!

In Wacky Contraptions: Gadgets That Whiz, Whoosh, Whirl, and Twist with Hands-On Engineering Activities, young engineers ages 9 to 12 brainstorm, design, and build devices using the engineering design process. Kids learn about simple machines, mechanical advantage, forces, energy, motion, electricity, and other physical science concepts while creating fun and fascinating prototypes that do different kinds of work. Plus, this book encourages kids to adopt a growth mindset and understand that when their projects don’t work, that’s a sign that it’s time to revise and try again!

Built around a plethora of hands-on projects—a conveyor belt, magnetic slime, and a water wheel are just a few examples—a fun narrative style engages kids in discussions of the forces that define our world and the work we do in it. Tension, magnetism, electricity, and chemistry affect our daily lives in ways we often overlook—but armed with the power of knowledge, kids can identify and use the science that surrounds them. Graphic novel style illustrations, photographs, fun facts, sidebars, links to online resources, and more make Wacky Contraptions entertaining and educational.

Additional materials include a glossary, a list of media for further learning, a selected bibliography, and index. All books are leveled for Guided Reading level and Lexile and align with Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A bright sixth-grader who likes doing stuff with their hands will get a real lexical workout with this book. It keeps the language on the edge of their vocabulary; it will get many concepts across in infographics...the layout looks like a screen design...and it has a glossary included, to get them used to looking up words to figure out how to do something. Of course, starting out the usual stuff appears:

This is how we're starting out. It's really good at not being too far ahead of the bright ones, nor too "now look at the screen's left corner" for the average twelve-year-old.

Your middle-school nibling who's in a poor school district could get fired up over this because it's got stuff to do, to make things that work and aren't simply *there* when they are done. If the kid is watchin Mark Rober videos on YouTube, this is the gift of this Yuletide.