Books with author Vicki Cox

Just how do straws work? Find out how in this new, colorful, easy-to-read STEM book! “STEM” is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Though these subjects are incredibly important to both education and society as a whole, they are often overlooked, especially after primary education is complete. A goal of this book is to introduce STEM to kids and make them excited about learning these central subjects. In Why Can I Suck Through a Straw?, your child will learn all about physics and the effect of air pressure on liquids. Accomplished author and educator Vicki Cobb teaches your child all about this aspect of STEM, while still making it fun and entertaining through bright illustrations, easy-to-understand language, and experiments broken down step-by-step. Your child will be so enthralled, they won’t even realize they’re learning! Introduce your child to vital STEM subjects and encourage them to learn about the world around them with Why Can I Suck Through a Straw?!

With See For Yourself, budding scientists can wow their teachers and classmates (and maybe win a ribbon or two) by learning How to extract DNA from an onion How pigments from vegetables make dye How to make paper out of lint from a clothes dryer How to make a friend feel like he or she has a third hand What happens when you grow yeast in dandruff shampoo That tea and iron pills make excellent inks And much more! See for Yourself includes experiments in the areas of chemistry, earth science, physical science, the human body, and technology, but the experiments all take their inspiration from very familiar places. The materials needed to execute the experiments can all be inexpensively purchased at the supermarket, the toy store, the hardware store, the stationery store, and the drugstore. Some of the experiments are quick and easy, while others are more challenging. Most include additional suggestions so that curious young scientists can keep on investigating.

Why don't we feel the Earth move? Why does an ice cube float? Why can't you unscramble an egg? Why can't we live forever? These are all questions that a curious kid might ask. In What's the BIG Idea?, renowned juvenile science educator Vicki Cobb answers these and other fascinating questions to help kids learn more about the world through the wonders of science.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.

This classic, best-selling book full of hundreds of irresistible, easy-to-perform science tricks and bets is back, and it's better than ever! If you'd like to know how to throw an egg across the room without breaking it, how to burn a candle underwater, how to light a fluorescent lightbulb with a balloon, or how to make fireworks from a grape, this is a must-have book. What makes this edition of We Dare You! different? Throughout the book there are QR codes that will instantly connect kids to highly entertaining videos on all devices, showcasing various experiments throughout the book, and directed by author Vicki Cobb. Best of all, Cobb invites readers to make their own videos of these tricks and publish them on the official We Dare You! videos website. Readers can now do science and show business together—an unbeatable combination!Behind it all is solid science. Principles of gravity, mechanics, fluids, logic, geometry, energy, and perception are presented in a way that shows these principles in action. And it's all written on good authority. In 2012 Vicki Cobb received a Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.