Books in Build It Yourself series

Canals and Dams: Investigate Feats of Engineering invites children ages 9 and up to explore the innovation and physical science behind the amazing waterways and barriers our world depends on. Trivia and fun facts illustrate engineering ingenuity and achievements from ancient aqueducts to the Suez Canal and the Hoover Dam. Readers will discover that engineers and builders alike put their lives on the line to advance civilization, experiencing triumphs and tragedies in building big. Through dazzling success and heartbreaking failure, they developed increasingly sophisticated tools and building methods.Activities and projects encourage children to explore the engineering process and to try, try again through trial and error. They'll engage in hands-on explorations of buoyancy, Newton’s third law of motion, and forces that push and pull structures. They’ll create a paper-cup zip line, build an arch, and simulate a tsunami, while experimenting with gravity, hydroponics, and velocity. In Canals and Dams: Investigate Feats of Engineering, children will gain an appreciation for the important field of engineering as they develop their own building skills.

In Bioengineering: Discover How Nature Inspires Human Designs, young readers explore designs and innovations that come from nature. Leonardo da Vinci studied birds’ wings to draw his design of a man-made flying machine and engineers still look to birds when attempting to make planes more aerodynamic. And a burr on your shirt from walking through a field sticks like Velcro, doesn’t it? The plant and animal world provides engineers and scientists with a host of ideas to apply to the human world to make it a better place to live.Bioengineering explores different fields, including communication, transportation, and construction, and follows the process of engineering from the raw material of the natural world to the products we use in the human world every day. Activities such as building cantilevers and inventing a new fabric that mimics pinecone behavior require kids to think critically about their own needs and find creative ideas to fulfill those needs using designs from nature. Essential questions and links to digital and primary resources make this book an engaging and illuminating experience.

Imagine leaving everything you’ve ever known—your friends, family, and home—to travel along roads you’ve never seen before, getting help from people you’ve never met before, with the constant threat of capture hovering over your every move. Would you risk your life on the Underground Railroad to gain freedom from slavery?In The Underground Railroad: Navigate the Journey from Slavery to Freedom, readers ages 9 to 12 examine how slavery developed in the United States and what motivated abolitionists to work for its destruction. The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses operated by conductors and station masters, both black and white. Readers follow true stories of enslaved people who braved patrols, the wilderness, hunger, and their own fear in a quest for freedom.In The Underground Railroad, readers dissect primary sources, including slave narratives and runaway ads. Projects include composing a song with a hidden message and navigating by reading the nighttime sky. Amidst the countless tragedies that centuries of slavery brought to African Americans lie tales of hope, resistance, courage, sacrifice, and victory—truly an American story.

What was the last game you played? Video game, board game, world building game? In Game Logic: Level Up and Create Your Own Games with Science Activities for Kids, middle schoolers take on the world of games by figuring out what makes them challenging, fun, and addictive! Kids love games. Board games are still wildly popular, despite the profusion of video gaming devices that reach audiences as young as toddlerhood. World-building games such as Settlers of Catan and Dungeons & Dragons are played by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, both online and in living rooms, and gaming conferences occur around the globe, including hundreds in the United States alone. This makes gaming a perfect backdrop for learning new skills! This book takes kids on a journey to discover the history of games, and then leads them from their initial idea for a new game through several iterations of a game all the way to playing the final version of a game they created. Educators use games as a way to introduce logic, collaboration, and persistence in classrooms, and Game Logic is the perfect companion. Kids explore the processes of both playing and creating games while developing critical and creative thinking skills that apply to tasks and concepts across academic fields. Game Logic includes hands-on STEAM activities and critical thinking exercises related to games. Fun facts, links to online primary sources and other supplemental material, and essential questions encourage readers to dive deeper into the games they love to discover what makes them tick. Nomad Press books integrate content with participation. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

Westward ho! If you travel across certain parts of the United States, you can still see wagon wheel ruts where people crossed the west in search of more opportunity and better lives more than 200 years ago! The Oregon Trail: The Journey Across the Country from Lewis and Clark to the Transcontinental Railroad offers readers ages 9 to 12 a fascinating look at the explorers and settlers who traveled this route during the westward expansion of the United States. When America received its independence in 1776, the new country was made up of 13 colonies that became the United States of America. European immigrants continued to arrive in the new country, eager to make new lives for themselves and their families. By 1803, there were 17 states and a need for even more space. The United States doubled its land area with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery to explore and map a territory that had only been seen by fur trappers and the Native Americans who lived there. The expedition into the American west, more popularly known as the Lewis and Clark expedition, left from Independence, Missouri for more than two years of exploration that produced a route for American settlers to take. The route was the Oregon Trail, also known as the Oregon and California Trail. In The Oregon Trail: The Journey Across the Country from Lewis and Clark to the Transcontinental Railroad, readers ages 9 to 12 can delve into the explorations of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and other explorers. They can learn about the more than half a million people who followed during the nineteenth century. What challenges did these pioneers face on the 2,170-mile journey? How were Native American tribes and nations affected by this mass migration? Primary sources allow readers to feel like a part of the Oregon Trail experience while biographical sidebars will introduce the compelling people who were part of this time in U.S. history. Investigative, hands-on projects and critical thinking activities such as writing a treaty and researching artistic impressions of the Oregon Trail invite readers to further their understanding of life on the trail, early towns and forts, and the Transcontinental Railroad that followed the wagons into new lands and territories that would eventually become states. Nomad Press books in the Build It Yourself series integrate content with participation. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

What is industrial design? How does it affect our everyday lives? Why do microwaves open with a swinging front door? Why aren't smartphones round? Why do drivers sit on the left in the United States? Industrial design is the study of the design process behind the products we use every day, from blenders to school buses to laptops. In Industrial Design: Why Smartphones Aren't Round and Other Mysteries with Science Activities for Kids, readers ages 10–15 engage in and learn about the engineering design process from its earliest beginnings when individuals designed and crafted their own tools to today, when engineers work to find the best design for products that are then manufactured in bulk by automated machines. Why does design matter? It's the design of a product that increases or decreases its chances at success. If the design of your phone isn't quite right and you feel uncomfortable or frustrated every time you use it, you probably won't buy that model again. Engineers consider the user experience of every product they design to ensure that users have the best experience possible. Good design combines the right materials, colors, details, and form to make a person want to buy and use a product. A well-designed product is easy to use and does what it is meant to do.In Industrial Design, readers practice their own engineering design skills using the engineering design process and learn how to create useful, aesthetically pleasing designs for a variety of products. They learn about the history of industrial design and the transition from craft-based design to mass production. Through fun science and engineering projects, they explore the steps of the industrial design process including brainstorming, idea sketching, technical drawings, creating models and prototypes, and product testing. Like a good designer, they learn how to evaluate products for function, usability, ergonomics, aesthetics, and green design. Throughout Industrial Design, inquiry-based activities, essential questions, links to online primary sources, and an extensive engineering glossary all promote critical and creative thinking and serve to highlight the importance and beauty of engineering design and the role it plays in our world. In the Technology for Today set, readers ages 10 to 15 explore the digital and tech landscapes of today and tomorrow through hands-on STEAM activities and compelling stories of how things work, who makes them work, and why. Titles in this set include Industrial Design: Why Smartphones Aren’t Round and Other Mysteries with Science Activities for Kids; Big Data: Information in the Digital World with Science Activities for Kids; Projectile Science: The Physics Behind Kicking a Field Goal and Launching a Rocket with Science Activities for Kids; and Artificial Intelligence: Thinking Machines and Smart Robots with Science Activities for Kids. Nomad Press books integrate content with participation. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

Kids love stories about underdogs, and the American Revolution is among the most famous of these tales. Desperate to be an independent country free from Britain, the rebel colonists relied on their cunning wit and visionary leadership to win an impossible war. And then they faced the real hardship—creating a country out of a victorious but chaotic society.Using engaging text, hands-on activities, and links to primary sources, The American Revolution: Experience the Battle for Independence shows readers how rebel soldiers fought in horrific conditions while their families faced their own hardships for the sake of freedom. Students examine wartime propaganda to discover the truth about events leading up to the war, and engage in vibrant debate, strategic planning, and literary deconstruction to understand the official documents upon which America is founded. Building a marshmallow cannon and creating real colonial food are some of the projects that engage readers’ design skills. Essential questions require readers to activate their critical thinking skills to discover the truth about the most important moment in American history. The American Revolution meets Common Core State Standards for literacy in history and social studies; Guided Reading Levels and Lexile measurements indicate grade level and text complexity.

From Roman times until the Age of Exploration, the Silk Road carried goods and ideas across Central Asia between two major centers of civilization, the Mediterranean Sea and China. In The Silk Road: Explore the World’s Most Famous Trade Route, readers ages 9–12 will learn about the history, geography, culture, and people of the Silk Road region.Marco Polo was just one of many who set out on the Silk Road in search of wealth, power, or knowledge. These adventurers braved vast deserts, towering mountain peaks, warring tribes, and marauding bandits. Silk garments, wool rugs, and fine glass were the prizes for those who survived the trip. Activities using everyday materials bring the Silk Road to life. Young readers will see how ideas in math, science, religion, and art were spread by travelers along with the treasures they found.The Silk Road takes readers on an exciting, interactive adventure to a faraway place and celebrates its important role in human history and development..

Did you know that your brain has up to 100 billion nerve cells? Wow! What else is going on in your body? In The Human Body: Get Under the Skin with Science Activities for Kids, middle schoolers learn about the different bodily systems that keep people breathing, moving, thinking, and staying healthy! Kids get a good look at all the action that's going on right inside their own bodies, from understanding just how that apple turns into energy to how the "leftovers" make their exit. By studying the circulatory system, the digestive system, muscles, bones, the brain, senses, reproduction system, and more, kids gain a deep understanding of why they can do the things they do and even learn about what they can do to take care of their bodies so they live long and healthy lives. Through science-minded STEM activities, readers see exactly how smoke affects the lungs, how the heart really acts as a liquid pump, and how the different joints are structured and serve different purposes. The Human Body includes critical thinking exercises and essential questions related to anatomy. Fun facts, links to online primary sources and other supplemental material, plus graphic novel illustrations and photography encourage readers to take a deep dive under their skin! Nomad Press books integrate content with participation. Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards, and STEM Education all place project-based learning as key building blocks in education. Combining content with inquiry-based projects stimulates learning and makes it active and alive. Nomad’s unique approach simultaneously grounds kids in factual knowledge while allowing them the space to be curious, creative, and critical thinkers.

Have you seen a dodo bird recently? Do you have mastodons playing in your back yard? Not likely―these species are both extinct, which means the entire population has died out. More than 99 percent of all species, or about 5 billion, have gone extinct since life first formed on Earth 4.5 billion years ago. Some of those species went extinct at the same time in an event know as a mass extinction. What type of event could cause such a massive die off? This is a question that scientists have asked for decades as they explore the causes of extinction. In Extinction: What Happened to the Dinosaurs, Mastodons, and Dodo Birds? readers ages 9 to 12 learn about the scientific investigative work necessary to answer these questions and find the culprit behind mass extinctions. Follow the scientists as they look at all potential reasons for extinction, including asteroid impacts, massive volcanic eruptions, excessive gases in the atmosphere, climate change, and more. Where do scientists find clues to help them answer their questions? In rocks―scientists travel the globe to excavate the evidence. They look for fossils that might tell them what lived before an extinction and what lived after. They also examine the chemical elements in rocks at the boundaries between geologic eras, as well as the structure of rocks. As they follow the evidence, the pieces of the puzzle come together to form a clearer picture of events that happened millions of years ago, whether it’s an asteroid strike or a massive volcanic eruption. Extinction is not just a thing of the past. It is happening right now, at a higher rate than is typical. Because of this, there is debate about whether or not the presence of humans on Earth is having the same effect as an asteroid strike or a massive volcanic eruption. Are we currently experiencing the sixth mass extinction? And if so, what are the causes? Can we stop it? Extinction: What Happened to the Dinosaurs, Mastodons, and Dodo Birds? includes hands-on activities and critical thinking exercises to encourage readers to consider humans’ role in the current extinction, what we can learn from past extinction events, and how they can be part of efforts to prevent extinction. Hands-on activities, a fun narrative style, interesting facts, species spotlights, and links to primary sources combine to bring the subject of extinction to life in a fun and engaging way.

While Africa is one continent it contains many diverse countries. Amazing Africa Projects You Can BuildYourself introduces readers ages 9 and up to the stunning landscapes, ancient civilizations and ethnic groups, unique traditions, and amazing wildlife of the vast African continent.With 25 fun projects that kids can complete using common household supplies and many recycled materials, kids learn about life in Africa. Step-by-step instructions show young readers how to make their own shields for an initiation ceremony, cook banana fritters and fufu cakes, and design animal masks to commemorate the seasons. Kids will celebrate Africa and its place in our world.

How did we get from 20-foot-long maps to GPS devices small enough to fit in the palm of our hands? How does GPS work and what can it tell us? How do ancient mapmaking techniques used by the Romans and Greeks influence the satellite technologies we use today? The history of mapmaking is full of remarkable characters who charted the unknown with an ever-changing set of tools. In Mapping and Navigation: The History and Science of Finding Your Way, kids ages 9–12 will learn the history and science behind the evolution of mapmaking, and how much is still out there for discovery.Readers will explore ideas through hands-on experiments while learning new terminology and interesting facts. Projects include using triangulation to measure distances, creating contour lines on a mini-mountain to understand elevation changes on a map, and inventing a sundial and compass to understand the basics of navigation. Whether mapping the solar system or mapping their own backyard, all readers will be able to understand mapping technologies and see the world in new and exciting ways.