Books in Build It Yourself series

From the minute life begins, food makes you strong, helps you grow, and gives you energy. But do you take that ham sandwich for granted? You might not give a lot of thought to where your food comes from, how it got to you, what’s really in it, or what it does for you. Food: 25 Amazing Projects Investigate the History and Science of What We Eat gives kids some “food for thought” as they dive into exciting projects about the incredible world of food. Kids will have fun learning about all aspects of food in our daily lives—how vegetarians balance their diet, how some cultures rose and fell based on a single food source, the route from farm to market, how eating locally makes an impact, and much more.

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.

Where did the American democratic tradition begin? From ancient civilizations in Greece and Rome to the Enlightenment in Europe, democratic ideas throughout time have influenced the development of democracy in the United States.In The U.S. Constitution: Discover How Democracy Works, children ages 9 through 12 learn about the foundation of democracy and how the documents crafted hundreds of years ago still have an impact on our country today. They explore the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, among others. These documents provide a framework with which we make the laws and processes that help keep democracy a vital paradigm.Through hands-on projects, which include analyzing how the promises made in the Preamble of the Constitution were put into practice and investigating how to balance the freedom of speech in the digital age, students investigate how American democracy operates. With colorful illustrations, interesting sidebars, and links to online primary sources, this book asks readers to consider the effect of technology on democracy and make predictions about future documents that will be important to the preservation of democracy around the world.

Planet Earth: 25 Environmental Projects You Can Build Yourself provides an engaging guide to the natural world and encourages children ages 9 and up to get their hands dirty and actively connect with the environment. It then introduces key environmental issues—wind and solar power, pollution, endangered species, global warming, and recycling—and posits potential solutions. Trivia, fun facts, and 25 captivating hands-on projects investigate ecology basics, such as the food chain, oxygen, and animal habitats, as well as ways to lessen the strain on Earth's resources by reducing human consumption and waste. With Planet Earth kids will learn how to respect and protect our unique planet.

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.

Why do humans walk on two legs? Why do fish have gills? Life on Earth is incredibly diverse and part of the reason for this is evolution, or the theory that living things change with time. Evolution: How Life Adapts to a Changing Environment explores the theory of evolution, its history, how we think it works, examples of creatures who have evolved in response to specific circumstances, and what this might mean for the future of our planet. For billions of years, the amazing story of life on Earth has been unfolding. Millions of years ago, life on earth was nothing like it is today. Dinosaurs roamed the earth and pterosaurs flew through the skies. Millions of years before the dinosaurs, it was even more different. Strange ocean creatures lived in the seas, while the land was barren. Throughout its history, Earth has been home to an incredible diversity of living things that have changed dramatically over the many millennia. How have these living creatures changed so much? And how did that change happen? The answer: evolution! In Evolution: How Life Adapts to a Changing Environment, readers ages 9 to 12 will study evolution, or the process by which living things change over time. One of the most important ideas in biology, evolution explains why there are so many different living organisms on earth. It also explains why you are the way you are. Because of evolution, you walk on two legs and communicate with language. And although evolution is the story of our past, it also helps us understand our future and how we continue to evolve. Throughout Evolution, investigations and experiments provide hands-on, problem-solving opportunities for students, incorporating various challenges and tools. Readers simulate the process of natural selection, trace the blue whale’s evolutionary tree, and examine how fossils provide evidence of evolution and adaptation. Using readily available household and recycled materials, each activity takes the reader through an inquiry-based, open-ended investigation that leaves plenty of room to explore individual creativity. Evolution: How Life Adapts to a Changing Environment takes readers on a journey from our common ancestry to our shared future on an incredibly diverse planet.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.

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.

Make a geodesic dome big enough to sit in. Solve one of the world’s hardest two-piece puzzles. Pass a straight line through a curved slot. From prime numbers to paraboloids, Amazing Math Projects You Can Build Yourself introduces readers ages 9 and up to the beauty and wonder of math through hands-on activities. Kids will cut apart shapes to discover area formulas, build beautiful geometric models to explore their properties, and amaze friends with the mysterious Möbius strip. Learning through examples of how we encounter math in our daily lives, children will marvel at the mathematical patterns in snowflakes and discover the graceful curves in the Golden Gate Bridge. Readers will never look at soap bubbles the same way again! Amazing Math Projects You Can Build Yourself includes projects about number patterns, lines, curves, and shapes. Each activity includes intriguing facts, vocabulary builders, and connections to other topics. A companion website, includes video instructions for many projects in the book and provides additional activities.

Make a geodesic dome big enough to sit in. Solve one of the world’s hardest two-piece puzzles. Pass a straight line through a curved slot. From prime numbers to paraboloids, Amazing Math Projects You Can Build Yourself introduces readers ages 9 and up to the beauty and wonder of math through hands-on activities. Kids will cut apart shapes to discover area formulas, build beautiful geometric models to explore their properties, and amaze friends with the mysterious Möbius strip. Learning through examples of how we encounter math in our daily lives, children will marvel at the mathematical patterns in snowflakes and discover the graceful curves in the Golden Gate Bridge. Readers will never look at soap bubbles the same way again! Amazing Math Projects You Can Build Yourself includes projects about number patterns, lines, curves, and shapes. Each activity includes intriguing facts, vocabulary builders, and connections to other topics. A companion website, includes video instructions for many projects in the book and provides additional activities.

Head to the fair to learn about physics with cool trivia facts, hands-on science activities, and lots of accessible science! Where can you experience the laws of motion, the fun of physics, and the chemistry of cotton candy? The fair! In Fairground Physics: Motion, Momentum, and Magnets with Hands-On Science Activities, readers ages 9 to 12 learn about the forces that rule our world and everything in it by examining the rides, games, and even food you might find at a county fair. Ride the carousel and discover centripetal force. Throw darts at a balloon and learn about projectile science. Hop on a roller coaster and name the types of energy involved in whizzing you around the track and upside down! Fun at the fair extends into real-life, hands-on learning that kids will keep front of mind even as they swing through the air and guzzle down some funnel cakes. This book is full of text-to-self and text-to-world connections! • Real world science is a great way to engage kids with learning about science, and it doesn’t get much more real than at a fairground. By using examples that most kids have experienced, Fairground Physics both captures the imagination and provides a foundation of reality on which to base explanations of complex scientific concepts.• Force, motion, and gravity affect everyone whether we take notice or not, and understanding how the laws of physics work is an essential part of understanding the physical underpinnings of our very existence. • Fairground Physics engages readers through hands-on activities, such as designing a roller coaster and making ice cream, along with interesting trivia, fascinating sidebars, and links to online material that supports and supplements learning. About the Build It Science set and Nomad Press Fairground Physics is part of a set of four Build It Science books that explore accessible science. The other titles in this set are Climate Change, Backyard Biology, and Kitchen Chemistry. Nomad Press books in the Build It series integrate content with participation. 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. All books are leveled for Guided Reading level and Lexile and align with Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. All titles are available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook formats.

How did somebody come up with the idea for bridges, skyscrapers, helicopters, and nightlights? How did people figure out how to build them?In 3D Engineering: Design and Build Your Own Prototypes, young readers tackle real-life engineering problems by figuring out real-life solutions. Kids apply science and math skills to create prototypes for bridges, instruments, alarms, and more. Prototypes are preliminary models used by engineers—and kids—to evaluate ideas and to better understand how things work.Engineering design starts with an idea. How do we get to the other side of the river? How do we travel long distances in short periods of time? Using a structured engineering design process, kids learn how to brainstorm, build a prototype, test a prototype, evaluate, and re-design. Projects include designing a cardboard chair to understand the stiffness of structural systems and designing and building a set of pan pipes to experiment with pitch and volume.Creating prototypes is a key step in the engineering design process and prototyping early in the design process generally results in better processes and products. 3D Engineering gives kids a chance to figure out many different prototypes, empowering them to discover the mechanics of the world we know.

Revealing legends and legacies, Inca: Discover the Culture and Geography of a Lost Civilization with 25 Projects offers engaging insight into the continent-sprawling ancient Inca culture. The text and activities invite learners on a journey along the Inca Trail. They'll visit the city of Cuzco and the majestic Machu Picchu, built on a jagged ridge thousands of feet above the Urubamba River. Kids will learn about cultural beliefs, rituals, scientific advances, and languages. They'll create Salar de Uyuni salt crystals and build a tropical cloud forest. This captivating educational tool also features unique illustrations, informative sidebars, fun-fact questions, and vocabulary that will interest readers from start to finish.