Vacuum Bazookas, Electric Rainbow Jelly, and 27 Other Saturday Science Projects

Just what I needed for preparing STEM outreach -- covers the details of construction, scientific background, advanced science, and some fun quotes. But definitely for the science-philic!

Neil Downie has developed another outstanding summary of science projects/challenges for all ages. At this time, when bcominig a scientist may not be the #1 career--- these projects get the attention of the student,parent and teacher alike. The opportunity to try, fail and try again--usually ends in success. We need this type of approach to encourgae our children to consider science as a career.

Usefull for middle school science demos and as neat demos for physics/science Olympiads but not much further. The ideas provided are great but today's Instructables.com offers a lot more.

nice

I've only had this book for a few days, but have found the projects unusual and offbeat. For the most part, they are not a rehash of old science projects. They are well described and each one has a good description of the science and math behind them. The illustrations are not overly detailed, but they do the job quite well. I found it a little odd that the description of what the project is about is separated from the chapter on the project. The summaries of what is interesting about the projects and simply what they do is in the front of the book. If you open to a project within the book, you'll wonder what the real appeal of the project is until you go to the front of the book.The author is quite a tinkerer and at least one of the project toys is patented. I believe a few others are heading toward patents.Several projects require access to a small amount of Mecanno (or Erector) set parts. These companies almost do not exist it the U.S. any longer. However, Brio recently started distributing Erector sets again. I'm sure one could find substitutes for the Mecanno parts at a local hardware store or maybe even make them.

Not just the usual.

The technical language was easily understood and presented in a clear interesting manner.Mr Downie has inspired me to have a real go at these projects.As we say in New Zealand "Sweet As".

I enjoyed the book, but so far the only experiment we've done is the vacuum bazooka, for which I recommend using a wet vac and small water balloons as ammo.

What a great change, to see a "science book" with the sort of projects and demonstrations that will interest children of all ages, and quite a lot of adults.The "Vacuum bazooka" is an extremely powerful device - especially with a damned great wet/dry vacuum powering it. We used plastic 35mm film cannisters and got 100 feet (high) shots from ours.The fluid amplifier project is also nicely messy, but a great demonstration of some basic (electronic) theory.Highly recommended to those interested in practical science, with good theoretical backup and resources in the book.

Very interesting. Probably not for younger readers.