Process/history of science books

[Jackie]

DD, age 5, wants to read about how scientists learned the things we know. Specifically, she was stunned to learn that scientists and engineers often have to try many different ideas before hitting on what works. She's read some of the Scientist in the Field books, which introduced the idea that science could be both fascinating and tedious, but they still don't touch on the struggles and failures before success so much. She is interested both in learning more about the struggles and about how lots of smaller discoveries eventually led to larger discoveries. Any book suggestions?

[desertflower]

I've never read scientist in the field. I like Who was Thomas Edison. It's from a series called Who Was. It talked about his life, his success, his failures,etc.

 

Also, I just found out about a series called science highlights. It has 6 books. I think. The Rise of Industry and Medieval Science just to name a couple. It seems that this series is a history of science. Here's a synopsis for the Rise of Industry: each volume in the five-book series examines the story of scientific discovery in a series of timelines and each chapter examines either a particular aspect of science, or the life and work of an important scientist of the time. Parallels with other fields, such as astronomy and mathematics are highlighted so that readers can gain a rounded understanding of how scientists build on what has gone before and how science flourished in different parts of the world, or in different disciplines at the same time. The Rise of Industry looks at scientific discoveries in the eighteenth century, covering the work of James Watt, Benjamin Franklin, Jethro Tull, Antoine Lavoiser and others. The steam engine, farm machinery, navigation at sea and early railways are included.

 

Hth.

[SilverMoon]

The For Kids series, like Galileo for Kids, The Wright Brothers for Kids, and such. Full color, quality activity ideas, gobs of solid information. Higher reading level than Scientist in the Field, I think.

 

Perhaps the Living History Library series: Archimedes and the Door to Science, Herodotus and the Road to History, Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. These would probably be more of a read aloud.

[raptor_dad]

I really like Asimov's "How Did We Find Out About ___" series... they are short(~60pp), older, OOP, and written at an upper elementary level. The books tend to outline the development of an idea from ancient times without the typical textbook modernity bias. We used these books as read alouds when DS was 5 and now at 8 he reads them on his own.

 

Two recent examples:

 

"How Did We Find Out About The Sun" tracks a lot of theories about how the sun works... simple combustion, gravitational collapse, mystery mechanisms, and finally fusion... along the way lots of other discoveries like spectroscopy are folded in. It shows scientist struggling to use the available tools to solve a complex mystery one small bit at a time.

 

"How Did We Find Out About The Speed of Light" shows a long line of scientist dealing with the technically complex problems of the speed of light. It has lots of examples of scientists who got partial answers through flawed experiments. Michelson-Morely is presented as an elegant culmination in a scientific process instead of a single heroic event. 

 

[Jackie]

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm going to put a variety of these on reserve at the library and see what interests her.

[Kerileanne99]

Alex enjoyed a book called Mathematicians Are People Too and the sequel, and we read them for many of the same reasons. Whilst the books are geared toward mathematicians, there is of course a ton of overlap and the big names in science are covered:) Each chapter covers a different one:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0866515097/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1432210859&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=mathematicians&dpPl=1&dpID=51P4BWJW2FL&ref=plSrch

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0866518231/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?qid=1432210859&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&keywords=mathematicians&dpPl=1&dpID=51Vh-D6qtkL&ref=plSrch

 

Also along those lines, and maybe more what you are looking for is a 2 disc audio set called Scientists and their Discoveries that we listened to in the car for ages. There is a companion set called Great Inventors and their Inventions, as well as Great Explorers and their Discoveries. All of them chronicle the 'greats' and tend to highlight the long struggles and hard work that their achievements entailed.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00629DCPI/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1432211016&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&keywords=scientists+and+their+discoveries

 

Following this thread as I consider this meaningful therapy for my perfectionist dd:)

[Eagle]

We have several picture books that focus on mistakes being common before inventions are made. They are not about actual scientists, but are fun stories about fictitious characters:

 

The Most Magnificent Thing

Rosie Revere, Engineer

Coppernickel The Invention

 

Usborne has a book called The Story of Inventions which talks about various scientists and their inventions. It talks about failures before success, but it also discusses how several people may have been working on the same invention, and how many inventions are done in stages involving more than one person.

[Kareni]

DD, age 5, wants to read about how scientists learned the things we know.... Any book suggestions?

 

 

You might also consider (if not now, later) Mistakes That Worked  by Charlotte Jones and John Obrien

 

From Publishers Weekly

 

Droll cartoons illustrate the stories behind the invention of such everyday items as Silly Putty, trouser cuffs, popsicles and penicillin. Ages 8-up.

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

 

From School Library Journal

 

Grade 4-6-- For those readers who feel as though they've yet to accomplish anything in life, these discoveries will come as a great relief. None of the inventions described in these pages were planned; in fact, some of the inventors had no idea they'd stumbled on something useful until years later, when their works became popular. Jones covers both patented inventions (Silly Putty, Popsicles, Coca Cola) and generic ones (bricks, donut holes, cheese). She also throws in some place names whose monikers were coined accidentally. The loony watercolor sketches and all the extras here--fun facts, recipes, and anecdotes--are perfect for browsing. This book covers material similar to that in Wulffson's The Invention of Ordinary Things (Lothrop, 1981) and Steven Caney's Invention Book (Workman, 1985), but both are without the specific slant of "mistaken discovery." The only detriment to this otherwise versatile book is the cartoon stereotypes of the Eskimo, Native American, and Chinese man. --Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library

Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[SoCal_Bear]

I am starting Science in the Ancient World by Dr. Jay Wile this fall with my LO. This is Christian science series that he wrote for elementary students. I really like how he goes through history and scientific discoveries explaining about how the scientists thought. Explaining what was correct about their theories and what we now know is incorrect. I really like that that there are a lot of experiments/demos/hands-on activities throughout the book.