Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family-Friendly Experiments from Around the House by Liz Lee Heinecke, 144 pp, RL 4

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Liz Lee Heinecke clocked ten years of bench work in research labs before starting a new career - mom to three children. When her youngest was two, she started Science Wednesdays with her kids, but often encountered experiements that required specialized equipment, prompting Liz to begin customizing traditional science experiments and making up new ones. You can check out the brilliantly fun experiments she came up with at Kitchen Pantry Scientist, but I am sure that you will want to buy Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family-Friendly Experiments from Around the House.


The format of Kitchen Science Lab for Kids is perfect! Each experiment unfolds over two pages, so you can prop open the book and see everything you will be doing, from beginning to end. The verso page contains a materials list and safety tips and hints and the start of the protocol (instructions). The recto finishes the protocol and ends with a "creative enrichment" block that encourages scientists to take experiments one step beyond. My favorite part of Heinecke's book, and one that she says are now treasured keepsakes in her house, is the Science Journal. Instructions are laid out for keeping a notebook to document and detail studies and experiments, which is a vital part of scientific exploration and a skill that is just plain useful across the board.


Kitchen Science Lab for Kids breaks the 52 experiments into 12 units. Chemical reactions, crystals, physics, life science, polymers, colloids and misbehaving materials are some of the units. Acids and bases, microbiology, botany and rocket science round out the 52 labs in the book. Children as young as five and as old as thirteen (or higher) will find these experiments engaging, exciting and fun. And even occasionally edible! Best of all, these experiments are all, 100% kid tested over a range of ages.


This is the experiment that I want to try with my kids - LAB 14: Standing on Eggs



Also by Liz Lee Heinecke:


Source: Review Copy


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