This book was written for kids who find science courses--and especially, science projects--daunting. Author Faith Hickman Brynie promises that she will show them "how to carry out a project that's as much fun as a day at the beach." Her opening chapter tells how to ask good science questions and shape them into promising plans for a project. Chapter 2 offers guidance in transforming an idea into a logical design that's safe, practical, and affordable. Succeeding chapters instruct on collecting and organizing data, writing a report or giving an oral presentation, building a display, and improving a project as it evolves. She also provides helpful checklists on topics ranging from safety to seeking expert help. Kids learn to enjoy doing original science projects, rather than merely repeating experiments taken from books. Middle school and high school students who think they hate science will change their minds in a hurry when they use this book.
Faith Brynie started getting lots of letters from enthusiastic readers when her 2009 book Brain Sense (Amacom) was released. "It only took me 18 years and 24 books to become an overnight sensation!" she says.
Brynie, who's been working steadily as a science and health writer since 1991, has written numerous books for children, teens, and adults. Her 101 Questions... series (Twenty-First Century Books) is a staple on the shelves of high school and public libraries. Her Six-Minute Science Experiments and Six-Minute Nature Experiments (Sterling) have been sending children to their kitchens and their backyards for hands-on science activities for more than a decade. Her Painless Science Projects (Barron's) and her Parent's Crash Course: Elementary Science Fair Projects (Wiley) are classics on the science fair circuit. And she even has a new series of animal books for early readers coming out from Enslow in 2010. Several of her books have won "Best of the Year" honors from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she's received accolades from the International Reading Association and the National Science Teachers Association. But Brain Sense is the first book to "make it big" in the bookstores.
Brynie, a former science teacher who holds a PhD from the University of Colorado, is diverse in her interests and the writing she puts out. She writes and edits for textbook companies, science and health newsletters and magazines, film companies and television, and private clients who employ her for everything from travel writing to novel critiques. "I write. That's what I do," Brynie says, so the flurry of positive responses that Brain Sense has generated has come as a happy surprise. "I tell some wonderful stories about some wonderful people in Brain Sense," she says. "It's their stories that make the book." Read more of them at Brynie's Psychology Today blog, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-sense. Visit Brynie's web site at http://home.centurytel.net/brynie.
