Living Books About Chemistry and Physics
We have compiled a list of eight living books that will pair well with your elementary student’s study of chemistry and physics. Adding living books to your study is a great teaching tool. They help add life and engagement to any subject. You’ll be surprised how much more your students remember when they hear real-life stories of people who worked in the field of chemistry and physics, and how they changed the world!
The Connection Between Science and Literature
Science and literature are both subjects that include forms of human expression and exploration. Therefore, it makes great sense to study these two in tandem. Literature-based learning is powerful because it engages the whole person. Through story, we are brought inside the world of someone’s mind and experiences that are likely hard to forget.
Science of Relations
Charlotte Mason talks about education as a science of relations. This forms a relationship with the concept or subject and helps students discover connections between the elements of their education. Feeling the same frustration that a chemist experienced forms a connection, which is, in turn, the education.
The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him? (School Education, p. 170-171)
Living Books About Chemistry and Physics
Here is a list of living books to bookmark for your next trip to the library!
- Who Was Marie Curie? by Megan Stine
- Elements of Faith by Richard Duncan
- Robert Boyle: Trailblazer of Science by John Tiner
- What is the World Made of? All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
- Air is All Around You by Franklyn M. Branley
- What’s Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew? by Robert E. Wells
- Matter All Around You: Solids, Liquids & Gases by R.J. Lefkowitz
- The Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin D. Wiker (gr. 5+, 165 p.)
Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics
Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics course is written in a conversational tone, making complex and abstract concepts approachable for curious young minds. As your student engages with the lessons, projects, and experiments, they will better understand the fascinating world of chemistry and physics, and the Master Designer who created it all. Throughout this course, they’ll study and explore the basic building blocks of creation, atoms and molecules, simple chemicals, the laws of motion, energy in its many forms, and concepts of electricity and magnetism. Your student will get to put their learning to work as they have fun making a bouncy ball, developing a smoke bomb, building a solar oven, constructing a working periscope, fashioning a miniature motor, and creating a lava lamp!
