Living Books About Chemistry and Physics
We have compiled a list of 12 living books that will pair well with any study in chemistry and physics. When you are planning a study on chemistry and physics, you may not think about adding living books as a great teaching tool to supplement. However, they help add life and engagement to any subject. You’ll be surprised how much more your students remember when they can hear real life stories of people in the field of chemistry and physics, and how they changed the world!
The Connection Between Science and Literature
Science and literature are two subjects that are forms of human expression and exploration. They both undertake endeavors of creation and its activities. 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 is likely hard to forget.
Science of Relations
Charlotte Mason talks about education as a science of relations. This is forming a relationship with the learning, and discovering connections between the elements of your education. Feeling the frustration that a chemist may have experienced is forming a relationship, 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 that you can bookmark for your next trip to the library!
The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
Who Was Marie Curie? by Megan Stine The Periodic Kingdom: Journey into the Land of Chemical Elements by P.W. Atkins 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 Marie Curie by Leonard Everett Fisher 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.) Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry by Bernard Jaffe
Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics
Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics course is written in a conversational tone, and takes complex and abstract concepts and makes them 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, as well as 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! Listen to a recent episode of Let’s Talk Homeschool!