Resourcefulness / Inventions Unit Study, part 1

We began our new school year this morning. This semester we’re participating in a KONOS co-op with three other families. We’ll be studying the unit on resourcefulness and inventions (not including the frontier life segment).

I’ve been collecting books on this subject for quite a while, since my 10yo Andrew is very interested in science.  I ordered a few new books specifically for this unit, but most of these were already in our home library, thanks to library sales, yard sales, and Amazon Marketplace. As I worked on lesson plans this weekend, I kept thinking of more and more books already on our shelves!  The boys probably won’t read all of these, but these are the books I’ve gathered so far (not including assorted books on trains, cars, etc.).

If you have favorite books on this subject that I haven’t listed here, please tell me about them!

Mary Jo

INVENTIONS

Inventors, Inventions, & Entrepreneurs by Pat Wesolowski

The Story of Inventions by Michael J. McHugh and Frank P. Bachman

Men of Science and Invention by Michael Blow (American Heritage Junior Library)

Scientists Behind the Inventors by Roger Burlingame

All About Famous Inventors and Their Inventions by Fletcher Pratt

Breakthroughs in Science by Isaac Asimov

How To Be an Inventor by Harvey Weiss

Invention (Eyewitness) by Lionel Bender

Invention Book by Steven Caney

Great Inventors and Inventions (Dover coloring book)

Writing Trails with Men of Science by Laurie Barrie

MACHINES

Machines and How They Work by Harvey Weiss

Simple Machines and How We Use Them by Tillie S. Pine and Joseph Levine

Force and Motion (Eyewitness) by Peter Lafferty

The Art of the Catapult by William Gurstelle

Wheels: A Pictorial History by Edwin Tunis

The Wheel and How It Changed the World by Ian Locke

The Secret Life of Hardware by Vicki Cobb

ENERGY

Energy Makes Things Happen by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Energy (Eyewitness) by Jack Challoner

Light (Eyewitness) by David Burnie

Solar Energy by Franklyn M. Branley

The Story of Atomic Energy by Laura Fermi

ELECTRICITY

Electricity (TOPS) by Ron Marson

Electricity (Eyewitness) by Steve Parker

Electricity from Faraday to Solar Generators by Martin J. Gutnik

Switch On, Switch Off by Melvin Berger

What Makes a Light Go On? by Scott Corbett

The Light Bulb by Shaaron Cosner

Electronics (Eyewitness) by Roger Bridgman

MAGNETISM

Magnetism (TOPS) by Ron Marson

What Makes a Magnet? By Franklyn M. Branley

The Compass by Paula Z. Hogan

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Industrial Revolution (Living History) by John Clare

The Industrial Revolution (See-Through History) by Andrew Langley

TECHNOLOGY

The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay

How Things Work (Reader’s Digest) by Neil Ardley

Visual Factfinder: Science and Technology by Brian Williams

I Wonder Why Zippers Have Teeth and Other Questions about Inventions by Barbara Taylor

Technology (Eyewitness) by Roger Bridgman

How Did We Find Out about Computers? by Isaac Asimov

Internal Combustion Engines by Ross Olney

Motors and Engines and How They Work by Harvey Weiss

Engines by Jerome S. Mayer

Windmills, Bridges, & Old Machines: Discovering Our Industrial Past by David Weitzman

The Story of Tools: How They Built Our World and Shaped Man’s Life by James Poling

Seven Wonders of the Modern World by George Sullivan

Flying Machine (Eyewitness) by Andrew Nahum

The Visual Dictionary of Everyday Things

FICTION

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

(and Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations by Diane Stanley & Peter Vennema)

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald