Traditional African American Arts and Activities

Rating:
Summary: Fun *and* useful!
Review: As I write this, the only other review attached to this book (Sonya Kimble-Ellis' Traditional African American Arts and Activities) is clearly *not* assigned correctly: it talks about science experiments, not African American arts and activities. The book linked to buy along with this one also has to do with science activities; it looks like somebody assigned this book the wrong category in Amazon's web database!

Regardless: this is a great book, part of Wiley's "Celebrating Our Heritage" series (see also Wiley's excellent books from Arlette Braman, for "Celebrating Our Heritage" and "Kids Around the World"). Like the other books from Wiley, the text is directed at kids but is especially good for kids and adults to explore together. It gives solid information accompanied by do-able activities with clear instructions. The Martin Luther King Day section is not exactly "traditional" in the folkloric sense, but this is a very valuable book. Kudos Kimble-Ellis and to Wiley for such a strong package!

Rating:
Summary: Too much engineering!
Review: This selection of experiments demands a lot of "building." Admittedly you do build cool things-a machine for measuring insect heart beats, a home electrophoresis set-up, a high altitude chamber, a device for measuring metabolism in small animals, a video microscope system, etc. You spend a lot of time doing device construction. If you like bulding machines, they you will enjoy this book.

Very few of the experiments involve little or no construction--a couple of exceptions being a neat way to extract dna from stuff and a growth inhibitor-plant experimnet. Plus fun slime mold stuff.

I say, where are the fun things to do with bacteria? Or things you can do to your friends or pets without hurting them? There isn't nearly enough variety here.

Great experiments and great machines, but this selection may prove a bit daunting to the beginner or the younger child. Could be useful for some science fair experiments, though.