Engineering Science You Know More Than You Think: Tales from Playgrounds and Your Own Backyard

The book shows how kids learn about engineering science, and how their play and solutions equip them to understand grown-ups' actions later. Kids on teeter-totters learn about high-rise counter-balanced construction cranes; kids pushing other kids on wagons understand discussions of rockets launching heavy payloads into space; kids making snow-balls or making mud-clods (wet or dry, to throw at their buddies) learn about cohesion, plus about ballistics; kids watching meteor showers, phases of the moon, and eclipses understand later explanations of astronomy; kids experience scrapes and bruises, and then understand infections and topical medications; kids experience sticky and slick surfaces, then understand traction, and wet-road hydro-planing, and adhesive residue; kids quickly learn about the need for insulation (lots of it in winter, none in Texas summers), and therefore understand selection of clothing, insulation of houses . insulation of Arctic pipelines; and much more. Active kids learn a lot!