All About Electricity by Melvin Berger

Nonfiction

As the title suggests, this book offers many facts all dealing with electricity. It gives examples of electricity, ones that students would easily recognize, and describes what electricity actually is. As it is a form of energy, the book also gives other examples of energy that students would understand and be familiar with. The book also discusses electric generators, compasses, and magnets. It even discusses atoms and the parts of an atom in ways that elementary students can understand. There are pictures of generators with a description of each of the parts and what they do. To help students grasp the concepts better, the book gives examples of types of appliances that use electricity that can be found inside their homes. Static electricity is also discussed, using lightning as a major example. The book lists tips and advice for students who are outdoors in a lightning storm and also what they should do if they are inside as well. The back section of the book is filled with small experiments that students can perform individually to help them understand such topics as batteries, generators and static electricity. In my SBTE's classroom, the students are actually learning about electricity and forces in their science class. This book and its experiments would be a great resource for students to read about their unit topic and use the experiments to supplement their understanding. My SBTE had the students rotate through different stations that taught about each of the science topics. At each station, there was an experiment dealing with static electricity, forces and magnetism. The experiments in this book would be a great source for the teacher to develop her stations. The back of the book also lists other science books written in this same format. If available, these books would be a fantastic way to allow students to integrate reading into science and experiment on their own to discover science.