Showing results by author "Amy Tao" in All Categories

Did you know your eyelids close and open 10 to 20 times a minute! Your eyes have parts that work together. The pupil lets light into your eyes. The iris controls how much light gets in. The cornea, a bowl-shaped layer, covers and protects your eyeballs. Discover how hairs on your eyelashes protect your eyes from germs and dirt, and other ways your eyes help you see and keep you safe!

Have you ever wondered how plants grow? How does the plant stem know to grow up while the roots grow down? This book will teach children how gravity affects plants with a fun experiment to grow their own beans!

Everyone has a favorite sleep position. Is the one that you like best in this book?

Do you know how many animals live in the Amazonian rainforest? Learn about the different predators and prey that coexist and depend on one another to survive. See how all life within a rainforest serves different roles and leads to a successful ecosystem.

Enjoy this collection of stories for children about life on the farm. In "Hector Helps Out", Calliope the hen enlists the help of Hector the rooster in an effort to retain her egg. They work to pull a fast one on Farmer Bean. Also included are nine other stories about animals and living on the farm: "Hatch!", "Fresh from the Farm", "Grandpa Drives a Milk Truck", "Mem and Grandpa at the Farm Stand", "Diggory Dog", "Fleece Fiber, Yarn Sweater", "Harvest Time with Papa", "Herbert, Hurry Up", and "A Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy".

People use different ways to stay warm in the snow, and animals have unique ways to stay warm, too! Learn how these animals keep their bodies warm in the winter weather. The muskox sheds its furry undercoat each spring and grows a new one every winter. A seal has an extra layer under its fur coat called blubber–this thick layer of fat lies under the seal’s skin and is a great way to hold heat!

Do you know how buildings you see in your city got there? Before buildings are built, machines that move the ground are used! The excavator or digger move old ground away, preparing the space for a new building! A driver sits in the cab where all the fun begins! The tools to control the machine are inside the cab. Levers control the arms which do all the digging. How does the digger’s body move?

What does the school you attend look like? Does it have two floors? Does it have a playground? Look at the building plans the architect has drawn for Hopperville’s new school. Next, the old building needs to be removed with machines like a crane and a wrecking ball. Only the excavator can build a big, deep hole for the building. Find out what the surveyor does!

Germ Busters are on patrol! See the Germ Busters fighting bad germs in your blood marking them for destruction. The Busters are a team of antibodies that come from medicine you get from a shot. They are weak germs that can’t make you sick. Germ Busters keep protecting you from germs if they get inside your body again. Will you join the Germ Busters to fight the germs?

Do you know how the buildings in your city got there? Before buildings are built, different types of machines that move the ground are used! Some are large like the excavator or digger that moves old ground and dirt away, preparing the space for a new building! A bulldozer clears away old stones and dirt. The scoop, called the loader, does many jobs–it smooths, scrapes or carries dirt away?

Have you ever wanted to live in Antarctica? What kind of house would you live in? A snow house, of course! Follow the instructions to learn how to build a snow house. What is a snow house made from and what tools do you need to build it? Guess what the first step is to build a snow house?

When a person had an infection prior to the twentieth century, they could only rely on their immune system to heal, which sometimes didn't work. This all changed when a man named Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin—entirely on accident! Thanks to Fleming, the medical field made huge advancements that have saved hundreds of lives. Learn more about Fleming's miracle mold!

Inside every seed waits a tiny plant, ready to grow. Watch the process of a pumpkin plant from tiny seed to full-size fruit! You'll also see other plant seeds, which come in many different sizes, shapes, and colors. Some can be as big as your head, but poppy seeds are so little you can hold hundreds in one hand!

Yoga is a great way to stimulate your mind and keep yourself active by learning how to mimic animal behavior. Even kids can do yoga too! Enjoy posing as a sitting butterfly, stretching your arm and leg muscles with downward dog, or posing like a cat while stretching your body and mind.

Why does a baseball travel much faster when hit with a bat than if pitched? Learn how force is applied in this fun experiment! Using a marker, a ruler, and a can, you can perform your own lever experiments. You'll understand the power of weight, such as how a balance beam operates, but on a smaller scale, while learning about the science behind balance.

See how the science of physics is utilized not only in the kitchen, but also around the house on a daily basis. Simple machines are everywhere! From brooms and rolling pins to lightbulbs and window blinds, basic everyday kitchen items transform into scientific concepts such as screws, levers, ramps, and wedges!

Everyone has a birthday! But do you know that birthdays are celebrated differently around the world? Explore the history of birthday traditions in countries such as the invention of the birthday cake in Greece, why noodles are eaten in China, and why in Russia they pull on an ear! It's a global celebration.

All of our pet dogs today have evolved from wild wolves. Humans began to tame wolves and then select their friendliest pups for keeping. Gradually, people learned how choose some dogs and breed them to do different jobs.

Do you know how new fruit is made? Learn about the different parts of a fruit plant’s flower—the stigma, pistil, and stamen—and how they use pollen to make seeds in a process called pollination! The seeds grow into new flowers, which turn into fruit after they’re pollinated!

Do your shoes fasten with Velcro straps? Have you ever wondered where this strange invention comes from? Sometimes nature provides excellent inspiration for new solutions! Plant burs stuck in his dog's fur gave Swiss engineer George de Mestral a good idea.