Janice VanCleave's Volcanoes: Mind-boggling Experiments You Can Turn Into Science Fair Projects
Grade 4-6-These 20 demonstrations are all designed to simulate some aspect of volcanic phenomena and/or its measurement. Instructions are clear and easy to follow, and only common materials are required. Simple explanations of what happens and clues leading to additional projects are included. It is important to note that many of these activities explore volcanoes by analogy. In other books, they would be labeled as examples of density, viscosity, gas pressure, magnetism, etc. Some of the analogies work; others, such as using vinegar and baking soda to create an eruption or a piece of cardboard to model volcanic clouds, go pretty far afield. Indeed, the entire volume looks like a rehash of classic demonstrations found in numerous other sources. Moreover, the text is so brief that it provides little additional information about volcanoes; radioactivity is just defined as atoms breaking apart and the Pacific's Ring of Fire barely gets a mention. Generic black-and-white line drawings and diagrams appear throughout.Alan Newman, American Chemical Society, Washington, DCCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.