ENERGY LAB FOR KIDS

An array of simple demonstrations designed to give budding eco-activists an understanding of how energy is stored, transferred, used responsibly, and recycled.

Developed by the National Energy Education Development Project and demonstrated here by a cast of dozens of young children—roughly evenly split between girls and boys but the substantial majority presenting as white—the low-cost projects range from measuring shadows and charting temperature changes to constructing a solar cooker in a pizza box, creating an inventory of home-appliance energy needs, and competitively “mining” chocolate chips from cookies, then trying to reconstruct the cookies. Each entry comes with a materials list, clear, step-by-step directions with color photos, safety and potential-mess alerts, and difficulty ratings that range from “No Sweat!” (meaning doable by one person) to “Grab a Crew Member!”—for group activities, it’s “All Hands On Deck!” Each concludes with a nontechnical explanation of the physical principles involved, and many feature suggestions for further tinkering with materials or variables.

Fun and enlightenment for young experimenters working alone, with partners, or in groups.