SCIENCE IN WINTER AND SPRING

Another sampler to round out the activities the authors suggested for . . . Summer and Fall (KR, 487, J-215), this is primarily a catalog of what can be observed and/or collected from winter trees, birds and rocks to insects and spring wild flowers. The Zapplers give only minimal guidance to anyone seriously interested in any of the hobbies they introduce so casually. Typically, their one paragraph directions for building a formicarium (ant farm) are unaccompanied by any diagrams or follow-up, and their undifferentiated enthusiasm lumps together serious mineral collecting (including the Mohs scale and a method for determining the specific gravity of a sample) with an invitation to collect pretty pebbles from the beach . . . ""One simply picks through them for those that are unusual and a new hobby is well on its way."" Further, none of the chapters--each highly selective and illustrated with muddy photographs--would really do as a field guide. By trying to serve up a grab bag of equally accessible, largely undirected activities, the Zapplers are likely to frustrate the very non-scientists they hope to inspire.