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This science kit was easy to use. It had a mix of activities, although there was not much to it except for putting the intercom together, and that did not take long at all.
I learned a lot from the kit mostly because it included a book. I learned that Alexander Graham Bell worked on many different inventions: things like telegraphs, telephones, x-ray machines, respirators, and a new shape called a tetrahedron (it has three triangular sides and a triangular base). A tetrahedron is so strong it was used in structures like towers and bridges. Bell used it to make his first flying kites and then went on to use the shape in airplanes.
I learned how small inventions were built on to come up with things we use today, such as the vacuum jacket that Bell first invented. A vacuum jacket forced air in and out of someone’s lungs. This invention became known as the iron lung and was used to help polio victims in the late 1940s. It led to the respirators doctors use today. Bell also came up with the idea for hydrofoils, boats powered by aerial motors that sped over the surface of the water. Bell, however, was more than an inventor. In his later years, he helped found the National Geographic Society and continued his work on deaf education helping many including Helen Keller.
What I liked most about the kit was the “Soda Bottle Boat” experiment. I also enjoyed the old photographs, they were cool, and I liked the other experiments. The only things I would change would be to add more experiments. The book part of the kit was great, but the intercom part was not that exciting.
The one word I would use to describe the kit is informative. Out of 10, I would give the book a 9 and the kit part a 7.5.
(Originally
published in the March/April 2010 issue of YES Mag.)
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