Every wonder why Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa has been slowly toppling over for centuries? Stack books on a foundation of paper balls to learn about rickety building foundations and entre of mass. How about the 15 foot high tidal wave of molasses that to re through the streets of Boston in the Great Molasses Flood of 1919? Karate chop a full tube of toothpaste (outside!) to demonstrate the messy behaviour of non-Newtonian fluids. With The Book of Epically Disastrous Engineering, kids get active with a fun, illustrated tour through the physics and technology of crumbling buildings, sinking ships, wobbly bridges, mud stuck tanks, and much more. Covering a wide range of snafus, mishaps, and outright disasters throughout history - some infamous, like the Titanic sinking and Chilean miners trapped underground, and others lesser know, like the Fidnae Stadium collapse in ancient Rome - these 48 hands on experiments put readers newfound knowledge into action. Each demonstration uses familiar household ingredients and helps break down the barrier between learning and doing - or even better, between learning and having fun.
This is a really well researched and beautifully illustrated book aimed at middle readers. Important engineering concepts such as stability, center of mass, movement, potential energy, load bearing and materials use, among others, are defined and illustrated through experiments. Each of the experiments is used to explain engineering disasters from the ancient world up to the modern day.
The chapters are broken up into digestible sidebars and short texts which are full of interesting trivia. The book could have been very dry and, dare I say, boring. It's emphatically not boring. I really enjoyed reading the history and the whys-and-wherefores of the science behind the scenes.
STEM (science technology engineering and math) education is so vitally important to problem solving and progress as well as safeguarding our limited resources. Getting young people interested with accessible and fun learning materials is a huge positive part of the equation.
This book would a welcome addition to a classroom unit on engineering or natural science as well as a good starting point for a multitude of science fair projects or a homeschooling unit.
It's a solid book, 256 pages, and very useful and interesting for budding engineers.
Five stars Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.
