Experimenting with Technology and Invention

Experimenting with Technology and Invention is quite a dramatic title and may conjure up images of full colour illustrations, cut-aways, photographs of inventors in serious mode and neatly packaged double-page spreads of information. The unpretentious reality has double-page spreads but these are geared to practical exploration of the problem to be solved and the mechanical theory involved. The inventors portrayed are smiling cartoon children with frizzy hair, demonstrating to the reader what to do. The whole thing is rather fun.

This will be a useful source of ideas for the teacher developing technology in the curriculum (as well as the 1990s version of the kid who used to mess about with meccano). It's not a book to read straight through but to read a bit, pause, think and... invent. Warnings are given for any dangerous activities, with the only possible danger being that the reader is so clearly told what not to do!

I do have one or two quibbles, for instance I don't find testing a snail's pulling power using a harness and pulley really acceptable (even if the snail is treated gently). On the whole, though, not a lot can be wrong with a book with such a grand title but which includes advice on how to make the incredible 'Dick-Dock Duck'!