Carmelo Piazza, aka Carmelo the Science Fellow, recently published a book full of DIY, at-home science experiments that are fun and inexpensive. The book aims to get kids to love science.
Carmelo Piazza opened his science center Carmelo the Science Fellow in 2005. Now, 10 years later, he has published a book of science experiments and learning approaches called Crazy for Science with Carmelo the Science Fellow ($19.95; bn.com). The book is geared toward kids in kindergarten through third grades.
Piazza’s book, which became available Feb. 3, is for parents and teachers who wish to teach children about science in a fun way using inexpensive materials for experiments. For example, in one experiment, Piazza uses a blown-up balloon to represent a brain and kids have to use newspaper, bubble wrap, or other materials to fashion a skull to protect the brain. This teaches concepts of force, gravity, and engineering.
“The real goal of the book was to try to create a love of science education through parents, teachers, and children,” Piazza says.
Carmelo the Science Fellow offers summer camps, birthday parties, and after-school programs for kids. This summer, the camp will run from July 6-Aug. 28, Monday-Friday from 9am-3pm. The camp covers a range of scientific topics, such as geology, astronomy, chemistry, and biology. Kids will have the opportunity to do experiments, such as create their own exploding volcano, a tornado in a bottle, and conduct a “rat race,” for which Piazza brings in rats to navigate through a maze.
The after-school program runs for 12 weeks throughout the school year to enrich science concepts through activities and experiments. For birthday parties, kids can hold exotic animals such as bearded dragons and blue tongue skinks, then participate in experiments to make fake snow, silly putty, and more.
Above photo: Kids at a birthday party have fun doing science activities with Carmelo the Science Fellow.
