Maker Lab by Jack Challoner (review)

Unless you are a first-time visitor to the science-project shelves, you’ve probably seen most of the twenty-eight projects featured here, but this compendium makes a handy one-stop guide. Four color-code-banded chapters (“Food for Thought,” “Around the Home,” “Water World,” and “The Great Outdoors”) organize the projects, though some of the chapter titles require some liberal interpretation: a lemon battery and invisible ink may start out as food-based but are hardly designed for consumption; why a DNA model belongs “around the home” is anybody’s guess; and paper planes might, in fact, be banned outright in many houses. This minor grousing aside, the projects are tried and true winners, and the instructions are broken into sensible steps illustrated with helpful color photos. Each project starts with a list of supplies (again, photos included) and an inset box with estimates of time and difficulty; each concludes with notes on “How It Works” and occasional hints on expanding the project or applying its principle to a real-world situation. An index and a glossary of scientific terms are also included. This is a handsome makeover, with inviting illustrations, and a “Maker Lab” title that is so much cooler than its “Science Fair” forebears. Time to weed and replace in the 500s?