Press Release – 28 April 2007
Boreatton Scouts judge super science books
for the Royal Society 
The Royal Society prizes for science books began 19 years ago to encourage more people to read science books. It is now one of the best known book prizes in the world. The prize money is awarded to the best science book of the year for under 14 year olds. We helped choose this year’s special book. The picture shows Matt and Ed working hard.
This year’s books are: ‘It’s True Space Turns You into Spaghetti’, read by Sophie Prior.
‘It’s very good and tells you everything you wanted to know and LOADS more. It will keep you interested and won’t let you want to put it down. The only disadvantage was that it was in Australian dollars and all the star gazing was for the southern hemisphere. It is aimed at young adults in key stage 3.’
Next up is: ‘Can You Feel the Force’, read by Samuel Jones.
‘There was a lot of detail including pictures to show exactly how things work. It had a lot of instances relating it to every day life and was packed full of experiments. Finally it was written in Richard Hammond’s own unique style. What a book!’
Next up is: ‘How Nearly Everything was Invented’, read by Matt Herbert.
‘It was very interesting and covered how nearly everything was invented. It was different from the other books with fold out pages so you have even more information. The book was packed full of pictures every where you looked and the pages were all different colours. All you wanted to do was read it all day. I think it is aimed at key stage 3.’
After that we had ‘Natural Disasters’, read by Alex Gunton.
‘This booked is aimed at around the end of key stage 2 and the beginning of key stage 3. It was easy to read, explaining everything about natural disasters, not in a boring formal way, but with a lot of colour and pictures.’
Now we have ‘My Body’, read by Ben Coates.
‘It was a really good book to read and explained the things inside your really well. However, it was a bit of both good and bad with some words being hard to understand; it felt a bit like doing school work – and we don’ like that! Overall it was a really good book to learn about your body.’
Finally last but not least we have, ‘Electricity’, read by Ed Revans
‘It was an absolutely great book and showed lots of super circuits and how they worked. Everything you need to know from a single battery to a massive bulb. I think it is suitable for the end of key stage 2 Year 5/6 to beginning of key stage 3 Year 7.’
For more details see www.royalsoc.ac.uk/sciencebooks or
Contact Dr Alan Herbert 01939 291352
Grace Prior – Boreatton Press Officer (age 11)
Boreatton Scouts test
the Royal Society Junior Science Books
Boreatton Scout Troop has been reading the shortlisted books for the Royal Society’s 2007 Junior Science Book Prize. Six people from the scout troop have concentrated on one book each and the author who gets the most marks wins the £10000 prize. All the scouts involved will get a certificate. Boreatton is the only scout troop doing it: while we think the schools doing it will be discussing the books sensibly, our scout leader decided we should test them out by doing experiments inspired by the books to see if the books helped us do investigations. The picture shows us with the books and the equipment we used to test them.
This year’s books are:
‘It’s true, Space turns you into spaghetti’, was read by Sophie Prior. The experiment we did on this book is that we made a model rocket and launched it. It went a thousand feet up, and came down several fields away, and we lost it! ‘It’s a good book and doesn’t let you put it down’ said Sophie.
‘Can you feel the force’ was read by Samuel Jones. Sam’s experiment involved rubbing a balloon on his tummy to charge it with static electricity. It made a radio crackle, and if it was dark we would have seen sparks, but it was light, so we couldn’t, which was a shame. It was a good book because it had lots of detail, with pictures that show you exactly how the things work.
‘How nearly everything was invented’ was read by Matt Herbert. The book had fold-out pages, so it could fit more information in. It showed how jet engines and planes were invented. The scout leader (my dad) had found an experiment in ‘Make:’ magazine, which showed how to make a jet engine out of a jam jar, meths, and a flame thing. It made a noise like a jet, but a bit quieter, and had lots of flames and sparks.
‘Natural Disasters’ was read by Alex Gunton. We made a volcano with toy soldiers and a chemical that made lots of smoke and sparks. A bit like Pompeii, which was an ash volcano. It worked, but the soldiers survived. I’d thought they’d go up in flames and melt.
‘My body book’ was read by Ben Coates. For the experiment, my dad went to John Bliss, a butchers in the Market hall, and asked for a sheep heart so that we could put some liquid in it and show how it pumped round and round. But before he could show us, the scouts that opened up the package, immediately started cutting them up. Oh well...
‘Electricity’ was read by Ed Revans. We made a battery and lit a lamp through the power of a lemon.
For more details see www.royalsoc.ac.uk/sciencebooks or
Contact Dr Alan Herbert 01939 291352
Evie Herbert, Boreatton Press Officer (age 10)
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