Where there is engagement there is learning.

I am a chemistry and biology teacher. I love the endless real puzzles to solve that are on offer through a combination of the periodic table of the elements and a variety of chemical quantities. I love living things, observing the nature around me, and connecting processes and systems. I seriously never get bored of scientific knowledge, but why?

I don’t know, but what I do know is that a scientist’s fire has been ignited within my own children via a few different books I mostly bought for myself. Enter The Periodic Table: Elements with Style by Adrian Dingle (buy it). My seven-year-old daughter picked it up from the coffee table the other day and started reading it. She was fully immersed and when I sat down beside her she read out loud about one element to me and then I read a few more to her. Family time; it’s elemental.

Fast forward to yesterday and she was recounting a story about a conversation she had at recess with two of her friends. She said, “I asked them what element they think teeth are made of,” to which they replied, “I don’t know.” She told me she said, “Calcium, that’s obvious.” She also wowed them with the fact that the atmosphere has oxygen in it and that’s what they are breathing. She said they were surprised. While I realize her method of delivery might not win friends and influence peers, that’s something we can definitely work on. On the other hand, if you teach younger grades and you want some kid-friendly science reading you definitely want to pick up this book. Thanks for reading!