The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists: The Coolest Experiments and Projects for Science Fairs and Family Fun by Ken Denmead

The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists: The Coolest Experiments and Projects for Science Fairs and Family Fun Reviews

• 
  Joseph R.

  This book is a collection of scientific experiments and demonstrations that can be done at home with the family. The experiments range in complexity, difficulty, and duration. There's classic stuff like building a potato cannon and more mundane tasks like identifying all the flora and fauna in your back yard. Some projects are clearly safer than others. Flames and explosions make recurring appearances. But that's the sort of science that a mad scientist would do, right?
  
  The book has an appendix listing the cost, difficulty, and time needed for each experiment. The individual experiments include a list of items needed and step-by-step instructions along with illustrations. The editing is unfortunately a little choppy, with occasional references to wrong page numbers and one or two experiments that aren't as clearly detailed as they need to be. The illustrations are more fun than technical. Every now and then I thought, "How is this supposed to go together again?" But overall, it's fun to read and we will be trying out some experiments, like extracting our own DNA and copper-plating some iron nails or steel paperclips. Those experiment will mostly likely wind up on the blog.
  
  Slightly recommended.
• 
  Erik Dewey

  I find myself slightly disappointed with the Geek Dad books. There isn't anything inherently wrong with them, but the experiments never quite grab me as something really exciting to do. They are great books for science fair time, but I didn't find anything terribly new or interesting.
  
  Some of the experiments included things like Mentos and Diet Coke, making a biosphere, and the good old potato cannon. Neat, but not new. Although I did like the section on subliminal suggestions. That would be a fun experiment.
  
  So, nothing wrong with them, just nothing earth shattering awesome either.
• 
  Mindi

  I'm calling it the Geek Mom Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists