Hover & Soar, by Stanley R. Taylor, is very well-written, easy to understand, and full of great ideas to teach upper Elementary students about force, motion, and flight. This book fits perfectly as part of the curriculum for my after-school STEAM Club. The projects are kid-friendly, engaging, and supplies for each project are inexpensive and easy to obtain. I highly recommend this book for educators who want to enhance their regular curriculum and engage students in authentic, hands-on STEM/STEAM projects!

Career Options Maria Sirdar-Nickel is a book about what everyone aspires to do with their life….find a job that they absolutely love. Stanley R. Taylor has written this wonderful book describing the path that led teacher Maria Nickel to be the amazing educator that she is today. Everyone has their struggles and highlights, but Mr. Taylor is able to focus on one incredible person and her profession to show how one can affect so many others in a positive way.

Stan Taylor, a long-time science teacher and STAO member and contributor, has written a great little manual for building cool toys that demonstrate the principle of the multiplication of force. Not only can this instructive manual assist teachers with the Grade 8 science curriculum through its hands-on activities but it can also be useful for secondary physics units on force. You can tell that Stan had a great time creating these toys with his grandchildren (his interspersed anecdotes attest to this) and we are lucky that he decided to share his building skills and physics knowledge. It is a great resource for anyone with an interest in building fun toys.

The book details nine different experimental setups including a pneumatically-controlled miniature Canadarm, the construction of a front-end loader and a McDigger. What is great is that these experiments in pneumatics result in toys to be enjoyed for a long time after they are built.

Each pneumatic toy is described in detail and comes with a well-labelled diagram and step-by-step photos. In order to construct these toys, some basic materials are needed such as pieces of wood of different sizes and shapes, some syringes, tubing for the syringes, and wooden wheels. With each toy, all required materials are listed and step-by-step instructions help the novice through the building of each toy, which is best tried at home first if possible.

A lab bench or some other work space is also useful. Teachers should dedicate several periods to construct each toy, and some assembly beforehand might facilitate classroom work. Teachers can approach the construction of any one of the pneumatic toys as a teacher-guided activity, a student-led inquiry or some mix of the latter.

Stan has included a short section on useful websites as well as suggestions for evaluation and rubrics (for toy design and construction) for teachers. In all, it is a useful resource for teachers, parents and budding engineers.