How to get kids excited about science

In teaching we use books a lot to teach our students. Sometimes we use a textbook and sometimes we use trade books. This week in class we read a lesson that used trade books to teach about roller coasters and then have the students design a roller coaster using items available at a local hardware store. While I was working in the library this week a book caught my eye it was called "Mr. Docker is off his Rocker" by Dan Gutman.

He has written a series of books called My Weird School Series where he writes about the various adults in the school. In this book a retired scientist comes to teach science at the school and he makes a clock run using potatoes, puts sodium in water, and makes a pendulum to name a few experiements. The main character A.J. does not like school, and thinks science is for nerds and doesn't think he needs to learn it since he wants to be a football player when he grows up. By the end of the book he is excited and wants to learn more about science and has a lot of why questions...maybe too many questions. It is really a cute little book and something you could read to your students to get them excited about science. The suggested reading level on the inside of the book is 2nd to 5th grade. Just wanted to share this with my fellow teachers.