Of late, I have been having a ball creating foldable activities for the guides I'm commissioned to do, adding a little bit of crafty, Simple Saturday-like flair to each. Patricia Newman's Biofuels (Cherry Lake Publishing) provided the perfect fodder for a terrific pocket sorting foldable. Kids love to learn while creating projects like these. Heck, I do, too, for that matter.
Biofuels covers topics such as gasification, non-renewable and renewable energy sources, carbon footprints and many others - heady concepts that kids are completely jazzed about, these days. While working on Patricia's guide, I discovered that I could create four basic categories by which kids could sort through and classify the terminology and ideas presented in her book. Those categories are biodiesel, biofuels, fossil fuels, and biomass. (I told you this was heady stuff.)
You can access the guide by clicking HERE to get a sense of how the foldable is created. Basically, I printed key phrases from the text on small cards, each associated with at least one energy source. These phrases are to be classified by slipping each card into the proper pocket labeled with the energy sources presented in the book.
During the editing process, Patricia and I discovered something pretty remarkable - a number of the phrases printed on the little cards could be cross-referenced with two or more biofuel categories! For instance, the phrase "Carbon is a key ingredent in production" can be slipped into the fossil fuel and the biomass pockets. Or, both biodiesel and biofuels cut back on the need for non-renewable energy sources. This discovery makes me happy to think of the budding engineers and scientists deep in discussion as to what pocket the cards should be placed. Neat thought, isn't it?
In closing, I give Patricia's Biofuels a hearty thumbs up with an extra generous dose of biofuel made from algae oil on top! Yum.