Extreme Sports

These offerings from the Extreme Sports series blend exciting athletic feats with the physics behind them. Although the books are written in brief paragraphs and short sentences appropriate for beginning readers, the simple text acts as a vehicle (often involving literal vehicles!) to introduce fairly sophisticated scientific concepts and vocabulary.

Technical terms often contrast with the competitive aspect of these extreme sports. Motocross discusses how friction, gravity, and momentum affect the racing motorcycles’ movement. Skydiving tells how gravity and drag balance into the terminal velocity at which divers fall. Friction, momentum, and gravity are important in their own ways in Snowboarding. Surfing also discusses gravity, which is balanced by buoyancy to cause flotation. Well-chosen, action-packed stock photos and occasional diagrams add interest and help explain the scientific concepts. Like many nonfiction series, these books include several features designed for instructional use.

Each book begins with reading tips for parents and teachers. It concludes with an activity to illustrate one of the scientific concepts in the book (such as using a water bottle to demonstrate angular momentum or building a model parachute to show the concept of drag), a glossary defining the scientific terms used in the text, an index, and instructions for using the factsurfer.com website to search for more information online.