“I read the book from the perspective of a teacher and a parent. With each page, I wished it had been available years ago! I have sought many sources for help with science fair projects and none, in any way, covered the subject from beginning to end in such a detailed, comprehensive, and ‘workable’ fashion. It’s outstanding!”

—Anita Meinbach, Ed.D., Educational Specialist, Dade County Schools, Miami, Florida

“Parents should find this book very useful. The organization, timetables, and topic lists are all especially strong points and all address issues that parents and students struggle with on at-home projects. As a parent and a teacher, I’d buy the book.”

—Alan Ticotsky, Elementary Teacher and Science Curriculum Committee Member, Carlisle, Massachusetts

This is another instance of a book which one suspects Asimov had little direct involvement in (a precedent started with the lamentable Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts), but unlike many of the others, I think it’s a worthwhile book anyway.

From the perspective of the Asimov fans, it provides a philosophy regarding the teaching of science which Asimov agrees with at the least (we presume), that science pedagogy should be rooted in doing science and not in learning bare facts. This is tied into the scientific method, which is summarized in an unusual fashion—not in terms of several abstract steps which scientists do follow, but in terms of several specific steps which should be taken in order to have a truly successful science fair project. The process of science is made concrete.

And for the intended audience, I think it’s an excellent motivator and guide to doing a science fair project. Certainly, I used it on my children when they did science fair projects. (Indeed, I could not but feel guilty while reading, because the book starts out with a description of some of the problems one often sees in science fairs—too many solar system models [we did one of those], and too many projects thrown together at the last moment [we did a few of those] were both mentioned.)