Checklists for Success
The Study Handbook $35
Heron Books is a research and development team that publishes cutting-edge K-12 educational materials for the Delphian School in Oregon. Its purpose is to create a high-quality curriculum for the Delphi Program®.
Over time, the curriculum's popularity grew. Today, selections of the Delphi Program curriculum are available for use as supplementary resources for schools, homeschoolers, teachers, tutors, parents, guardians, children, teens, and businesses around the world.
Take a Closer Look!
An Introduction to Microscopes for Young Scientists
Scientists love to look at things close up.
This makes a microscope a very useful tool.
Looking through the eyepiece of a microscope, you never know what astonishing things you might discover!
Any young scientist should know how to use this wonderful tool.
So, if you’re ready to see the world in a new way, let’s
Take a Closer Look!
This book gives young scientists all they need to know to begin using microscopes, discovering the unseen world all around them.
Along with simple but informative explanations of how to use a microscope and how to prepare slides, this book is packed with activities that get students observing the microscopic world.
The accompanying learning guide steers the student step-by-step through the book and activities.
World of Plants
How Plants Live and Grow for Young Scientists
Plants are all around us.
We find them high on mountains, and in fields, valleys, rivers and oceans.
Even big city office buildings are often full of plants!
With so many plants in the world, there’s so
much to discover about them.
What makes plants so important to humans and animals?
What is the purpose of a flower?
How does a plant make seeds?
What’s inside a tree’s trunk?
Inside this book you’ll find answers to these questions and many, many more!
You’ll find a whole World of Plants to explore!
From the smallest flower to the tallest tree, plants are all around us. With so many plants in the world, there’s so much to discover about them. What makes plants so important to humans and animals?What is the purpose of a flower? How does a plant make seeds? What’s inside a tree’s trunk?
World of Plants answers these questions and many, many more! It also provides fun activities such as growing bean plants and sprouting radish seeds.
The accompanying learning guide takes the student step-by-step through the book, and includes many hands-on activities.
Let's Find It!
All About Maps and Globes for Young Scientists
Would you like to plan a road trip?
Maybe find your way around the city or the zoo?
You’ll want to know how maps work.
How do I use a globe to find places?
What are all the lines on it for?
If you want to know how to find out where things are on the earth, if you would like to know just how maps and globes work, and maybe even make some maps of your own, Let’s Find It! is a book for you!
Are you ready to explore?
This is a book about maps and globes, how they work, and how to use them to find places on the earth, both locally and globally. The amply-illustrated text introduces students to map scales, symbols, directions and grids. It provides activities for building familiarity by making and using maps. It explains how to use features like hemisphere, latitude, longitude and coordinates to find places on a globe, and provides activities for doing so.
An accompanying learning guide directs a student through the book and its activities on a largely independent basis. It provides an interesting, useful orientation, both to the earth and to the use of the essential tools of maps and globes to find places on it.
Light Bulbs, Switches and Batteries
Hands-on Electricity for Young Scientists
We may not be able to see electricity, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t all around us. Just try to imagine a world without it!
But just what is this magical, invisible force called electricity? And how does it work?
Fortunately, it’s an easy subject to understand and a
super-fun subject to work with!
Have you got a few light bulbs, switches and batteries, and a little bit of wire to connect them up? That’s all you’ll need to open the door to this fascinating subject.
Prepare to be surprised by how much you can learn exploring the subject of electricity in Light Bulbs, Switches and Batteries.
Hook it up, flip the switch and see what happens!
What is that magical and invisible force called electricity? And how does it work? Give your students the answers with Light Bulbs, Switches and Batteries.
In this book, packed with experiments, students are introduced to the concepts of electrical energy, including voltage, current, resistance, and Ohm's law.
Prepare to be surprised by how much your young scientist can learn exploring the subject of electricity.
Our Amazing Planet
Introduction to Geography for Young Scientists.
What is at the very center of the earth?
What causes earthquakes and volcanoes?
Why do we have seasons, and how are mountains formed?
What kinds of plants and animals live near the North Pole? What about near the equator?
What’s the difference between a hill and a mountain, a valley and a canyon, an island and a peninsula?
Earth, our home, is huge, and there are so many interesting things to know about it.
If you’re curious about the world we live in,
come take a stroll around Our Amazing Planet!
Who knows what you might find!
Our Amazing Planet – Introduction to Geography for Young Scientists begins with a brief explanation of geography as a science. Its clear, simple text then launches into a study of the earth from the inside out. It covers the layers of the earth from its core to its crust, exploring its land and water features, what makes the seasons, its three main climate zones and seven major biomes. The book's vibrant illustrations, which include maps of climate zones and biomes, add to the clarity of the text. Each chapter of the book ends with a summating hands-on activity.
The accompanying Learning Guide walks a student through the book and includes even more activities. Working their way through Our Amazing Planet will give students a greatly increased understanding and appreciation of the planet on which they live.
The Young Scientist
An Introduction to Observation and Discovery.
Are you curious?
Do you have questions about things?
How’s your imagination?
Do you like doing experiments?
Scientists are curious about things, are always asking questions and doing experiments. And the best scientists have a very good imagination!
Why? Because it helps them discover the reasons for things. It helps them think up good solutions to big problems.
It helps them make a better world for all of us.
If you want to become a successful scientist, or even if you already are one, The Young Scientist is just the book for you!
The Young Scientist – An Introduction to Observation and Discovery is a lively, engaging exploration of what science is, and what it means to be a scientist.
Told through stories about the methods and accomplishments of a number of past and present-day scientists, it is all about the nature of scientific investigation and how to do it.
Starting with the importance of curiosity, the book highlights the roles of observation, research, hypothesis, experimentation, the scientific method, and the sharing of knowledge. Sections are accompanied by hands-on activities that provide opportunities to be a scientist.
This beautifully illustrated book with its clear, simple text and interesting activities, encourages observation skills, creative thinking, experimentation, discovery and independence of thought--all characteristics of successful scientists.
Its accompanying learning guide takes a student step-by-step through the book and activities.
The Fabulous Human Body
Anatomy for Young Scientists
How does your amazing body work?
What happens to the air you breathe in?
How does your heart work?
What about the food you eat—where does it go?
How does your body build muscles and bones?
If you’ve ever wondered how your body works, you’ve come to the right place!
You can find answers to questions like these and many, many more, right here in
The Fabulous Human Body.
39 flash cards to learn the body inside and out!
This beautifully illustrated book introduces young students to the fascinating subject of human anatomy. Punctuated with interesting tidbits, this book introduces the main body systems and their parts and functions, using simple, non-technical language. Students learn about cells and how they make up tissues, which make up organs, which make up systems.
The accompanying learning guide includes many hands-on activities, including using colorful anatomy cards to practice recognizing organs and their functions.
Let's Make Things Go!
All About Engines for Young Scientists.
Rockets, baseballs, bicycles, tractors, skateboards, sailboats and airplanes—these all move, whether fast or slow.
But how? And why?
What makes things move, slow down and stop?
As a young scientist, have you thought about different kinds of energy and how they change from one kind to another?
All these things have to do with machines called engines that move things all around us.
If you’re ready to explore the world of engines, then Let’s Make Things Go!
Let's Make Things Go – All About Engines for Young Scientists is a simple, general introduction to engines. The amply illustrated text explains, clearly and simply, what machines and engines are, and how they work. Along the way, the reader learns about force, gravity, friction, work, stored energy, fuel, electric motors, rocket engines and jet engines. The world of energy and motion come to life.
A number of activities spread throughout the book provide opportunities to build several types of simple engines (a bubble jet engine, for example, a match rocket engine and others) and to observe how each can power a machine.
Its accompanying learning guide takes a student step-by-step through the book and activities.
World of Electricity
Everyday Electricity for Young Scientists
Electricity is powering things all around us, but what is it exactly?
How does a battery work?
What happens inside electrical wires?
Where does electricity come from, and how does it get to homes and buildings?
What is current and what is voltage?
And what is the circuit box in your home for?
As a young scientist, be ready to explore these questions and much, much more in World of Electricity.
Beginning with atoms and electrons, and positive and negative charges, this amply-illustrated book explains, simply and clearly, what electricity is and how it is generated and distributed through the power grid to businesses and homes. It covers circuits, circuit boxes, short circuits, switches and plugs as used in homes, and touches on alternate sources of electricity such as hydroelectric, wind and solar. A number of interesting experiments and projects are included in the book.
The book's associated learning guide walks the student through the book, its experiments and several additional activities, including work in a science journal where the student is encouraged to keep track of their own thoughts and observations. By the end, the student will know what electricity is, where it comes from, and how to work with it.
The learning guide assumes a knowledge of Light Bulbs, Switches and Batteries as a foundation (the two are roughly a couple of grade levels apart in difficulty).
Circulation of the Blood
The Circulatory System for Young Scientists
"I was super impressed with both the curriculum and the company. They were genuinely interested in making sure we were able to make the best use of their products and really helped answer questions! I also really liked how well laid out the materials were. My kids were able to get a more hands on experience and were able to do the majority of it independently!"
– Homeschool Parent –
"I’m an educator and absolutely LOVE Heron’s materials. They provide such great illustrations which show the concepts being taught. This, even on its own, makes learning so much more engaging..."
– Educator –
What actually happens when your heart goes lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub? Where does blood enter your heart? How exactly does it move through the heart and get to the different parts of your body? What are veins and arteries? And how does all this work with your lungs and digestive system?
Every minute of every day, your blood is working its way all around your body, keeping you alive! Find out how, and so much more, in Circulation of the Blood
The accompanying learning guide takes a student step-by-step through the book, providing interesting activities that increase the ability to apply what is being learned.
World of Machines
An Introduction to Simple Machines for Young Scientists
What is a machine exactly?
Did you know that a scientist would call a wheelbarrow a machine?
How about a nail, a doorknob, a shovel or a bicycle?
Are these machines?
If you said, “yes,” you’re on your way because . . . machines are things that help make work easier!
Want to know more about machines and how they work?
Then you’re ready to explore the
World of Machines.
World of Machines: An Introduction to Simple Machines for Young Scientists is an exploration of basic laws of physics, and the functions and uses of six simple machines.
Students are introduced to simple fundamentals of matter, mass, density, inertia, force, the laws of motion, gravity, friction and work. They learn how machines reduce effort, then focus in on six simple machines: the lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge and screw.
Let's Do This! activities give students opportunities to test out basic physics concepts in the real world and to experiment with each simple machine.
The result is a grounding in the uses of simple machines to reduce effort and make it possible to carry out tasks that would not be possible without them. This can be an empowering experience!
Accompanied by a learning guide that steers a student step-by-step through the book, and that contains additional activities that help build from concept to concept and provide even more depth of learning.
