I Can Be an Eco Hero

By Thomas Canavan and Katie Kear

Do you have what it takes to be an eco hero? Yes, of course you do - and this action-packed book will prove it! Learn how to make a bug hotel, how to build a solar-powered still, and how to prepare a delicious treat for the birds in your neighbourhood! You'll be building up the real-life skills you'll need to become an environmental scientist. While you're drawing, making, and playing, you'll be learning all kinds of exciting facts and ideas about the world of S.T.E.M - science, technology, engineering, and maths. An awesome and inspirational book for both boys and girls, aged seven and up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
• Release date: Aug 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781398800670

Thomas Canavan

Thomas Canavan has written more than 50 books for children and young adults. He specialises in science writing, but has also written books about history, maths, art, and even kids' joke books. Under his real name, Sean Connolly, he has won awards for a well-known series of humorous children's science experiments books, and has regularly toured North America to promote them. He lives in rural Wiltshire with his wife and their three children.

Book preview

Helping Our Planet

Do you want to learn how to protect the planet like an environmental scientist? Then you’ve come to the right place. In this book you’ll discover the ways that scientists study and care for our world and its incredible inhabitants. You’ll also learn about changes you can make in your own home that can help the environment.

Eco is short for ecology, the science that deals with the link between living things and their environment, including natural forces such as tides.

Environmental scientists carry out research, observing the health of natural habitats and advising us on how to preserve them.

Human activities such as littering threaten many habitats.

Activity: Are You Already a Hero?

Four of eight scenes below have Eco Heroes in action and four show Eco Villains. Write which category each one falls into.

A. Drag race

B. Fitting solar panels

C. Recycling

D. Littering

E. Caring for animals

F. Deforestation

G. Picking up litter

H. Factory pollution

ANSWER

Solar Energy

Our nearest star, the Sun, gives us light and heat energy. Plants, animals, and humans all rely on it. This energy drives our weather and climate systems, too. Environmentalists look for ways to harness its power.

Like flowers, solar panels can capture the Sun’s energy to convert it into electricity. The electricity from a few roof panels can heat a single house. Fields of panels can power communities.

Like most plants, sunflowers use sunlight and water to make their own food through photosynthesis. The wide sunflower blossoms follow the path of the Sun throughout each day.

Darker shades absorb more of the Sun’s energy than lighter shades, which reflect some of it back. White clothes prevent intense sunlight from making people too hot.

The word solar refers to a star, and usually to our own Sun. The solar system is the name for all of the planets and other small objects that revolve around the Sun.

Project: Build a Solar Oven

You can put solar power to work in your own kitchen. With a few simple ingredients you can build a mini-oven that will use the Sun’s energy to cook things. On a warm, sunny day, why not cook a potato for your dinner?

You will need:

• Mixing bowl

• Kitchen foil

• Dessert spoon

• Sticky tack

• Raw unpeeled potato

• Nail about 3cm (1 inch) long

1. Line the mixing bowl with foil, shiny side out, and smooth with the back of the spoon.

2.