I Always Wondered About That: 101 Questions and Answers about Science and Other Stuff

by Larry Scheckel

Larry Scheckel is an award-winning science teacher and lecturer who makes complex topics simple to understand. Here you'll find entertaining answers to 101 questions you didn't even know you had, such as, "Why does glue stick?" "Why do batteries die?" "What would happen if you put human DNA into another creature?" and "How do people record memories in their brains?" The wide-ranging questions and answers will make readers eager to learn more.

Genres: Nonfiction

220 pages, Hardcover

Published December 1, 2017

About the author

Larry Scheckel grew up on a family farm in the hill country of southwestern Wisconsin, one of nine children. He attended eight years of a one room country school, four years of high school, off to the military for a spell, trained in electronics as a TV broadcast engineer, married, college, and started a teaching career. That career stretched over thirty-eight years teaching physics and aerospace science to over four thousand high school students at Tomah, Wisconsin.

Larry has been named Tomah Teacher of the Year three times, and Presidential Awardee at the state level for six years. He is the recipient of the Tandy Award, Kohl Award, Wisconsin Physics Teacher Award, Health Physics Society Award, Ron Gibbs Award, and Excellence in Science Teaching Award. He has authored articles for The Science Teacher magazine and The Physics Teacher magazine. He has been a Science Olympiad coach, robotics mentor, organized field trip and star gazing sessions, and gave orientation flights to students.

Larry has shared his expertise with teachers at National Science Teacher Association conventions, Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers, and summer workshops. He has given presentations to thousands of adults and students in such venues as Children's Museums, Boys and Girls Clubs, Rotary, and conventions.

Larry likes to bicycle in the Driftless area of south central Wisconsin, jog on the back roads, fly a Cessna 150 over the verdant countryside, work crossword puzzles, read newspapers, historical books, and trade magazines, and fly radio controlled planes. He and wife, Ann, retired teachers, have written nine books and live in Tomah, Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Skye Iwanski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful book of scientific inquiry written for middle-school readers and up, Scheckel’s I Always Wondered About That is an incredibly accessible work that answers questions about anything from “Why is there a big E on top of the eye chart?” to “What is the highest recorded human IQ?” to “Is time travel possible?” to “Why is water wet?” Filled with interesting and useful information (as well as the occasional science experiment), questions in this book are posed and answered in incredibly simple ways, and not all of these topics are simple. The questions are organized into chapters by topic, such as the human body, technology, food and drink, animals, the atom, and more. You can read it in order or randomly flip through it and get just as much out of it. Some of the topics covered in this book can be really hard to approach, but Scheckel makes it easy to understand the basics of what happens when you split an atom and what a God particle is. This book does an excellent job of making science accessible to everybody. Reading this as a young adult, I learned a lot and found it a thoroughly worthwhile read. If you’ve ever wondered how freeze-dried coffee is made or why Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm or even what would happen if a human DNA sample was put into another creature, this is a good book to pick up.

[Audrey Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great science Q&A book filled with interesting facts about things that you have always been curious about, but never quite understood. Filled with questions like "Is time travel possible?", "How for is it to the horizon?", and "Why is the sky blue?" this is a book that has something for everyone. Written in a straightforward manner, complex concepts like the "God particle" are easy to understand. You will be entertained for hours as you flip through this compendium of interesting questions and answers.

[Swensonbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will keep you entertained for hours as you read the answers to questions you've often pondered but weren't quite sure of the scientific reasons why. Anyone who has ever wondered why raindrops are round, whether time travel is possible, or how far it is to the horizon, will enjoy this fact-filled compendium of answers. The author has a great sense of humor and makes science fun and enjoyable.