The Genius of China: 3000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention

The Genius of China contains an abundance of information with beautiful pictures and illustrations. It is nicely broken up into 11 different subsections to quickly and easily find relevant inventions and discoveries. There is also a chart in the back of the book to show how long it took for the West to recognize and adopt Chinese inventions, with some of them never being adopted. 

There are many ways to tie this information into a science curriculum. For example, the First Law of Motion was initially discovered by a Mohist philosopher, which is an important point when talking about how scientific laws and theories have come about. Students need to understand that scientists don’t exist in a vacuum and rely on the work of people prior to them.

Passages from this may be good for high school students, but I would not recommend passages for middle schoolers. Besides passages though, this book is good as a resource to incorporate more history behind who invented the things we use everyday as well as how they came to be

The Genius of China is a wonderful piece of nonfiction writing that covers an immense amount of information. Divided into parts on different areas of innovation (agriculture, astronomy and cartography, engineering, domestic and industrial technology, medicine and health, mathematics, magnetism, the physical sciences, transportation and exploration, sound and music, and warfare), it can be used in the classroom in a variety of ways.
The organization of the book easily lends itself to jigsaw activities and can be easily worked into an already full curriculum as a supplement. The reading is straightforward, yet allows for students make inferences and apply their knowledge.
The book is accessible enough for middle school students. If it is being used to draw connections to more advanced high school content, it could also be a useful resource for high school students as well.