507 Mechanical Movements
Henry T. Brown
Dover Publications (2005)
ISBN: 0486443604
Buy it HERE

An Amusement Park for Birds:
Documentation of a Long-Term Project from Reggio Emilia

narrated by George Forman and Lella Gandini (2006, 90 min)
DVD Available HERE
A behind-the-scenes look at a long term project in which children designed and built an outdoor amusement park for birds in their playground.

Arthur Ganson Presents a Few Machines Created Between 1978 and 2004 (70 min)
Arthur Ganson
DVD Available HERE
This documentation of 36 of Ganson's kinetic art machines provides good overall views and close ups of his work. The film includes a demonstration sequence of how he bends and solders wire to make gears, and text capturing the artist's thoughts about machines and the creative process.

The Arts and the Creation of Mind
Elliot W. Eisner
Yale University Press (2004)
ISBN: 0300105118
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Blinkers and Buzzers:
Building and Experimenting with Electricity and Magnetism

Bernie Zubrowski
William Morrow & Co (1991)
ISBN: 0688099661
Buy it HERE

Cabaret Mechanical Movement:
Mechanisms and How to Make Automata & Mechanical Sculpture

Aidan Lawrence Onn and Gary Alexander
Cabaret Mechanical Publishing (1998)
ISBN: 0952872900
Buy it HERE

Calder's Circus (1961, 19 min)
Carlos Vilardebo
VHS Available HERE
Alexander Calder created the miniature circus celebrated in this film - tiny wire performers, ingeniously articulated to walk tightropes, dance, lift weights, and engage in acrobatics in the ring.

Children's Ideas in Science
Rosalind Driver
Open University Press (1985)
ISBN: 0335150403
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The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap
Seymour Papert
Longstreet Press 1996
ISBN: 1563523353
Buy it HERE

Constructionism In Practice:
Designing, Thinking, and Learning in a Digital World

Edited by Yasmin Kafai and Mitchel Resnick
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. (1996)
ISBN: 0805819843
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Constructions for Children
Barbara Eichelberger and Connie Larson
Dale Seymour Publications (1993)
ISBN: 0866516271
Buy it HERE

Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go, 1986-87, 30 min)
Peter Fischli and David Weiss
DVD Available HERE
In a series of Rube Goldberg-like chain reactions, household objects such as sugar cubes, styrofoam cups, a tea kettle, and wooden blocks follow a seemingly haphazard path of successive actions and reactions involving rolling, melting, dripping, steaming, and toppling to create a series of dramatic tension-filled temporary crises and resolutions.

Design Technology: Children's Engineering
Susan Dunn and Rob Larson
Falmer Press (1989)
ISBN: 1850005907
Buy it HERE

Devices of Wonder:
From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen

Barbara Maria Stafford, Frances Terpak, and Isotta Poggi
Getty Research Institute (2001)
ISBN: 0892365900
Buy it HERE

Do-Nothing Machine (1957, edited 1991, 2 min)
Charles and Ray Eames
DVD Available HERE
Eames Office footage of the Do-Nothing Machine documents the solar-powered toy commissioned by Alcoa to showcase a playful and unexpected use of aluminum.

Engineering and the Mind's Eye
Eugene S. Ferguson
MIT Press (1994)
ISBN: 026256078X
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Experience and Education
John Dewey
Free Press (1997; org. pub. 1938)
ISBN: 0684838281
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Everything Has A Shadow, Except Ants
Reggio Children (1999)
ISBN: 8887960194
Buy it HERE

Galimoto
Karen Lynn Williams and Catherine Stock
HarperTrophy (1991)
ISBN: 0688109918
Buy it HERE

"The Having of Wonderful Ideas"
and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning

Eleanor Duckworth
Teachers College Press (1987;2006)
ISBN: 0807747300
Buy it HERE

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School
National Research Council, John D. Bransford, et al., eds.
National Academy Press
ISBN: 0309070368
Buy it HERE

How to Make Automata (1994, 42 min)
Gary Alexander
Buy it HERE
Keith Newstead shows how he designs and constructs automata, demonstrating a wide range of cams, gears, levers, and other simple machines along the way.

The Hundred Languages of Children:
The Reggio Emilia Approach-Advanced Reflections

Edited by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini and George Forman
Ablex Publishing (1998)
ISBN: 156750311X
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In The Spirit Of The Studio:
Learning From the Atelier Of Reggio Emilia

Lella Gandini, Lynn Hill, Louise Cadwell, and Charles Schwall
Teachers College Press (2005)
ISBN: 080774591
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The Informed Vision:
Essays on Learning and Human Nature

David Hawkins
Algora Press (2002)
ISBN: 0875861784
Buy it HERE

Ingenious Mechanisms for Designers and Inventors, 4 vols.
Franklin D. Jones
Industrial Press (1977)
ISBN: 0831110848
Buy it HERE

The Inventa Book of Mechanisms
Dave Catlin
Valiant Technology (1994)
ISBN: 0952365103
Buy it HERE

Inventors Workshop
Alan J. McCormack
David S. Lake Publishers (1981)
ISBN: 0822497832
Buy it HERE

Light Play: Black-White-Grey (1930, 5 min)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Available to rent or purchase on 16mm film from MOMA, NYC, www.moma.org
In 1930 artist and Bauhaus teacher Moholy-Nagy completed his kinetic sculpture, the Light Space Modulator. Made of prisms, disks, screens, gratings, mirrors, and shiny balls, the rotating machine reflected and refracted beams of projected light, altering the viewer's perceptions of space and creating a living painting in the gallery. This short film is a document of the Modulator's operation, and a study of the sensitivity of moving picture film to the luminescence of light and shadow.

Made in Stithians
Gary Alexander
Cabaret Mechanical Theatre (1994)
DVD available HERE

Make Magazine
Subscriptions at www.makezine.com

MindStorms:
Children Computers and Powerful Ideas

Seymour Papert
Basic Books (1993)
ISBN: 0465046746
Buy it HERE

Norman McLaren: The Collector's Edition
Norman Mclaren
British Film Institute (2005)
DVD available HERE

Pedagogics of the Kindergarten;
Or, His Ideas Concerning the Play and Playthings of the Child

Friedrich Froebel
University Press of the Pacific (2003; orig pub. 1861)
ISBN: 1410209261
Buy it HERE

Personal Knowledege:
Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy

Michael Polanyi
Routledge (1998; orig. pub. 1958)
ISBN: 041515149X
Buy it HERE

Physical Computing:
Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers

Tom Igoe and Dan O'Sullivan
Course Technology PTR (2004)
ISBN: 159200346X
Buy it HERE

Picturing Time:
The Work of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904)

Marta Braun
University of Chicago Press (1995)
ISBN: 0226071758
Buy it HERE

Raceways: Having Fun With Balls and Tracks
Bernie Zubrowski
William Morrow & Co (1985)
ISBN: 0688041604
Buy it HERE

Rube Goldberg: Inventions
Maynard Frank Wolfe
Simon & Schuster (2000)
ISBN: 0684867249
Buy it HERE

The Secret Life of Machines (1988 - 1993)
by Tim Hunkin
Series information available at www.timhunkin.com
This British TV series produced by Channel 4 and subsequently shown on the Discovery Channel examines the history and workings of everyday machines. Originally developed as a comic strip, the film uses live action and cartoon animation to explain the inner workings of common household and office equipment.

Shadow Play:
Making Pictures with Light and Lenses

Bernie Zubrowski
Harper Trophy (1995)
ISBN: 0688132111
Buy it HERE

Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams: Exploration in Massively Parallel Microworlds (Complex Adaptive Systems)
Mitchel Resnick
MIT Press (1997)
ISBN: 0262680939
Buy it HERE

Variations on a Blue Guitar:
The Lincoln Center Institute Lectures on Aesthetic Education

Maxine Greene
Teachers College Press (2001)
ISBN 0807741353
Buy it HERE

Vehicles:
Experiments in Synthetic Psychology

Valentino Braitenberg
MIT Press (1986)
ISBN 0262521121
Buy it HERE

Vision in Motion
Laszlo Maholy-Nagy
Paul Theobald (1947)
ISBN: 0911498001
Buy it HERE