Students investigate the world of physical science and learn through experiments which materials are best to use in which situations and how important materials from plants and animals are to their daily activities.

Fourteen-year-old Mary Driscoll and her family have lived in terrible poverty in the Irish countryside since the potato famine began several years ago. When Mary is offered a chance to join her aunt and older sister in America, she jumps at the chance to seek a better life for herself. But after a long, stormy, and miserable ocean voyage, Mary arrives in America to find that it is nothing like she expected. She takes a job in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, where she is scorned by most of the American workers and expected to work long hours under terrible, unsafe conditions. There are few bright spots in this account of the life faced by many girls in New England cities during the mid-nineteenth century, and most of what happened to the fictional character of Mary happened to various girls who lived back then and worked in factories and mills.

In rural south Alabama in 1948, whites picked on one side of the cotton field and blacks on the other. In Yellow Watermelon, 12-year-old Ted meets Poudlum, a black boy his own age, where the fields meet. Poudlum teaches Ted how to endure the hard work while they bond and go on to integrate the field.

From plant to T-shirt, this book follows the history of this natural fiber from its early beginnings in Pakistan and Peru to its world-wide use today. Color photos and maps describe the plant itself, as well as where and how it is produced. Historic black and white images help tell the story of the early cotton trade, highlighting slavery, child labor and the manufacturing process. Other topics include "What is a commodity?, how cotton was used in the ancient world, the history of cotton use, the textile industry, new technologies treated to harvest cotton and their effects on the rest of society, the lives of people on plantations, in the cotton fields and mill towns and cotton manufacturing around the world.

Uses comic book-style word balloons and sophisticated vocabulary to tell the story of Eli Whitney and the invention of the cotton gin. Explores the impact the cotton gin had on the Civil War and the ultimate emancipation of the slaves. Includes a timeline of advances made by Eli Whitney, a glossary and a recommended reading list.

A group of African slaves working in cotton fields in America escape an abusive overseer through magic recalled from Africa.

As a seamstress in the Big House, Clara dreams of a reunion with her Momma, who lives on another plantation - and even of running away to freedom. Then she overhears two slaves talking about the Underground Railroad. In a flash of inspiration, Clara sees how she can use the cloth in her scrap bag to make a map of the land - a freedom quilt - that no master will ever suspect.

Traveling late one night, a runaway slave girl spies a quilt hanging outside a house. The quilt's center is a striking deep blue - a sign that the people inside are willing to help her escape. Can she navigate the complex world of the Underground Railroad and lead her family to freedom?

Using primary sources and extended with black and white photos and period reproductions, this book provides a detailed picture of the effect of cotton production on the social structure of the US. From 1607, when the earliest English settlers arrived in Virginia, cotton was among the plants grown in colonial gardens. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in England the demand increased, and the southern colonies stepped up production. Hopkinson explores the role of cotton production in the system of slavery and also considers the young women who worked in the textile factories. After the Civil War, the southern economy traded slavery for sharecropping and moved many of the mills were moved to the South. Following workers' histories up through the Great Depression, the final chapter discusses child labor, past and present.

Featuring case studies and interviews, fact boxes, photographs and explanatory diagrams, topics include the manufacture, uses and care of different fibers and fabric types, fabric production techniques, including weaving, knitting, lace-making, dyes and decorative techniques; designing, cutting and making of garments; furnishings and accessories; the world of fashion and fashion designers, production techniques and the clothing industry.

Macaulay pays tribute to the historically important mills of 19th Century New England. Using close-up pen-and-ink illustrations, he thoroughly explains the Yankee ingenuity that went into the elaborate process of running machines that were generated by the flow of water. He also examines the importance of the mill to one community's economic and social viability.