In Steam Power, two young islanders, Olive and Troy, enlist the help of a visiting inventor to build a machine that will make the rides at the amusement park much more exciting. After observing the power of expanding steam in a whistling tea kettle, they decide to build a steam engine! A steam engine is a device that converts heat energy to mechanical energy. The Islanders soon discover that using steam power can make the Mammoth Island far more thrilling -- from spinning cotton candy to powering roller coasters.
In Ballooning, some inhabitants of Mammoth Island decide to explore the far side of a distant mountain ridge on a breezy spring day. Halfway up the steep mountain trail, their trusty mammoth becomes afraid and winds up trapped on the mountainside. In order to save their hairy friend, Olive and Troy enlist the aid of the inventor to build a hot-air balloon.
In Photography, local inhabitants of Mammoth Island are attempting to memorialize the winner of their annual golf tournament with a portrait. Since the only painter never seems to complete a painting, a young islander named Olive begins to experiment with light when she notices its effect on the grass growing on the golf course. Before long, she stumbles on the principles involved in photography, and a visiting inventor helps her understand how light, lenses and chemicals can be used to produce a photograph. Together they build a camera of mammoth-sized proportions!
In Magnets, inhabitants of Mammoth Island discover the power of an invisible force called magnetism when a sudden lightning bolt transforms their “clothes dryer” -- a contraption made of wire wound into a coil around an iron bar. When an electric current flows through the wire, the current creates a magnetic field around it. The iron bar in the middle helps to concentrate the field, and because of the high number of turns in the coil, a very strong magnetic field is created. When the current flows, the bar develops opposite poles at either end, which attract iron and steel objects. The inhabitants of Mammoth Island learn that opposites really do attract as they explore the many ways in which magnets can be used!
In Heat, a visiting inventor discovers just how useful the island’s mammoth population is in keeping things warm one freezing winter day on Mammoth Island! The warm-blooded creatures help heat water, press clothes, warm beds and keep the village sauna hot and steamy. Heat is energy that comes from the movement of the atoms and molecules that make up everything around us. The inventor reveals that heat can travel from place to place in three ways: conduction, convection and radiation. And he also reveals his amazement at the islanders’ ingenious use of mammoths to keep warm!
