How Big Is Big?

Emma the Scientist is series about the adventures of an exceptional young girl. In Book One, we are introduced to Emma when she is eight years old and is just about to finish the second grade. Emma is thought of as an average student at best, mainly because she is bored with school. She loves to read and especially loves science. The problem is she learned the materials they are presenting in the second grade about five years ago. So, to keep herself occupied, she will gaze out the window and think about how the world works. Of course, she is continually getting in trouble for not paying attention. This only reinforces her educator's perception that she is not one of the smarter students. When she is at home her mom can't understand why she wants to be out watching bugs or looking at clouds. Emma tries to tell her mom about the fascinating things she finds during her research, but these things have never been interesting to her mom. Emma's dad is an engineer, but he works away from home most of the week. Emma loves it when he's home because he will listen to her adventures and talk about math and science. The problem is that he can't spend all the time he would like to spend with Emma. Plus, her questions keep getting more difficult to answer. Her dad contacts one of his old physics professors from when he was still in college. His professor, Jack, agrees to speak with Emma and answer some questions. He is quickly surprised at the questions Emma is asking and suspects she may be a great deal more intelligent than she has been given credit for. This meeting marks a major turning point in Emma's life, that ends up taking her far beyond anyone's expectations. Emma is challenged to answer a seemingly simple question, that sets her on a series of adventures to find the answers. How big is big?Emma spends the summer exploring this question and soon learns that big, depends on your perspective. She learns that really big distances get harder and harder the understand, the further away object are from each other. In an effort to help Emma gain some perspective, Jack takes her flying in his small plane. Then he takes her to a planetarium, where she meets Beth who is an astrophysics graduate student and runs some simulations showing just how big the universe is. Jack continues to show her a lot about how the physics of how planes work, and they go flying quite often. Emma is a natural daredevil and loves all of the things planes can do. She also becomes very good friends with Beth who shows her the planets and stars through a large telescope. Emma also starts to learn about all the wonders of the universe and a bit of the physics behind it. However, as the summer draws to a close, Emma is faced with starting third grade. She finds it agonizing to go back to third-grade science and math. Beth helps out by finding her some free online blogs and classes she can take. Emma loves this, but eventually, she realizes that some of what her teacher is saying is not correct. When she attempts to give her instructor the correct information, she gets sent home for disrespecting her teacher. The problem is, Emma is not wrong nor was she disrespectful. She thoroughly verified all the facts with various authorities prior to attempting to present her teacher with the correct information. Of course, this causes a confrontation between the school principal and her parents and friends. While peace is made between Emma and her teacher, it is obvious that Emma needs a different type of educational structure. Her parents begin to look into alternatives, with some help from Jack and Beth.