Gordon William Gavin Penrose CM (July 24, 1925 – December 16, 1997), nicknamed the Zany Dr. Zed, was a Canadian scientist, educator, and author of children's science books.
[1] His works have been featured in OWL magazine and ChickaDEE magazine,[2] and he played the role of Dr. Zed for the children's television show OWL/TV.
[3][4][5] Penrose's philosophy was based on interactive science experiments on the belief that children learn best by doing.
Consequently, his books describe experiments that require as little adult supervision as possible.
[1][6][7] Penrose's audience is eight- to twelve-year-olds, who are in Piaget's "concrete operations" stage, where abstract thinking about hypotheticals is not yet fully developed.