kids and science
jstemwedel | October 27, 2006At school, the Free-Ride offspring have been celebrating Red Ribbon Week. For the lower grades, this mostly amounts to wearing sunglasses or crazy socks or whatever that day's Red Ribbon "theme" calls for. But there is also a wee bit of discussion in the classroom about drugs. The Free-Ride parents decided to see what the sprogs had learned:
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: So what did you guys learn from Red Ribbon Week?
Younger offspring: We shouldn't take drugs.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: What's a drug?
Elder offspring: Tobacco's a drug.
Younger offspring: Yeah, tobacco can hurt your…
jstemwedel | October 20, 2006It's the time of year when the mailbox starts filling up with catalogues. At the Free-Ride house, many of these are catalogues featuring "educational" toys and games. Now, some of these toys and games are actually pretty cool. Others, to my mind, are worse than mere wastes of money.
For your consideration, three "science" kits targeted at girls:
Archimedes got scientific insight from a bathtub, but he wasn't required to wear eye-makeup to do it.
Spa Science
The kit offers itself as a way "to cultivate a girl's interest in science" through the making of "beauty products like an oatmeal…
jstemwedel | October 20, 2006Of course, we don't really think the sprogs are dumb. Sometimes they just remind us that some of the things their parents find intuitive are not intuitive to them.
Dr. Free-Ride: (arriving home after an evening seminar) How were the kids tonight.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: They were fine. But, we had a conversation about boiling and ... our kids are dumb!
Dr. Free-Ride: Really? What did they say?
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Well, I asked them what happens when you heat water, and [elder offspring] said, "You get hot water."
Dr. Free-Ride: A good answer.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Sure…
jstemwedel | October 13, 2006
Pictured above: Not anything to do with Pokemon, but rather an imagined scene from Okami, in which, as far as I can gather, a solar-powered wolf battles a garlic bulb.
Dr. Free-Ride: Can you explain some stuff about Pokemon to me?
Elder offspring: Sure! How much time do you have?
Dr. Free-Ride: Look, I don't want to get into the issues of which ones are best in a battle or anything like that. I'm just trying to understand what kind of critter they're supposed to be.
Elder offspring: OK, we'll talk about battles another day.
Dr. Free-Ride: Yeah ... we'll do that.
Elder offspring: Pokemon…
jstemwedel | October 9, 2006I'm blaming the folks at Three Bulls! for the post that incited this one. Indeed, I started my descent into what is clearly a delusional plan in a comment there.
The short version: Pinko Punko was disturbed at how very little actual communication of content was involved in a presumably science-centered media frenzy. The "journalists" in question neither sought actual informative content from scientists (let alone striving to understand that content), nor passed on anything like it to their viewers. To those of us who expect journalism to communicate actual content (or at least try to),…
jstemwedel | October 6, 2006
Dr. Free-Ride: So, what kind of science are you learning in school these days?
Younger offspring: I don't know.
Dr. Free-Ride: You don't know?! You have been going to school, right?
Younger offspring: Of course.
Dr. Free-Ride: When [Dr. Free-Ride's better half] was in the classroom helping with the lesson this week, what did you learn about?
Younger offspring: About Fall, and pumpkins, and pumpkin seeds.
Dr. Free-Ride: There's science in that, isn't there?
Younger offspring: I guess.
* * * * *
Let the bullets commence!
With the younger Free-Ride offspring's kindergarten science curriculum,…
jstemwedel | September 29, 2006
The elder Free-Ride offspring has been learning about forces ("pushes and pulls") in second grade science class. Meanwhile, at home both the sprogs found a new favorite film, The Way Things Go. It's about 30 minutes of nearly continuous Rube Goldberg machinery. There are a few visible cuts in the film, which seem to be pauses to let chemical reactions proceed (although it would be completely understandable to me if cuts had been required to get some of the more complicated mechanical interactions to work). The progress of the apparatus is presented without narration, which is just as…
jstemwedel | September 22, 2006Younger offspring padded in and climbed into bed with us at 5:58 this morning. In a rare show of solidarity (or alertness), younger offspring was the one to hit the "snooze" button when the alarm went off at 6:00.
Dr. Free-Ride: Good morning.
Younger offspring: Why do you say it's morning?
Dr. Free-Ride: (drowsily) Huh?
Younger offspring: How do you know it's morning? It still looks pretty dark.
Dr. Free-Ride: I know from the time on the clock. But you're right, it is pretty dark. Maybe it's not morning yet. Maybe we should just stay under the covers for awhile.
Younger offspring: No…
jstemwedel | September 15, 2006No, it's not a cage-match between syngnathids and cephalopods. Rather, the Free-Ride offspring consider the relative merits of each. It's kind of like weighing whether you'd rather be able to fly or become invisible.
From Seahorses and Sea Dragons
* * * * *
Elder offspring: I like the sea dragons the best. Their bodies have these leafy parts, so they can hide from predators in seaweed.
Younger offspring: An octopus can camouflage, too. It can change colors to look like the ocean floor.
Elder offspring: Well, an octopus can also change its body shape.
Younger offspring: Yeah, and squish…
jstemwedel | September 8, 2006
Elder offspring: The dung beetle rocks!
Dr. Free-Ride: The dung beetle rolls!
Elder offspring's eyes roll.
* * * * *
The sprogs finally watched Microcosmos -- which, of course, prompted a second, and third, and fourth viewing in close succession. (They may be young, but that doesn't mean they're not obsessive about details.) Some of their reactions to the film:
Elder offspring: I liked the dung beetle best.
Dr. Free-Ride: Yeah, it seems like the dung beetle is set up to be the hero of the movie.
Elder offspring: It has to be pretty smart to figure out how to get the ball [of dung] around…
jstemwedel | September 7, 2006It's been cool to see my ScienceBlogs sisters Sandy, Shelley, and Tara represent in our little nerd-off. I'm inclined to say this offers at least some evidence that women can get as geeky as the geekiest men. Sadly, there seem still to be many people -- including people selling stuff -- who just can't wrap their heads around that idea.
The most recent commercial monstrosity demonstrating the belief that females have a fundamentally different relationship to technology than males is the "Digi Makeover", descibed in horrifying detail by Kyso Kiasen at Punkassblog. The short version: it uses…
jstemwedel | September 6, 2006As the nerd-off rages on (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) I turn to the sprogs as evidence of my madly nerdy parenting skillz.
Elder offspring (whose mousing skills my better-half feared might not be on track, developmentally, when elder offspring was about a year old) has joined Game Boy Nation since turning 7. This has led to frequent use of Froogle (to investigate prices of games and platforms), as well as use of Google to locate game "cheats" (whose very existence were revealed to elder offspring via a Google search on the name of the favorite game).
This…
jstemwedel | September 1, 2006This morning, the Free-Ride family heard the news that McDonald's had finally capitulated to hedgehog campaigners and redesigned the container for its McFlurry ice cream so that it is no longer a hedgie death-trap.
Elder offspring: What was the problem?
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: The hedgehogs would find the containers and push their heads in to lick the sweet leftover ice cream, but then they would get stuck --
Younger offspring: I don't think ice cream is good for hedgehogs.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: -- and because they couldn't get back out, they'd starve to death.
Elder offspring:…
jstemwedel | September 1, 2006
Younger offspring: I drew this picture of what we saw at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Duke and Super Sally last weekend.
Dr. Free-Ride: Cool! I guess you really were paying attention to the exhibits when I thought you were just running around.
Younger offspring: (rolling eyes) Of course I was paying attention! So, when you scan this in, put labels on it.
Dr. Free-Ride: I think everyone will be able to tell what's what.
Younger offspring: (sternly) Put labels on it. Some parts need labels to tell.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK.
The anchovy with the redness at the gills is swimming, mouth wide open…
jstemwedel | August 25, 2006It seems the IAU ruling on what counts as a planet has stirred a little controversy in the Free-Ride home.
Dr. Free-Ride: You heard what happened with Pluto, right?
Younger offspring: It's not there any more.
Dr. Free-Ride: Uh, it's still there, just as big as it was and pretty much where it was before.
Elder offspring: But it's not a real planet any more. Pluto got kicked out and they made Xena a planet instead.
Dr. Free-Ride: Umm, that's not right either.
Younger offspring: Why'd they kick Pluto out?
Elder offspring: It's too little to be a real planet.
Dr. Free-Ride: The real…
jstemwedel | August 18, 2006
Robert Fludd, "The Great Chain of Being", 1617
Maybe you're familiar with the classical notion of the "great chain of being", the hierarchical relationship between all the stuff in the universe. It was meant to show the connections between animals (including humans), vegetables, minerals, and the stuff out beyond the Earth, including angels and God.
Younger offspring felt (and I can't help but agree) that it was time for an update.
First, all the stuff in the universe? That's probably too much stuff to be organizing into one system -- at least if the system is going to be useful,…
jstemwedel | August 18, 2006Elder offspring: Blood is cool.
Younger offspring: (Covering head with blanket) I hate blood, because I hate owies!
Dr. Free-Ride: But your blood does all sorts of good things for your body. You know that you're filled with blood, right?
Elder offspring: Actually, your body is two-thirds water.
Dr. Free-Ride: And what do you think there's lots of in blood?
Elder offspring: Oh yeah, water.
Younger offspring: I hate blood. I wish I didn't have any.
Dr. Free-Ride: You need it to get oxygen to all the parts of the body.
Younger offspring: No I don't, I'll just breathe harder.
* * * * *…
jstemwedel | August 16, 2006So, in the Free-Ride house we're pleased as punch that Pluto hasn't lost its planetary status. (No, we don't consider the "plutons" lesser planets. Eccentric in their orbits, perhaps, but there's nothing wrong with that.)
As well, we are pleased that the "tenth planet", whose local fans call it Xena, will be recognized as a plutonic planet. Indeed, we welcome the other two plutons to the fold.
The only problem is, we'll be needing a new song.
"Nine planets, fine planets" is a nice little ditty, but now there are twelve. What would we even rhyme with "twelve" in the chorus to an update of…
jstemwedel | August 11, 2006The elder Free-Ride offspring had a bit of a meltdown after dinner. Witness the calming effects of science:
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: (To sobbing elder offspring) Taking some deep breaths might help you calm down.
Younger offspring: Do we breathe carbon dioxide?
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: No, we don't. Plants breathe carbon dioxide.
Elder offspring: (Still crying) We breathe air.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Yes. Do you know what it is in the air that we breathe? I think they mention its name in your Yoga Kids video.
Elder offspring: (Sniffling just a little) Oxygen?
Dr. Free-…
jstemwedel | August 4, 2006Because some people are on record as questioning my ability to turn any conversation into a conversation about science:
"What do pirates have to do with science?"
What don't pirates have to do with science?
Pirates! by Giovanni Caviezel. Illustrated by Cristina Mesturini.
Here is a brief list of scientific issues the younger Free-Ride offspring and I discussed (in varying levels of detail) on our first reading of this board-book about pirates.
Why did pirates have to bring casks of drinking water with them when they were sailing on a sea of water? (And why is drinking salt water bad for…