kids and science
jstemwedel | May 5, 2006The Free-Ride offspring have developed a serious penchant for nature programs. The latest one they viewed was Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters, and as you might expect, they have some thoughts (and artwork) to share. So, we follow in Tim Lambert's footsteps by combining Friday cephalopods with sprog-blogging.
Younger offspring: I like the diver.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you like how the squid and octopus came close to the diver and gave him a chance to see them better?
Younger offspring: Yeah. I also like when the octopus fights the diver with its tentacles.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you mean the one…
jstemwedel | April 28, 2006Last weekend, the Free-Ride family sat down to watch a nature program together: Nature: The Queen of Trees. The program looked at the variety of life around a giant fig tree. The central "relationship" in the program was between the tree and a wasp. From the program description:
The wasp and the fig depend on each other for survival. Without the wasp, the tree could not pollinate its flowers and produce seeds. Without the fig, the wasp would have nowhere to lay its eggs.
The younger Free-Riders were more captivated, however, by some of the secondary characters in the drama.
Younger…
jstemwedel | April 25, 2006Over at Evolgen, RPM links to an article that lists ten "basic questions" to which ten different scientists think high school graduates should know the answers. (It was one question from each scientist, so it's unclear whether all ten would agree that they are the ten most important questions, or even that all ten of these scientists could answer all ten to the others' satisfaction.) RPM opines that the list seems heavy on trivia (or at least seemingly random facts) and light on really helpful scientific knowledge. He writes:
Let's focus on two things: the hypothetical deductive method and…
jstemwedel | April 21, 2006Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, did you learn any more science today?
Younger offspring: Yes! More dinosaur stuff.
Dr. Free-Ride: What kinds of dinosaur stuff?
Younger offspring: Stuff about dinosaurs with sharp, pointy teeth.
Dr. Free-Ride: Is there another song?
Younger offspring: Yeah, but I'm not ready to teach it to you yet.
Dr. Free-Ride: So, which dinosaurs had the sharp, pointy teeth?
Younger offspring: All of them!
Dr. Free-Ride: Really?
Younger offspring: Not exactly. But Tyranosaurus rex and pteradactyls did.
Elder offspring: We studied teeth from different animals in science. The sharp and…
jstemwedel | April 14, 2006Kids love dinosaurs. It's one of those eternal truths. The elder Free-Ride offspring offers a list of nine cool things about dinosaurs and their ilk, while the younger Free-Ride offspring muses about the "meanness" of T. Rex. Plus, the best dinosaur handbook ever.
Cool dinosaur facts:
They were reptiles.
There were three different kinds of dinosaurs (archelon, psephoderma, and henodus) that were a lot like turtles.
Some lived on land, some lived on water, but my favorite is the flying pteranodon.
The nautilus swam in the ocean long ago and is still living today; they might have known…
jstemwedel | April 7, 2006It's been raining here. A lot.
Elder offspring: Remember that huge mushroom we saw on the field after soccer practice?
Dr. Free-Ride: With all the rain we've been getting, we've been seeing a lot more mushrooms this spring.
Elder offspring: Rainbows, too.
Dr. Free-Ride: We should call Uncle Fishy and see if he's interested in going "bird watching" with us this weekend.
Elder offspring: Or mushroom hunting.
Younger offspring: At school, after rainy days, we have to scrape the mushrooms off of the stumps we sit on in the sandbox.
Elder offspring: Mushrooms like rain.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK, so…
jstemwedel | March 31, 2006Nature study has taken a turn from the macroscopic to the microscopic. Is it a coincidence that the Free-Ride family has also been passing around a cold? While your blogger felt sure she would be able to avoid catching it, the young Free-Riders are extremely effective vectors of disease.
Dr. Free-Ride: What do you know about germs?
Younger offspring: They can make you sick.
Dr. Free-Ride: Is that why I'm sick right now, because of germs?
Younger offspring: Yeah.
Dr. Free-Ride: Where did I get them?
Younger offspring: (looking just a little bit proud) From me!
Dr. Free-Ride: You're sure…
jstemwedel | March 24, 2006The younger Free-Ride offspring has been studying alligators and crocodiles in nature study. Some preliminary findings below the fold.
The younger offspring explains that the crocodilian pictured above, "Little Sarah", is a crocodile, not an alligator. "You can tell because she has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 teeth that you can see on top of her snout when her mouth is closed."
"The other pink spots [on the right, near her eyes] are bubblegum flavored toothpaste." (Younger offspring just had a dentist's appointment.)
"Also, crocodiles have pointier snouts and alligators have rounder snouts."
"Little…
jstemwedel | March 24, 2006Elder offspring: I think at recess I might start a bird watching club.
Dr. Free-Ride: You'll have to be careful with it.
Elder offspring: Huh?
Dr. Free-Ride: When you swing it, make sure you don't hit any kids or birds, and don't break the lens at the end.
Elder offspring: Not that kind of club! (groans in exasperation)
Dr. Free-Ride: Finally, I have my revenge for some of those jokes you've been telling me!
Elder offpring: Did you know that a house wren can make a nest in a shoe?
Younger offspring: Really?
Elder offpsring: In an old shoe.
Dr. Free-Ride: I bet a house wren could nest in a new…
jstemwedel | March 17, 2006This being St. Patrick's Day and all, the elder offspring would like to conduct an experiment. However, we want to make sure it's above-board, ethically speaking.
The device pictured above is a prototype of a leprechaun trap. The experiment, of course, involves determining the efficacy of the device. Here are the questions we're considering before launching the first trials:
What kind of approval do we need for the protocol -- is this research with animals or research with human subjects?
If we conduct the study at the university, we probably need official approval of the protocol. But…
jstemwedel | March 17, 2006Dr. Free-Ride: (to younger offspring) Could you teach me all the words to your song about the planets.
Younger offspring: It's secret.
Dr. Free-Ride: Please?
Younger offspring: Oh, alright!
Nine planets, fine planets,
In our solar system.
Nine planets, fine planets,
See if we can list 'em.
Mercury is planet number one,
It's right there close to the Sun.
Then there's Venus, the planet of love,
Brightest planet in the heavens above.
Earth is planet number three,
It makes a home for you and me.
Mars, the red planet, is number four.
Old man Mars is the god of war.
Then there's Jupiter, number…
jstemwedel | March 10, 2006Despite the younger offspring's unwillingness to provide details last week, it would seem that they really were studying turtles. This rendering was made with leaves and other plant matter. Also, I learned from the younger offspring that the "tummy" part of a turtle's shell (not shown) is called the plastron.
Elder offspring made the illustration below. The one making the diary entry is the ant, at the lower right. It is possible (though unconfirmed) that the larger animal is a wombat or a bandicoot. Update: The furry animal is a rabbit.
jstemwedel | March 10, 2006A conversation during the early-morning "power snuggle", during which all four members of the Free-Ride family stay under the covers pretending they don't have to get up, like, five minutes ago:
Elder offspring: Did you hear that loud thunder last night?
Younger offspring: (pouting) I didn't hear it!
Dr. Free-Ride: I heard it. The first flash of lightning woke me up.
Elder offspring I only saw one flash of lightning, but I heard two thunder claps.
Younger offspring: You must have been asleep for the first lightning.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: It was pretty close.
Dr. Free-Ride: I didn…
jstemwedel | March 4, 2006Y'all know that I'm an advocate of kids being able to get their science on. It's great when they can do this is school, under the guidance of knowledgable and enthusiastic teachers. But sometimes the teachers are ... not so knowledgable, or not so enthusiastic. Even when they are both, sometimes there are not enough school hours a week for kids to get the science they crave -- especially the hands-on exploration.
According to Boing Boing, certain avenues of extra-curricular science exploration have just gotten harder to pursue. As posted today on Boing Boing:
US bans sale of chemicals to…
jstemwedel | March 3, 2006(At the dinner table last night)
Dr. Free-Ride: (to younger offspring) What are you learning about in nature study these days?
Younger offspring: (slurping noodles) Turtles.
Dr. Free-Ride: What are you learning about turtles?
Younger offspring: (chewing) Turtles.
Dr. Free-Ride: What?!
Younger offspring: (taking another bite) Reptiles and amphibians.
Dr. Free-Ride: Child, it's Thursday night. I'm working against a deadline here!
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: (to both offspring) Remind me now, which of you is the reptile and which is the amphibian?
Elder offspring: No! We're both mammals,…
jstemwedel | February 24, 2006For those of you readers in the San Francisco Bay Area:
The Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship is coming up (March 8-9) at the McEnery Covention Center in San Jose. Not only are they looking for volunteers, but they are especially in need of judges. (At this point, they have almost 800 projects entered and just over 200 judges.)
The judging takes place March 9, during the day (11:30 am - 4:30 pm). I've judged in this fair before and it's a great experience. The kids are very enthusiastic about science, and about what they've learned in their projects. Judges who…
jstemwedel | February 24, 2006A conversation while driving:
Elder offspring: On library day this week, I got a book called Endangered Desert Animals. Desert animals are really cool.
Dr. Free-Ride: What do you think is coolest about desert animals?
Elder offspring: They can go for a long time without drinking any water at all. Some of them get their water by munching on tasty cactus flowers.
Dr. Free-Ride: That's true, animals who live in the desert need to be able to get what they need from the desert, and there isn't much water there. I think I remember, when I was about your age, reading about kangaroo rats living in…
jstemwedel | February 17, 2006The offspring brought this book, Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age by Raymond Briggs, home from the library last night. Without even opening it, I agreed to read it for bedtime stories. Opening the book, I discovered that rather than being a straightforward picture book, it's laid out in comic book/graphic novel style, with lots of panels (and lots of words) per page. Had I taken a peek and seen how many words we were committing to, I might have postponed our first reading until a middle-of-the-day kind of moment. However, we got through the book, and the elder offspring was held rapt for…
jstemwedel | February 10, 2006Because today is the first blogiversary of "Adventures in Ethics and Science", you get a bonus sprog-blog. And possibly cake, if I can find some.
Younger offspring: In nature study at school, we're not studying the planets any more. Now we're talking about Earth.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh? What are you learning about Earth?
Younger offspring: We're learning about the continents. Yesterday I finished pricking out* all the continents.
Dr. Free-Ride: So I bet you can tell me the names of them.
Younger offspring: (singing) Tell me the continents, tell me the continents, tell me the continents if…