kids and science
jstemwedel | October 2, 2009A few weeks ago, the elder Free-Ride offspring was anxiously awaiting the feeding of Ziggy, the classroom ball python. Sadly, that feeding was delayed on account of the elder Free-Ride offspring's teacher having jury duty.
Feeding the classroom snake, apparently, is not a task you leave to a substitute teacher.
In any event, since then, Ziggy has enjoyed a couple of feedings. Here, the elder Free-Ride offspring tells me about yesterday's feeding.
Dr. Free-Ride: When did Ziggy get fed?
Elder offspring: During last recess, which is after lunch, because now we only have an afternoon recess.
Dr…
jstemwedel | October 1, 2009I don't usually go looking for a fight, but there are some cases where I'll make an exception.
You know, of course that I'm a big fan of DonorsChoose. And you'll recall that PETA's tactics make them a problematic organization as far as I'm concerned regardless of what your views on animal welfare or animal rights might be.
So, when PETA takes a swing at DonorsChoose, of course I want to jump in off the ropes and swing back. What's PETA's issue with DonorsChoose?
DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit organization with a noble mission - to help teachers purchase materials for classroom lessons.…
jstemwedel | October 1, 2009At Uncertain Principles, Chad is motivating his readers to donate to his DonorsChoose challenge by offering a big reward:
Last year, I famously got $6,000 in contributions by offering to dance like a monkey, but I'm not sure what would follow that. So,
What should I offer to do if I manage to reach the overall challenge goal of several thousand dollars in total contributions?
I'm obviously not going to do anything illegal or immoral, but I'm willing to sacrifice a little dignity for a good cause, as you can see at the link above. So, what can I offer to do that would get you to donate…
jstemwedel | October 1, 2009You already know that we're working with DonorsChoose to raise some money for public school teachers who are trying to give their students the engaging educational experiences they deserve (and who, owing to dismal state and local budgets, need our help more than ever). You also know that our benevolent overlords at Seed will be randomly selecting some donors to receive nifty prizes (details about this to be posted as soon as I get them).
Of course, helping public school teachers deliver the education their students deserve is it's own reward, but that doesn't mean you might not want a little…
jstemwedel | September 30, 2009Around this corner of the blogosphere, folks frequently bemoan the sorry state of the public's scientific literacy and engagement. People fret about whether our children is are learning what they should about science, math, and critical reasoning. Netizens speculate on the destination of the handbasket in which we seem to be riding.
In light of the big problems that seem insurmountable, we should welcome the opportunity to do something small that can have an immediate impact.
During the month of October, a bunch of us ScienceBlogs bloggers will be participating in the annual…
jstemwedel | September 25, 2009Owing to the fact that I had to focus my attention on getting healthy in a hurry so I could catch a plane yesterday evening, I asked the elder Free-Ride offspring to write something for this week's Friday Sprog Blogging entry. Owing, I think, to my apparent fragility, the elder Free-Ride offspring assented to this request without argument, and without demanding a cash payment.
I really do have wonderful kids.
In any event, the elder Free-Ride offspring offers a summary of an interesting article from a magazine that is a favorite at Casa Free-Ride, National Geographic Kids, and then pitches…
jstemwedel | September 18, 2009The Free-Ride family got its copy of the new CD/DVD set Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants this week. The sprogs, who have been listening and watching, offer something kind of like a review.
The first thing to note is that, on the DVD, you have a choice of going through the whole set of songs as a "show" with John Flansburg and John Linnell (animated, of course) providing little introductions that are both informative and humorous, or of selecting individual songs (without the intros) from an "A-O" menu and a "P-Z" menu. We tend to gravitate toward the alphabetical song menus, but…
jstemwedel | September 16, 2009Dr. Free-Ride's better half went to the Free-Ride offspring's school for Back to School Night earlier this week. (I stayed at home with the sprogs to oversee dinner and baths.)
Dr. Free-Ride's better half reported back that the younger Free-Ride offspring's third grade teacher "doesn't believe in too much homework". ("She doesn't believe it's possible to assign too much homework?" I asked cautiously. "No, she doesn't believe an excess of homework is a good thing," my better half replied.)
And, she supported her stance with a page she distributed to parents summarizing recent educational…
jstemwedel | September 11, 2009This school year, the elder Free-Ride offspring has a classroom teacher who used to be one of the elementary school's science teachers. (Owing to budget cuts, both the science teachers have "retreated" to be general purpose classroom teachers, and all the classroom teachers have to teach their own science lessons.)
I'm happy about this because it means the science instruction the elder Free-Ride offspring gets in the classroom is going to be good. The elder Free-Ride offspring is happy about this because it means there's a snake in the classroom.
The snake in question shares a name with a…
jstemwedel | September 4, 2009
(From here.)
Not that we won't make plenty of other mistakes, but they'll run more to Nietzsche than Rand.
Come to think of it, the eternal recurrence test is probably just right for bedtime stories, isn't it?
jstemwedel | September 4, 2009The Free-Ride offspring just kicked off a new school year. The start of school in these parts means a long list of supplies to find -- stuff you'd expect, like crayons, pencils, binders and binder paper, scissors, and glue sticks, plus stuff for general classroom use like tissues, had sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, paper towel, and copier paper. The tighter the school's budget, the more items get added to the "voluntary donations" list. (And we've heard tell that the donations aren't always voluntary. If you don't get crayons, your kid goes through the school year without crayons. This…
jstemwedel | August 28, 2009This week, while I hunkered down for the start of classes, Dr. Free-Ride's better half took the Free-Ride offspring camping.
They camped near Big Sur, which provided ample opportunities to hike near the ocean (and to swim in it). Indeed, on one of these hikes the first day out, they spotted some otters:
The Free-Ride offspring describe these as a mother and baby otter. I'm not sure that I'm ready to rule out the possibility that the parental otter here might be the father.
At one point, coming back to the campsite, they noticed some avian company:
The elder Free-Ride offspring thinks it…
jstemwedel | August 21, 2009Dr. Free-Ride: So, where do you think land comes from?
Younger offspring: Land comes from ... I don't know.
Dr. Free-Ride: If you had to guess ...
Younger offspring: Land comes from a whole giant island. And then it breaks apart since the dinosaur times.
Dr. Free-Ride: So, like one big continent that sort of all used to be together?
Younger offspring: Yeah. They broke up. Even Australia and Antarctica.
Dr. Free-Ride: That's interesting. Do you have any ideas about how or why it broke up from one big land mass?
Younger offspring: Volcano rocks? I mean, volcanoes?
Dr. Free-Ride: Well, I…
jstemwedel | August 14, 2009Thanks again to the generosity of Free-Ride friend LO, the elder Free-Ride offspring will be partaking in this year's Kids Day at SLAC today. And, once again, the younger Free-Ride offspring is chagrined to be too young to participate. Since next year both sprogs will meet the age requirement, though, the younger Free-Ride offspring got to participate in this year's review of the workshop safety information.
Dr. Free-Ride: You are workshop option B. So, the first activity: paleontology. Do you know what that is, younger offspring?
Younger offspring: Yes.
Dr. Free-Ride: What is…
jstemwedel | August 7, 2009Yesterday afternoon, I attempted to talk with the younger Free-Ride offspring about erosion. It would seem, from our conversation, that it is not just rocks that can erode -- recall of material learned in science class can also erode, as can patience.
Below is a rough transcript of our chat. I'll see if I can clean up the audio and put the MP3 up as a SprogCast by sometime this weekend.
Dr. Free-Ride: I wanted to ask you what you can tell me about rocks. I think you learned a little about rocks in school, didn't you?
Younger offspring: No.
Dr. Free-Ride: No? Did you learn something about…
jstemwedel | August 6, 2009At bedtime, after the reading of the stories, the younger Free-Ride offspring lay upon Dr. Free-Ride's better half, and Dr. Free-Ride's better half responded by making strangling noises. Of course, I called in from the other room to remind the children that homicide, whether intentional or accidental, is forbidden in the house.
Younger offspring: I'm not killing him! He's pretending!
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Actually, I'm pretending to be alive.
Elder offspring: Pretending means you are alive. If you weren't alive, you wouldn't be able to pretend anything.
Dr. Free-Ride: Well played,…
jstemwedel | August 1, 2009Yes, it's a day late. Dr. Free-Ride and Dr. Free-Ride's better half are currently engaged in sprog retrieval maneuvers at the home of the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment. What follows is this morning's attempt to get the Free-Ride offspring to tell us something science-y.
Dr. Free-Ride: Were there any things you noticed while you were away from us that you think might have to do with science?
Younger offspring: I noticed that when I go in the ocean, the salt water makes my eyes red, and I wanted to know why.
Dr. Free-Ride: That sounds like a reasonable matter for scientific…
jstemwedel | July 24, 2009At present, the Free-Ride offspring are enjoying the hospitality of the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment, and the Free-Ride parental units are enjoying quieter mornings -- at least in theory.
This morning, some time before 7:00 ...
Casa Free-Ride telephone: RING! RING! RING! RING!
Dr. Free-Ride: Mrrph! ZZZZZZ
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Hello?
Younger Free-Ride offspring: Hi [Dr. Free-Ride's better half]!
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Hi [Younger Free-Ride offspring]. Do you know what time it is?
Younger Free-Ride offspring: No, let me look at the clock.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half…
jstemwedel | July 17, 2009There's been a continuing discussion, in various online venues (including this blog), of Unscientific America, a book which notes the "demotion" of Pluto as an instance where the lessons the American public drew from the scientists' decisions may have diverged widely from the lessons the scientists would want the public to draw -- if they even thought about the possibility that the public was paying attention.
So, since the Free-Ride offspring were paying attention as the Pluto saga unfolded, I thought I should double back and see what their current thinking about it is.
If you've forgotten…
jstemwedel | July 16, 2009As I thrash my way through composing my last anticipated post on Unscientific America, I reckoned it was time to give you some more pictures to go with all the words. Thank goodness for the Free-Ride offspring!
From the younger Free-Ride offspring:
I am fairly sure the blue squiggles in the background are actually just background squiggles rather than stink-lines coming off of that bird. If anything smells in this composition, you'd expect it would be the flowers.
From the elder Free-Ride offspring:
The elder Free-Ride offspring calls this drawing "Quality versus Quantity." Originally,…