kids and science
jstemwedel | February 6, 2009By now, you're probably aware of the Rightful Place Project, which is collecting text, images, audio, and video from scientists, engineers, and others involved in conversations about science in response to the question, What is science's rightful place?
I'm still thinking about my own response to this question. To help me think, I consulted with the Free-Ride offspring, and we recorded the audio of our conversation. If you don't feel like downloading the MP3, the transcript of our conversation is below.
Dr. Free-Ride: So, you remember in January when President Obama was inaugurated?
Younger…
jstemwedel | February 2, 2009
I've been derelict in my duty to inform you that 2009 has been declared the Year of Science, which is, of course, just an excuse to celebrate science-y goodness every day. Each month has a theme and a variety of options for exploring that theme.
For February, the theme is evolution (in part because some fellow named Darwin has a birthday this month). In addition to getting a good dose of Darwiniana, you can check in on scientists sharing their thoughts on evolution and science more generally, explore evolutionary thought and the process of evolution, look at the connections between…
jstemwedel | January 30, 2009The 12th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, will be taking place February 13-16, 2009. This is a lovely (and long-running) bit of citizen science that aims to compile a continent-wide snapshot of bird populations during a few days in February before the spring migrations have started.
Participation is easy:
Plan to spend at least 15 minutes on at least one of the days of the count (Feb. 13, Feb. 14, Feb. 15, or Feb. 16) outdoors counting birds. You can do a count on more than one of the days if you want, and you…
jstemwedel | January 30, 2009Dr. Free-Ride: What have you been learning about in science this school year?
Younger offspring: Lots of stuff.
Dr. Free-Ride: Like what?
Younger offspring: We learned about rocks and minerals. Rocks are made out of minerals, and some rocks have more than one kind of mineral in them.
Dr. Free-Ride: So, what's a mineral?
Younger offspring: Umm ... I think quartz is a mineral. They can cut it in the shape of jewels. And also marble. But I think granite has more than one mineral in it. And we talked about how different rocks are formed.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh?
Younger offspring: There are some…
jstemwedel | January 28, 2009Remember the scares around December 2007 about lead in children's toys manufactured in China? Back then, people cried out for better testing to ensure that products intended for children were actually safe for children. Partly in response to this outcry, a new law, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, was passed. The intent of the law is to protect kids from harm from lead (and other substances) in children's products. However, the effect of the law may be something else altogether.
I've been meaning to post on this for awhile, but I've finally been spurred into action by my…
jstemwedel | January 23, 2009As I turned on the lights this morning, the younger Free-Ride offspring graced me with some faces.
Younger offspring: This one (eyes squinted and teeth wide in a gappy second grader smile) and this one (eyes bugged out and mouth in an O of horror) creep people out. My mad look (eyebrows lowered and eyes rolled upward in a glare) doesn't creep people out.
Dr. Free-Ride: Maybe that's because people see it so often.
Younger offspring: Anyway, it's my look.
Dr. Free-Ride: Kiddo, I was giving people that look long before you were born, and your grandfather was giving it to people long before I…
jstemwedel | January 16, 2009
One less fish
by Kim Michelle Toft and Allan Sheather
Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing
1998
Within the past week, each of the two Free-Ride offspring picked up this book, read it all the way through, and said to me, "You should write about this for the Friday Sprog Blog."
Instead of replying, "No, you should write about it," I said, "OK, I'll try." Not just because I'm the mature one here, but because this is a really good book.
On the surface, this is one of those picture books with rhyming text counting down from twelve to zero:
Twelve gracious angelfish
thinking they're in…
jstemwedel | January 14, 2009Around these parts, folks sometimes get het up about issues like scientific literacy (or lack thereof) in the general public, public interest (or lack thereof) in matters scientific, and whether scientists have the chops to communicate information clearly to non-scientists.
It's worth remembering that a large group of non-scientists are kids, and that they are actively sucking information from wherever they can get it -- parents, teachers, television, internet, even books.
Ahh, books. We like books. Books can get kids interested and excited about a topic even in the absence of an adult…
jstemwedel | January 9, 2009During a recent bath, the younger Free-Ride offspring shared some deep thoughts:
Younger offspring: There's always life, even though every living thing dies.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh?
Younger offspring: But life still continues because the Earth never explodes.
Elder offspring: (from the hallway) Not so far.
Dr. Free-Ride: So what has you thinking about life this way?
Younger offspring: When I have children and grandchildren, when I die they'll still have life.
Dr. Free-Ride: I see. And that's important to you?
Younger offspring: Uh huh.
Dr. Free-Ride: And can you explain why that's important to…
jstemwedel | January 2, 2009Last weekend, the Free-Rides visited the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Here are some of the animals we saw:
The giant panda.
Younger offspring: It eats a lot of bamboo.
Elder offspring: Would do great living in a Chinese restaurant if it had a hundred bucks.
Dr. Free-Ride: Why a hundred bucks?
Elder offspring: To buy bamboo, of course.
Younger offspring: We really only saw them eating.
The red panda.
Younger offspring: The red panda loves climbing and eats bamboo like the giant panda.
Elder offspring: They're more closely related to raccoons, but they still love bamboo.
Younger…
jstemwedel | January 1, 2009... as drawn by the younger Free-Ride offspring.
The Earth as described in 2006:
The moon was going through its phases, the meteor catcher was catching meteors, and the ozone layer, while holey, was still there.
The Earth as described in 2009:
The meteor catcher appears to have been replaced by a large satellite dish. Maybe we have better options with which to handle falling meteors now. (Or maybe we've just prioritized telecommunications.)
Just past the asteroid belt, Mars seems in a very close approach to Earth (possibly because the Mars Rover would appears to be back on Earth -- for…
jstemwedel | December 27, 2008Dr. Isis expresses reservations about signing on for Twisty Faster's revolution.
ScienceWoman offers a sketch of what her revolution might look like.
Me? I'm pretty exhausted from today's outing with my offspring, what with it being Winter Break, otherwise known as 24/7 parenting. But I have a few brief ideas of what I'd like to see on the post-revolutionary landscape.
It would be a joyous thing for us to create a world -- professional, civic, social, familial -- where each individual human being is regarded as fully human, rather than as part of some special category not deserving of our…
jstemwedel | December 26, 2008On Tuesday, largely at the instigation of the Free-Ride offspring, the Free-Ride family went to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty.
It was a brutally cold day (with temperatures around 20 oF), not the kind of day that I go out looking for a patriotism lesson. So I was pleasantly surprised at the extent to which the ranger tour and the museum exhibit (inside! w00t!) focused on issues of engineering and science.
First off, there's the matter of Lady Liberty's size. Creating and installing a statue of this size (not to mention transporting it from France to the U.S.A.) was a major…
jstemwedel | December 25, 2008The elder Free-Ride offspring drew this picture (on two sides of the same piece of paper).
I think I detect some M.C. Escher influence here.
It is left to the reader to provide the hypothetical evolutionary pathways that connect each of these critters.
jstemwedel | December 19, 2008As winter break approaches, the younger Free-Ride offspring had an unscheduled nightmare.
OK, none of the nightmares is scheduled. Still, this is a week where we could all use more sleep, not less.
Younger offspring: I thought I didn't have nightmares anymore, but then I had one last night.
Dr. Free-Ride: When you climbed into our bed, I told you that you wouldn't have another nightmare, or at least if you did, it would be OK because you'd wake up and find us there.
Younger offspring: You were right. But I still didn't want to have a nightmare.
Dr. Free-Ride: I know. I don't like to…
jstemwedel | December 17, 2008You may remember that last year we were inspired by Bake for a Change to dabble in "green" gingerbread construction. As 2008 draws to a close, the challenge has been issued once again to make a house both good enough to eat and eco-friendly enough to heat (or cool, etc.).
The rules are the same as they were last year:
1) Everything must be edible.
2) However half-baked (har har), there must be at least FOUR identifiable sustainable building design elements.
3) Your design must include a minimum of a floor, a door, four walls, a roof, and two windows.
This year our effort resulted in a…
jstemwedel | December 12, 2008I do not know why, in December, the Free-Ride offspring turn their attention to questions of evidence and testimony. (I do worry, however, that by this time next year the elder Free-Ride offspring may become a 12-25 truther.) This week, the sprogs considered ways to establish dates that don't rely solely on the testimony of someone who was there.
Younger offspring: I wonder when the first paper airplane was invented.
Dr. Free-Ride: Sometime after the invention of paper, I imagine.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: Paper was invented a looong time ago.
Elder offspring: By the ancient Egyptians.…
jstemwedel | December 5, 2008Walking to school the other morning:
Elder offspring: What's that smell? Is that smoke?
Dr. Free-Ride: Yep. Someone has a fire in the fireplace. Look, there's the smoke curling out of the chimney. To me it smells good on a cold morning, but when enough people do it, all the little particles in that smoke hurt the air quality.
Younger offspring: I bet it's nice and warm in front of that fireplace.
Elder offspring: [Dr. Free-Ride's better half] says that if you stare at a fire -- or even a candle flame -- long enough, you could be hypnotized.
Dr. Free-Ride: Hmm. Actually hypnotized?
Elder…
jstemwedel | December 4, 2008The Free-Ride offspring have put the wheels in motion to achieve financial independence from their parental units. They intend to make their fortune on T-shirt sales.
Poor deluded kids!
Anyway, they would like you to know that you can score your own copy of this artwork:
on a T-shirt, mug, or totebag, at CafePress.
I would like you to know that we value you as readers whether or not you buy any merchandise.
jstemwedel | December 4, 2008I was marveling at the Chemistry gift guide at MAKE. It has lots of cool items for your budding chemist/mad scientist of any age looking to equip his or her basement/garage/treehouse laboratory. (It's pretty hard to get fume-hoods installed in a treehouse, but who are we kidding? Most people who dabble in chemistry at home don't have fume-hoods either.)
The glassware in the pictures is so bright and shiny. (Flashback to the "breakage book" in my high school chemistry class. Also to the hours upon hours of washing glassware in grad school. Still: shiny!) The kids in the pictures from…