kids and science
jstemwedel | October 10, 2008At Casa Free-Ride, our science fair discussions take an unexpected turn:
Younger offspring: I want to do a science fair project, too.
Elder offspring: Hey, second graders don't have to do science fair projects!
Younger offspring: But second graders get to do science fair projects if they want.
Dr. Free-Ride: Seriously, it's not like the thirst for knowledge is restricted to the upper grades.
Talking a little later while the elder Free-Ride offspring was somewhere else, no doubt ruminating on the injustice of younger siblings:
Dr. Free-Ride: What kind of project would you do?
Younger…
jstemwedel | October 7, 2008We're in the last hour of week one of Blogger Challenge 2008, and ScienceBlogs readers have already donated a respectable $8,999 to public school projects. Yay ScienceBlogs readers!
You know I'm offering you enticements to donate to my challenge, but tonight I want to point out some proposals in other ScienceBloggers' challenges that need to be funded soon before the proposals expire.
Here they are, with the ones expiring soonest at the top:
Chefs & Cooks with Autism
(a refrigerator to store perishables for cooking classes in NYC)
3 days left
need $2,253
(Dispatches from the Culture Wars…
jstemwedel | October 6, 2008(Kick off post here.)
I'm inspired by The World's Fair to write this update in the style of Harper's Index.
22: number of ScienceBlogs blogs that have so far mounted challenges.
8,480: dollars donated so far through those challenges
700 billion: the only number other than the year in a ScienceBlogs blogger's challenge title
3,078: students reached by the proposals funded by donations to ScienceBlogs challenges
90: donors who have donated to ScienceBlogs challenges
10: largest number of donors to any of the challenges mounted by ScienceBloggers
3: challenges mounted by ScienceBloggers with a…
jstemwedel | October 6, 2008A generous donor who prefers to remain anonymous made a contribution to my challenge and requested some artwork from the sprogs. In particular, the donor requested dragonflies:
Many species are considered vulnerable or imperiled by the Nature Conservancy (Species Report Card) and it's my next animal group to target for outreach and conservation. ...
Please post the jpg image on your website for awareness of dragonflies... I don't want any recognition for me. Please acknowledge the little artist with teh mad skillz though! We need entomologists to describe and name all the new species we…
jstemwedel | October 3, 2008As I was kissing the sprogs goodnight last night:
Younger offspring: If we get boo-boos more than seven times, do we not heal any more?
Elder offspring: Huh?
Younger offspring: Well, if we have seven layers of skin*, once you get cut or scraped in the same place the seventh time, don't you use the last layer? After that, don't you run out of skin?
Dr. Free-Ride: Umm, I'm pretty sure that as you shed the outer layer, or scrape it or whatever, you're growing more layers underneath.
Younger offspring: But that would be more than seven layers, wouldn't it?
Dr. Free-Ride: I don't think it's that…
jstemwedel | October 2, 2008We're in day 2 of our month-long drive to fund projects in public school classrooms across the U.S. As I write this post, the generous readers of ScienceBloggers have given a total of $5,589. And, since yesterday, challenges have been mounted by:
Dispatches from the Culture Wars (challenge here)
Signout (challenge here)
The World's Fair (challenge here)
Zooillogix (challenge here)
Check out the ScienceBlog leaderboard to follow our progress. And thanks for being such a generous bunch of blog readers!
jstemwedel | October 2, 2008You 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. 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).
As I did last year, I'm going sweeten the deal by offering some incentive to everyone who donates to my challenge. And I'm adding a few new options this time around. Here's what you can get:
An original (and probably nerdy) poem,…
jstemwedel | October 2, 2008Near the end of our 2007 DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge, I received a generous donation from a reader who asked if I could write a poem about narcolepsy.
I'm a little late in paying up, but better late than never. Here it is:
I tried to write you
a narcolepsy poem.
Pen meets paper, but --
YAWN
Excessive daytime
sleepiness, or writer's block?
Push through fatigue and --
YAWN
Pen in my hand,
Body crumpled, inert, but
cataplexy won't --
zzzzzz
Sleep paralysis.
Awake, yet I can't move or
try the lines aloud.
YAWN
Drifting into sleep,
vivid hallucinations
scare me, but I must --
zzzzzz
Talking in…
jstemwedel | October 1, 2008See, I told you more ScienceBlogs bloggers would jump into the fray for our DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge 2008.
Challenges have been mounted by:
A Blog Around the Clock (challenge here)
The Quantum Pontiff (challenge here)
Watch the ScienceBlogs leaderboard to see if they catch up.
In other news, the motherboard would seem to indicate that the tech blogs, mommy blogs, topical/local blogs, and BlogHer are currently leaving us in their dust. I wonder if fans of science will remedy that ...
jstemwedel | September 30, 2008It's October, which means ScienceBlogs bloggers are, once again, participating in the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge. The idea behind the drive is simple: we're appealing to you, our readers, to help public school teachers across the U.S. fund proposals for classroom supplies, activities, and field trips. As I wrote at the start of our very first drive in 2006:
Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is cool, important, and worth understanding. If you're reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way.
A lot of us fell in love with science because of early…
jstemwedel | September 26, 2008Yesterday, we had an urge to do some experimentation and I had a red cabbage that had overstayed its welcome in the refrigerator crisper drawer.
So of course, we made cabbage-water indicator.
An indicator is a substance that produces a color change that gives you information about whether the stuff you're testing with it is acidic, basic, or neutral. Some indicators have just two states. For example, phenolphthalein, the indicator beloved by chemistry students (in part because of the fun of spelling it), is frequently used to find the equivalence point in acid-base titrations. In acidic…
jstemwedel | September 26, 2008We continue discussions with the elder Free-Ride offspring about potential projects for the spring science fair.
Elder offspring: Maybe I could do an experiment with Mentos and soda.
Dr. Free-Ride: You mean that one where you use Mentos to create a fountain of soda?
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: That's not an experiment. It's a cliché.
Dr. Free-Ride: Like sticking battery-leads into a dill pickle.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: But less illuminating.
Elder offspring: Well, I've never put Mentos in soda.
Dr. Free-Ride: But from what you've read, you have a pretty good idea what's going to…
jstemwedel | September 19, 2008
The elder Free-Ride offspring drew this lovely rat in a thought-bubble. The critter who is dreaming of an encounter with this rat is revealed below.
Technical note:
I'm sure some eagle-eyed (owl-eyed?) readers will have noticed that I uploaded this drawing from a digital photograph. For some reason, I could not get the scanner to import the drawing without losing much of the delicate lines of the feathers. If anyone has good advice on how to get a scanner (and Photoshop) to upload a pencil drawing without losing the fine details, I'd be much obliged.
jstemwedel | September 19, 2008As I mentioned yesterday, the elder Free-Ride offspring will be participating in the school science fair this year. Last night at the dinner table, the Free-Ride family started brainstorming project ideas.
Elder offspring: I was thinking about seeing how well plants grow in different kinds of water.
Dr. Free-Ride: That might be interesting.
Elder offspring: I could use tap water, water from the Brita, mineral water, ...
Younger offspring: Soda.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK, you might find something out from that comparison. But I'm not buying bottled water from the garden -- not even in a deep drought…
jstemwedel | September 18, 2008The elder Free-Ride offspring, having entered fourth grade this year, will be participating in the school science fair in the spring. The elder Free-Ride offspring is very enthusiastic about the whole science fair thing.
Meanwhile, I'm having a very hard time.
I'm very committed to the idea that a science fair project is the kind of thing a kid should control, from start to finish -- conceiving the project, formulating some clear questions and some promising strategies for answering them, doing the experiments and making the observations, adjusting the strategies as necessary, setting up…
jstemwedel | September 12, 2008Reader hp asks:
Do you (or your commenters) know what to look out for in a small-child-friendly telescope? My daughter (now aged 4.5) has been space-obsessed for over a year now, and I'd like to encourage her but am nervous of spending a lot of money on the wrong thing.
For those of you who look at the night sky with kids (or who once looked at the night sky while kids), what are your suggestions? What are the crucial features of a decent 'scope, and which of the bells and whistles are things you can live without (and without paying for)? How important do you think it is for a kid to be…
jstemwedel | September 12, 2008Last night as we sat down to eat, a spider scuttled out from under Dr. Free-Ride's better half's napkin.
Younger offspring: Spider! Where'd it go? Where'd it go?
Dr. Free-Ride: I think it's hiding under that serving plate.
Younger offspring: I don't want a spider in our food!
Elder offspring: The food's on top on the plate. The spider's underneath.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: (moving the plate to expose the spider again) Let's just help the spider off the table.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half gently sweeps the spider off the edge of the table.
Younger offspring: Ahh, where is it?
Dr. Free-…
jstemwedel | September 8, 2008After a longer than anticipated delay, here are the answers to the circus animal poop identification challenge from back in August.
While there are some handy flowcharts and poop identification picture on the web, I haven't yet found such a guide for African or Asian wildlife. Since many, if not most, of the high traffic circus animals are from those two continents, that leaves me with rationales for the pictured poop that are a little more hand-wave-y than I'd like. Animal poop experts who would like to give us more information about why these particular animals poop the way they do are…
jstemwedel | September 5, 2008In which we become acquainted with one aspect of the classroom culture in the younger Free-Ride offspring's second grade.
Younger offspring: In my class, we earn ten play cents for coming to school on time, and I earned sixty play cents for bringing back those signed forms, and for bringing in my emergency card, and for bringing all my school supplies.
Dr. Free-Ride: You get paid a bonus just for being on time?
Younger offspring: It's not real money.
Elder offspring: So what do you do with it? What can you use it for?
Younger offspring: Once a week, there's a classroom store, and you can…
jstemwedel | September 3, 2008
The sprogs were beside themselves with excitement yesterday on the eve of the first day of a new school year. Will this excitement persist? Will the first homework assignments deflate it? It remains to be seen.
The "Yay! We get to go to school tomorrow!" mood extended to our divvying up of the "requested voluntary donations" yesterday afternoon. In our school district, "requested voluntary donations" are required school supplies that the classroom budget does not cover; it's tempting to send in a note to the teachers explaining that "voluntary" does not mean what they seem to think it…