kids and science
jstemwedel | May 16, 2008The elder Free-Ride offspring got to go on a field trip this week to an area lagoon. The high points of the visit included seeing a Steller's Jay (we more frequently encounter scrub jays), looking at a possum skull, and being pointed in the direction of the turkey vultures who were eating the rest of that particular possum.
But the favorite part of the field trip was the visit to the laboratory (which I'm guessing might have been air conditioned) to look under the microscope at some pond water.
Elder offspring: There were a bunch of little critters that kind of looked like tadpoles of…
jstemwedel | May 9, 2008As promised last Friday, today we report the results of our investigation of the solubility properties of an avocado. To get the disappointment out of the way up front, we will not be reporting Ks.p. values.
Since we had some around, we decided to use conical tubes to hold the avocado pieces and the experimental solvents. I didn't want to mark the tubes with Sharpies (because we'll probably re-use them) and we don't have the cool colored tape you find in biochemistry labs, so we used a system of plastic cups to keep clear on which tube held which solvent. (The cups also served as our…
jstemwedel | May 3, 2008Captivated by the colors I saw, I took this picture today.
Any guesses as to what it is?
jstemwedel | May 2, 2008
This Friday we're reporting on one of the experiments we were looking forward to last Friday, the one in which milk is curdled. (We'll report on our experimental attempts to dissolve an avocado next Friday.)
We started with a little over a cup and a half of whole milk, on the cold side (since it was in the fridge until we were ready to start experimenting). Since we don't have glass stirring rods at home, we decided to use a plastic chopstick to do the stirring.
As a control, before we started adding lemon juice, we put the chopstick in the cup of milk. The presence of the chopstick had…
jstemwedel | April 25, 2008
Elder offspring: [Dr. Free-Ride's better half] said we're going to do some experiments this weekend.
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh really? Do you know what the experiments will be, or are you going to make them up as you go?
Younger offspring: One of them will be making milk curdle.
Elder offspring: With vinegar or lemon juice, I think.
Dr. Free-Ride: Ah, that's a classic.
Younger offspring: We're going to curdle the milk before lunch. That will make cottage cheese, which we can eat for lunch.
Dr. Free-Ride: Clever! What else will you be doing?
Younger offspring: I can't remember.
Elder offspring:…
jstemwedel | April 18, 2008The foreshadowing last week was accurate. This week, we offer a review of Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid by Shirley Raye Redmond with illustrations by Bryn Barnard.
Younger offspring: We should talk about my new squid book for the Friday Sprog Blog.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK. What do you like about this book?
Younger offspring: (Gazing at the cover) I like the cute face of the giant squid.
Dr. Free-Ride: You think that's a cute face, huh?
Younger offspring: Yeah. I like it when it only has one eye on each side* and it's giant and round.
Dr. Free-Ride: It's kind of roundish. So tell me what…
jstemwedel | April 11, 2008Sometimes a kid grabs the colored pencils and ends up with a picture of an octopus.
Judging by its color, the octopus is not angry.
This unsolicited picture may be foreshadowing. Younger offspring recently got a chapter book about giant squids and may be working up to dictating a review of it. Maybe next Friday.
jstemwedel | April 11, 2008The Free-Ride offspring have been considering careers. This past week, they both got excited about the prospect of becoming veterinarians.
Elder offspring: I think I might want to be a veterinarian when I grow up.
Dr. Free-Ride: You could do that. You like science, you like animals, you like solving puzzles. I think you might be really good at it.
Younger offspring: I could be a veterinarian, too! I really like dogs and cats and rodents and birds.
Elder offspring: I think I might want to be a veterinarian at a zoo ... but maybe not for the zebras. I heard that they can kick and bite, and…
jstemwedel | April 4, 2008The Free-Ride offspring were on spring break last week. Since their mother was digging herself out of a pit of grading, they got to visit the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment. Apparently it wasn't all playing bucking broncos with the cat -- they also visited an aquarium:
Dr. Free-Ride: You went to an aquarium? Do you remember which one?
Younger offspring: No, but it was a little far from [the house of the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment].
Dr. Free-Ride: And what did you do there?
Younger offspring: This man who worked at the aquarium mixed grunion eggs and this sand-ish,…
jstemwedel | March 28, 2008Of all the Looney Tunes characters, I was never a fan of the Roadrunner. (I liked Wile E. Coyote well enough, and wish him well in his lawsuit against the Acme Company.) However, there was one Roadrunner cartoon where the focus pulls back from the eternal struggle between coyote and prospective dinner and shifts instead to two little cartoon kids watching the Roadrunner on their TV. If I recall correctly, at least one of these kids expresses a less-than-favorable opinion of the Roadrunner. And, one of the kids (might be the same one) mentions that he wants to be a psychoanimalist when he…
jstemwedel | March 21, 2008Do you ever suspect that kids save their best questions for just before "goodnight" as a delaying tactic? Or is there some other plausible explanation for a kid regularly entering into deeply interesting territory on the way to dream time?
Dr. Free-Ride: Sweet dreams.
Elder offspring: Why are feet ticklish?
Dr. Free-Ride: Huh?
Elder offspring: Why are feet ticklish?
Dr. Free-Ride: I suppose it probably has to do with how may nerve endings there are up near the surface of the soles of your feet.
Elder offspring: The soles of my feet are down, not up.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK, if you insist.
Elder…
jstemwedel | March 17, 2008Following up on an earlier post, I wanted to say a little about the Synopsis Championship that took place last week. It's sort of a judge's-eye view of the fair -- from a very enthusiastic and impressed judge.
I walked over to the convention center from campus, and it actually took my awhile to find the fair because the last time my teaching schedule was such that I could judge the fair, they held it in the main exhibition hall. This year, it was in its own hangar-like building.
Judges checked in, got their name tags, judging-team assignments, and guidelines for judge and for talking with…
jstemwedel | March 14, 2008This week, the sprogs came home from school with the annual read-the-local-paper- and-complete-activities -for-free-stuff- from-local-merchants assignments. While this program has the unfortunate effect of doubling the amount of newspaper spread out on the living room floor, I think it's a generally good idea to get kids reading the newspaper on a regular basis. Some of the stories they read there, however, can make them anxious.
Elder offspring: I'm going to read this article on what's happening to fish because of drugs in the water they live in.
Dr. Free-Ride: Good choice. I've been…
jstemwedel | March 7, 2008
Last weekend the weather got sunny and warm here, so the Free-Ride parental units decided it was appropriate to lead the Free-Ride offspring on a forced march along the creek.
Somehow, the sprogs didn't get the memo that it was a forced march, since in the course of 2.5 hours neither of them complained at all. (What fun is that?)
Maybe they were distracted from their oppression by all the critters.
For the first half of our walk, the critters were mostly avian. The elder Free-Ride offspring kept a running tally of the Canada geese. We also saw a goodly number of mallards, coots, and…
jstemwedel | March 6, 2008Speaking of science fairs, if you know of kids (grades 5-12) in the San Francisco Bay Area who are looking for a challenge, this one might be of interest:
It is not too late to participate in this year's Tech Challenge. The Tech Museum of Innovation's 21st annual Tech Challenge is designed to get at the heart of innovation for young people and is geared to the California Math, Science and Language Arts standards. This year's Tech Challenge focus is on the need for safe clean drinking water. One in five people in the world do not have regular access to safe drinking water. The challenge:…
jstemwedel | March 6, 2008For readers in the greater San Jose (California) region, I wanted to pass along a call for judges for the Synopsis Championship, scheduled to take place next Wednesday, March 12. Judges will be doing their thing from noon to 4:30 PM at the McEnery Convention Center in downtown San Jose. (Judges will be served a free lunch starting at 11:30, however.) Here are the details on the judging talent they're looking for:
WE ARE STILL IN NEED OF JUDGES especially in Botany, Zoology, Environment Sciences, Heath, Medicine, Gerontology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Chemistry. Please consider…
jstemwedel | March 4, 2008Abel Pharmboy and Drugmonkey are having a conversation that I wish I could approach completely abstractly, about what parents ought to be telling their kids about drugs (whether legal or illegal) and their use. (Also, Page 3.14 has a reader's poll about whether teens can be scared off illegal drugs. Poll results will be published in the ScienceBlogs Weekly Recap newsletter, for which you can sign up here.)
Of course, having two kids who are not yet teens but don't seem to be getting any younger, the issue doesn't feel abstract at all. The clock is ticking.
Here's what is currently…
jstemwedel | February 29, 2008At 6.5 and 8.5 years of age, the Free-Ride offspring sometimes seem more comfortable expressing their understanding of various ideas with drawings rather than just with words. I sometimes wonder where they pick up their visual vocabulary. For example, the younger Free-Ride offspring provides a picture to accompany the discussion of mutants posted two weeks ago:
Here's a closer look at the drawing of the genes:
Those are pretty unmistakably double helices! How do first graders know this stuff? It can't be simply from playing on stretches of DNA can it?
It's also a pretty good rendering…
jstemwedel | February 22, 2008In pondering the effects of nature versus nurture, the Free-Ride parents have become painfully aware that a large part of their offspring's environment is provided by the kids at school. This is how the sprogs came to be aware of the existence of The Disney Channel, whose offering seem to grate on the parental units as much as they delight the offspring.
At Casa Free-Ride, the price for choosing a television program your parent does not care for is engaging in some critical thinking about its subject matter.
Dr. Free-Ride: OK, so explain That's So Raven to me. What is the deal with Raven…
jstemwedel | February 15, 2008Dr. Free-Ride: Do you guys have a view on which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Elder offspring: Do you mean the chicken or the chicken egg? Or just the egg the first chicken came out of?
Younger offspring: The first chicken came out of an egg, but it was an egg laid by some other kind of creature.
Dr. Free-Ride: And so, knowing as much as you do, you find no paradox here.
Elder offspring: But the Liar's Paradox is still a real paradox.
Younger offspring: How did another kind of creature lay eggs that had chickens in them?
Elder offspring: Maybe mutations.
Younger offspring: What does…