Category Archives: Kids and science

Friday Sprog Blogging: Antarctica: Land of Endless Water.

Posted on by

Last week, I noted that the Free-Ride offspring are off kicking it with The Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment, and that, to ensure that you would not have to endure a Friday without a Sprog Blog, I gave each of the sprogs a book to read during their visit with their grandparents and asked them to report back on their books via email. At the conclusion of the elder Free-Ride offspring’s book report, emailed to me last Thursday night, I wrote:

Major props to the elder offspring for doing blog-homework without any prodding. This sets the bar pretty high for the younger offspring next week.

Want to guess how the sibling rivalry played out here?
With no prodding whatsoever, I received an email report from the younger Free-Ride offspring this past Sunday night on this book:

Antarctica.png

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: Mummies, Bones, and Body Parts.

Posted on by

The Free-Ride offspring are currently summering (for a couple weeks, anyway) with The Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment. Practically, this means the conversations between Free-Ride offspring and parents over the past week have been brief and focused on how awesome day camp is.
I have, however, taken steps to ensure that while I am deprived of the physical presence of my offspring, you will not be deprived of the weekly installment of sprog blogging. To this end, I gave each of the sprogs a book to read during their visit with their grandparents and asked them to report back on their books via email.
Of course, I forgot to issue a mid-week reminder.
Nonetheless, the elder Free-Ride offspring was prepared to deliver a report on this book:

Mummies.jpg

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: I scream, you scream.

Posted on by

Dr. Free-Ride: Do you remember what [Dr. Free-Ride’s better half] said we were going to do at some point this summer? Using the machine in our garage that Uncle Fishy and RMD left for us?
Younger offspring: That ice cream machine?
Dr. Free-Ride: Yeah.
Younger offspring: Oh, I love that!
Dr. Free-Ride: Well, what are we going to do with it?
Younger offspring: Make ice cream.

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: the axolotl.

Posted on by

Dr. Free-Ride: What was it we were going to talk about today?
Elder offspring: The axolotl.
Dr. Free-Ride: Can you please spell that?
Elder offspring: A-X-O-L-O- … wait. A-X-O-T-O-L. Wait! A-X-O-L-O-T-O-L. I think.
Dr. Free-Ride: Hmm. I shall do some checking on the spelling. And what is it?
Elder offspring: It’s a salamander that has achieved eternal youth!

axolotl-small.jpg

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: planning our (science-y) summer.

Posted on by

It’s June already, and we still have not finalized summer plans for the Free-Ride offspring. (Hey, my semester just ended, and it was only yesterday that I wrapped up the Large Administrative Task That Shall Not Be Named Now That It’s Finally Done. I’ve been a little distracted.)
Anyway, given that we’re at the stage of summer planning where there are a lot of ideas still on the table, I decided to ask the Free-Ride offspring to muse on any science-y aspects of the possible summer activities they are considering.
Here’s the younger Free-Ride offspring’s list:

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: evidence of science.

Posted on by

Jet-lag and grading fatigue (plus being on the other coast for three days) mean that I haven’t had much time lately to sit down with the sprogs and have a conversation about science. However, Casa Free-Ride presents me with clues which suggest that the Free-Ride offspring have been thinking about science.

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: science in pictures and words.

Posted on by

The Free-Ride offspring have been wary of extended conversations with me lately (maybe since most of them eventually come around to, “Surely you’d like to help your mother grade these papers!”). However, I was able to extract some pictorial evidence that each of them has been thinking about science.
From the younger Free-Ride offspring, some basic things you ought to know about phases of matter:

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: grading.

Posted on by

The Free-Ride offspring are pretty sure what I do for a living is grade papers. But seeing as how they’re both students, I thought I’d ask what the view of things is like on the other side of the red pen.
Dr. Free-Ride: When you come in and find me working on the weekend, what am I usually working on?
Younger offspring: Grading?
Dr. Free-Ride: Yeah. I know that you do a lot of homework and assignments.
Younger offspring: Mmm-hmm.
Dr. Free-Ride: And your teacher grades them.
Younger offspring: No! We correct them together.
Dr. Free-Ride: You correct it all together?
Younger offspring: Yeah. She doesn’t really look at them.
Dr. Free-Ride: What?

Continue reading→

Friday Sprog Blogging: first contact with extraterrestrial life.

Posted on by

FirstContact-EO-detail.jpg
Despite the crush of the closing weeks of the semester, I found a little time to follow the conversation about whether Earthicans ought to welcome a meeting with whatever extraterrestrial life might be out there to meet us, or whether we’d be better off hiding under the bed.
Although the Free-Ride offspring have not followed the point and counterpoint on the best alien life action plan, they’re generally more enthusiastic futurists than I am. So, I asked them to dig deep into their imaginations and give us their visions of first contact.
It should surprise no one that the elder and younger Free-Ride offspring have very different visions of this event.
Before they started drawing, they brainstormed a bit about what forms extraterrestrial life might take. Maybe you’d find your classic Star Trek humanoids, or comic book little green men. But why couldn’t alien life be mostly plants, or fungi?
Maybe we’ll be negotiating intergalactic treaties with microbes? (I’m thinking people might be less cavalier about skipping vaccinations if that’s how things play out.)
In any case, here are the pictures of first contact they came up with.

Continue reading→