On account of Valentine’s Day being right around the corner, and inspired by Sheril’s almost-through-the-edits book on the science of kissing, I thought I’d ask the Free-Ride offspring (now 8.5 and 10.5 years old) whether they had any questions about kissing that they thought science might be able to answer.
Their initial reaction:
Category Archives: Kids and science
Some reflections on my fifth blogiversary.
Five years ago today, I put up the first post on a blog that was mean to capture the overflow of discussions and ideas from my “Ethics in Science” class. Back then, I wasn’t entirely sure that I’d manage to maintain the blog through the end of the semester.
It just goes to show you that you can’t always tell which of the things you try will become sustainable practices (although maybe the ones that don’t involve exercise equipment have better odds).
On the occasion of my fifth blogiversary, I’m reflecting on a question posed by BlogHer upon BlogHer’s 5th anniversary:
What are five opportunities you’ve gotten because of blogging?
Friday Sprog Blogging: soda pop stand.
The elder Free-Ride offspring is lobbying to try an experiment this weekend. The working title of the protocol is “homemade soda*” but I suspect it may be described differently in the final report.
Dr. Free-Ride: Tell me about the experiment that you proposed to your teacher.
Elder Free-Ride offspring: I’ll mix four cups of baking soda and vinegar and put each in its own bucket to keep the bubbles from spilling over, and take what remains in the cup and add fruit juice to it, and taste it, and if it’s not sweet enough add sugar to it, and then pass it off as soda!
Friday Sprog Blogging: ferrets.
The elder Free-Ride offspring, always a fan of mustelids, has lately taken a particular interest in ferrets.
Given that Casa Free-Ride is located in the great state of California, this interest in ferrets has also spurred an interest in state law. In California, it’s illegal to keep ferrets as pets.
According to the elder Free-Ride offspring, there is much to appreciate about ferrets:
Friday Sprog Blogging: getting organ-ized.
Early this month, my better half got something for the Free-Ride offspring that is somewhere in the realm of “this will be edifying, but maybe they’ll find it cool, and if they don’t then at least the grown-ups will have fun playing with it”.
So far, it has been all of the above.
It’s a human anatomy model (not life-size, thanks), and here’s the state I found it in this morning:
Obviously, this isn’t going to stifle my children’s creativity.
Friday Sprog Blogging: biodiversity, I choose you!
Longtime readers of this blog may recall that the elder Free-Ride offspring has a fondness (occasionally verging on obsession) for Pokemon cards. This means I had no choice but to involve my offspring in Dave Ng’s Phylomon project:
[W]hat can we do to get kids engaged with the wonderful creatures that are all around them? They obviously have the ability and the passion to care about such things, but it appears misplaced – they’ll spend a ton of resources and time tracking down fictional things, when they could easily do the same with the very wildlife around them. As a bonus, if they do learn a little more about biodiversity, they will hopefully appreciate their surroundings a little more, not to mention the possibility of just being outside a little more.
In any event, this is why I’m please to share with you a project coming out of my lab, that will hopefully do a small part in tackling this challenge. And, with the help of a rather large group of young students, we have decided to call it the “Phylomon Project.”
What is this? Well, the website describes it as follows:…it’s an online initiative aimed at creating a Pokemon card type resource but with real creatures on display in full “character design” wonder. Not only that – but we plan to have the scientific community weigh in to determine the content on such cards (note that the cards above are only a mock-up of what that content might be), as well as folks who love gaming to try and design interesting ways to use the cards. Then to top it all off, members of the teacher community will participate to see whether these cards have educational merit. Best of all, the hope is that this will all occur in a non-commercial-open-access-open-source-because-basically-this-is-good-for-you-your-children-and-your-planet sort of way.
So, here are the elder Free-Ride offspring’s preliminary thoughts about the project:
Friday Sprog Blogging: fossils.
Dr. Free-Ride: What have you been learning in science?
Younger offspring: I’ve been learning how to make fossils, and imprints.
Dr. Free-Ride: Tell me how.
Friday Sprog Blogging: taking physics for a spin.
Dr. Free-Ride: So tell me about that device of yours? How did you make it and what does it do?
Elder offspring: There is a cut piece of a drinking straw. You also need two pieces of tin foil and a long string.
Dr. Free-Ride: That’s really aluminum foil, isn’t it?
Elder offspring: They call it tin foil.
Santa Claus and ethics.
It’s time for Dr. Free-Ride to have a chat with the grown-ups. If you’re a kid and you’re reading this, think how much the adults in your life would appreciate it if you got up from the computer and put away your stuff that needs putting away (or played with your brother or sister nicely, or folded some socks).
I’ll have a post with some neat-o pictures in it up in a few hours.
Friday Sprog Blogging: questions about Santa.
Given the extent and urgency of my current grading responsibilities, the sprogs and I have not had occasion this week for any extended conversations about matters strictly scientific, but there has been some chatter about Santa Claus:
Younger offspring: What happens if I stay awake on Christmas eve and see Santa?
Dr. Free-Ride: I don’t know. I’ve always heard that he’s really shy, and he doesn’t like to be observed while he works.
Younger offspring: But is he really?