Homely Scientist

If you’re teaching science at home and need excellent curriculum resources, you need to know about The Teaching Company. So far I have ordered three courses from them:

Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe
Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality
Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy

Every single one of these has been excellent and I plan to order many more. They have courses on history, philosophy and a few math courses as well.
For those parents who have a particularly difficult time with teaching science at home, and especially if your kid is …read more

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 I know this might seem hokey, but wait read on:
We’ve all dreamed of having a mini-greenhouse that we could plug into our computer, but until today it was just that — dreams. But dream no longer. Geeks.com is selling a USB-powered Mini Greenhouse that includes a computer interface which helps you monitor growth rate and that includes a calendar, wallpaper and bookmark settings to aid you in monitoring the growth of your greenhouse. Source: USB: Grow Plants with the USB-Powered Mini-Greenhouse – Gizmodo
What about using this as a great science experiment with your kids?  I’m sure the software is fun …read more

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I was reading through my b5 feeds and found Tony’s post about the reason for his son’s less than stellar (pun intended) grade this year in science:
BUT, he couldn’t organize his science notebook.
“I’m sorry, he can’t organize what?’, I asked.
“His science notebook. He failed the notebook checks. They were worth 100 points each, almost 80 percent of his grade.”, the science teacher calmly explained with a huge smirk on her face.
“What does that have to do with science?”, I asked, but by then I knew what was going on and that I wasn’t about to get anywhere. I left the …read more

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SciTalks is a new site that has videos of lectures on a ton of science topics.
“Science and scientists are going to be more fun and accessible because of SciTalks. Students will be able to hear the voices and passion of the actual discoverers of the subject they’re studying in class. Teachers can assign selections to their students… no matter how limited your school’s resources, if you have access to the internet, you can now get a great science education. It’s like crack for science geeks.” says founder Lee Vodra. Source: SciTalks.com launches video site for science lectures | 901am
You know …read more

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Google Earth is one of those fantastic tools that just keeps getting better.  While, yes, it does take up a bit of drive space, it also gives you the ability to learn a lot about our world.  Take storms for example…
The Hurricane season has officially begun. And the second named storm – Tropical Depression Barry – is currently providing much needed wetness to a dry southeastern US. One of Google Earth’s most powerful features is the ability to pull in real-time information from other sites and overlay the information for visualization. Weather data is one of my favorite applications of this …read more

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 Okay a bit cheeky, but these concepts from some engineering students for wind turbines over the highway could generate enough juice to power traffic signals and other important things for highway safety.
They might look far out, but for windy highways say in the mountain passes, they could probably be easier to deal with than the typical windmill style.
From Crunch Gear: Highway Wind Turbines
 
Technorati tags: wind power, alternative energy

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Well the can car was a huge success.  In the end it went like stink and my daughter could probably start a business making them for people.  The device wasn’t without some problems, though.  When it left my house it was working great, but sometime later the rubber band broke.  Oops.  It took a lot of work and panicked phone calls to me to get it running again.
There are two key parts to a successful can car.  First is using a bead or nut on the winding end.  That pencil or chop stick can’t be touching the whole lid, in …read more

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My daughter A told me last week, while I was at the conference, that she had a homework assignment to do this weekend and wanted us to do it together.  No matter what it was, I was going to say yes.  Single dads don’t get that option often.  Regardless, then she said it was to build a simple machine.  W00t!  Science fun!
When I picked the kids up on Friday morning I found out the details.  She had to design and build a device that used two simple machines and would go at least 2 meters (6.5 feet).  Bonus points were …read more

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I love flying toy planes.  Heck my 12th Grade physics science project was all about that.  This was the post I mentioned in my last last post:
Let’s face it: GeekDad projects are sometimes more fun for the older kids than for the younger ones. So when it comes to flying planes at the park, we’re always looking for something that everyone can do.
We’ve found that with the Hobbico line of free-fly electric planes. They’re amazing. Ranging from $12-$15, they’re beautifully-made with built-up foam bodies and electric motors, rechargeable batteries and chargers. They range from a toy-like 14″ wingspan to a …read more

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 Steve Jurvetson is the Geek Dad over at Wired and he’s onto something here:
When an appliance dies, I remove the power cord, and I help guide the disassembly.  For consumer electronics, a small assortment of screwdrivers will do the trick, as well as a set of small Torx wrenches for Apple products and cell phones.  Remember to look under the stickers for hidden screws. Old laptops are especially fun, and don’t forget to check out all the LCD light distribution layers (but be careful with the small fluorescent bulb) Source: Geekdad – Wired News Photo from Flickr
Haven’t you always wanted …read more

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