It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for science! If you haven’t been following along with my family this Hanukkah, you’ve got some catching up to do. We’ve already launched a rocket, sank a few boats, transformed math into a form of dessert, poured some stripes in a jar, and danced with the […]
Continue ReadingIt’s Hanukkah, and in my house that means it’s time to celebrate with science! Tonight, we poured some bubbly and drowned our…raisins. Well, we tried to drown them, but raisins are surprisingly good swimmers. In the video above, my five-year-old explains how “The Raisin Lifting Experiment” works, but even after the experiment was finished and […]
Continue ReadingThis year, as in years past, my family is celebrating Hanukkah with a series of science experiments. We launched under pressure on the first night of Hanukkah. On the second night, we triumphed over buoyancy. Last night, we ate mathematics for dessert. Tonight, we’re hosting a mixer. Or not. The Layered Liquids experiment has more […]
Continue ReadingI’m not even going to pretend I understand the finer details of this – but the fact that I’m not a mathematician doesn’t make this project any less awesome. Andrew Carol is an Apple engineer by day, but in his spare time? He’s busy creating things like an Antikythera Mechanism out of LEGO bricks. Modeled […]
Continue ReadingUnconventional holiday traditions are fun for the whole family! So far this year, my family has celebrated Hanukkah by launching rockets indoors and constructing small boats in order to sink them. Today we’re delving deeper, into the very language of science. That’s right; it’s math time. Roger Bacon said, “Mathematics is the gate and key […]
Continue ReadingHanukkah is the festival of lights, and in my family, we celebrate with illuminating science experiments. Yesterday, we launched a balloon rocket, and today we’re sinking ships. Well, tin foil boats, actually, but this small experiment holds greater drama than you might expect. We thought it would be a simple to float and then sink […]
Continue ReadingEvery year, my family celebrates the eight days of Hanukkah with eight fun experiments. We’re at it again this year, starting with a balloon rocket experiment. It’s an easy, playful way to demonstrate Newton’s third law of motion. It’s also a good bridge to talking about air pressure, thrust, velocity, and a gateway to a […]
Continue ReadingFor my Muse of Nerds this month, I’ll formally introduce you to someone I have talked about in the past: Dr. Michele McColgan of Siena College. I met her through our homeschooling group (she has two elementary-aged children) and she has introduced my kids to science, math, robots, computer programming, alternative energy, a Lego Robotics […]
Continue ReadingOn Wednesday the news feeds and Twitter were all aflutter about the Mythbuster team’s wild cannonball. Seems a test firing went awry during a shoot, and a 30-pound cannonball traveling 1,000 feet per second escaped the test site, struck a house 700 yards away, and continued straight through, coming to rest in a parked minivan. No […]
Continue ReadingThe season of the school science fair is fast approaching. How do you pick a project? How much should you help your kids? And when do you put on the brakes and keep them from accidentally blowing up the neighborhood? Nicole Wakelin is joined by fellow GeekMoms and science aficionados Patricia Vollmer and Helene McLaughlin to help […]
Continue ReadingThe Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a NASA project designed for long-term exploration of the Martian surface. MSL successfully launched on November 26th, at 7:02 am PDT, and is scheduled to land on the Mars Gale crater sometime between August 6-20, 2012. All onboard checks to this point have shown that the launch was completely successful […]
Continue ReadingAn international team of scientists recently assessed which moons and planets are most habitable. They used two different indices: an Earth Similarity Index (ESI) and a Planetary Habitability Index (PHI) to identify likely prospects. You may want to start investing in exoplanet exploration ventures.
Continue ReadingBack in October, my mother-in-law came over and we made cookies with my two-year-old for the first time. He had a blast! He got messy, he got to stir things, he got to throw chocolate chips into the dough. He also got a sugar high, but that’s another story. The only thing I didn’t enjoy […]
Continue ReadingSnake wrangler, computer geek, vintage auto restorer. These are a few of the identities one of my sons tries on as he masters areas of interest to him. He used to patiently stalk alongside our creek and behind the woodpile to find snakes. He didn’t hurt them or even keep them for more than a […]
Continue ReadingThis video is best viewed in full screen at 1080p resolution. Watch for the clock in the lower right of the movie. In mid-November artist Ken Murphy released a near-final-draft of a year-long photography project he’s been working on in conjunction with The Exploratorium museum in San Francisco. As explained in Ken Murphy’s blog, in […]
Continue ReadingWhen I was young and started attending school, my mom got a job in the school cafeteria. The hours worked really well for our lifestyle. I got her at either end of the day, and she didn’t go stir crazy in the middle of it. By the time I was in middle school she had […]
Continue ReadingMy two year old is a bit of a music afficionado. He likes Mozart over breakfast, Disney in the car and Sandra Boynton’s “Personal Penguin” at all other times. On a recent car ride from New Hampshire, we listened to “The Bare Necessities” for about half an hour, it starts to grate a little. When […]
Continue ReadingOh Chuck. Don’t you hate it when a good idea hits too early? We know you were a mathematician, mechanical engineer, and philosopher. You cracked codes, invented the cow catcher, and developed an opthalmoscope. You were a curmudgeon who railed against organ grinders and hoop rolling. Maybe that grumpy outlook had to do with your […]
Continue ReadingFirst up is an interview with Ken Denmead, Editor and Publisher of GeekDad.com and Publisher of GeekMom.com about his latest book The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists. Then Nicole Wakelin is joined by GeekMom Rebecca Angel who wrote the show’s theme music! She talks about how to encourage kids in their musical explorations […]
Continue ReadingToday is Carl Sagan Day. This popular scientist and writer awakened a generation to the wonders of our Universe through his books and TV series Cosmos. You may want to celebrate this, the anniversary of his birth, by wearing a turtleneck and looking at the stars. Or by fostering the curiosity of a child in […]
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