Geektastic Cookie Cutters You Can Print
Check out the best of the geeky cookie cutters posted on Thingiverse, the home of shared 3D printer files.
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Tag: math
Bach's Mobius Strip
Sometimes when artists visualize music, it detracts from the piece (scenes from Fantasia come to mind…), but this little animation by Jos Leys shows just how brilliant Bach can be.
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The Fun on Peg + Cat Adds Up This Fall on PBS Kids
If The Chicken Problem is any indication, Peg + Cat will be a fantastic way to get preschoolers like my daughter excited about solving problems.
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Just HOW Badly Do You Need that A in Math?
This month a research team at Oxford University reported on their continuation of a study that repeated and built upon a 2010 experiment on a different group of patients: for 5 days, the patients either received real or false electrical stimulations while performing math tasks. Those who received the real stimulations were performing the math tasks two to five times faster than those without.
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Happy Birthday, Sophie Germain!
Today marks the 237th birthday of the French mathematician Sophie Germain (1776-1831). While her work in elasticity was fundamental to the field, her work on proving Fermat’s Last Theorem blew 200 years of previous attempts out of the water. Her story is an inspiring one of self-starting, persistance, and courage. Happy birthday, Germain!
Continue ReadingNo Starch Press Manga Guides Make Science Fun
Have you ever read a textbook cover to cover? I’m in grad school. I’ve had to do it more than once. It usually requires massive amounts of caffeine and re-reading a lot of pages. Well, there’s some good news. No Starch Press has The Manga Guide series on textbook topics, such as statistics, electricity, and molecular biology. The manga books are written by Japanese subject matter experts. They have been translated to English and (thankfully) rearranged to read from left to right.
Continue Reading5 Ways to Sneak Math Lessons into Baking Christmas Cookies
Recently, I’ve acquired a couple of elves to help me bake Christmas cookies. My sons, ages 7 and 10, are old enough to do just about everything in the cookie baking process (with plenty of adult supervision). My youngest son loves cracking eggs, which is just the beginning of the educational value of this annual tradition. I offer to you five small math lessons that can pay dividends for any young person to have a fruitful future in cooking and baking.
Continue ReadingDon’t Miss Danica McKellar’s Latest Math Book, Girls Get Curves
Geometry was one of my favorite kinds of math. I loved learning how shapes worked, and even memorizing theorems and postulates. I especially enjoyed the challenge of doing geometric proofs. I looked at them like logic puzzles, forcing me to find a way from point A to point B using only the tools I knew up to that point. But I realize that I’m one of the lucky ones, girls who naturally like math, in and of itself. Not all girls are that lucky, however, and Danica McKellar writes books for those girls.
Continue ReadingDanica McKellar Interviewed on NPR’s Science Friday
Yesterday, geeky mom Danica McKellar was interviewed on NPR about her new book, Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape, her latest effort about teaching math to (especially) teenage girls. This book is geared toward, surprise, geometry.
Continue ReadingPensacola MESS Hall: A Hands-On Science Experiment Museum
My sons and I have already paid two visits to Pensacola, Florida’s newest science museum, the Pensacola MESS Hall. Where MESS = Math, Engineering, Science, and Stuff. My husband is now bugging us to go. At the MESS Hall, everything — and we mean EVERYTHING — is meant to be hands-on. There is guidance for math and science activities, but the kids drive it all. Yes, really. There is no wrong answer at the MESS Hall.
Continue ReadingFour Fun Math Apps
These games are so much fun my kids don’t even notice they’re strengthening their math skills.
Continue ReadingSmart Summer Fun: 30 Ideas For Your Geeklets
Keep brains active 30 ways this summer.
Continue ReadingExponential Awesomeness of Neil DeGrasse Tyson
It doesn’t matter where you start. Any exposure to astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson creates ever increasing urges to absorb more of this man’s wisdom, delivered with the charisma and wit rarely packaged in one person. For example, a newly released video by science enthusiast Max Schlickenmeyer adds music and visuals along with Dr. Tyson’s answer to the […]
Continue ReadingMathematical Precision of Pasta
When mixing flour, egg, salt and water to make pasta, I’d guess the only math you consider is how many minutes you have left before the kids will be begging for dinner. I’d guess that you never really contemplated the mathematical beauty of that rigatoni or cavatappi that you are eating. Thats not the way […]
Continue Reading2012 White House Science Fair
Nothing like flying marshmallows to keep the secret service busy protecting President Barak Obama. Tuesday was the second annual White House Science Fair. The president seemed to have a blast playing with science yesterday, he even caused a little bit of innocent trouble with 14 year old Maker Faire veteran, Joey Hudy of Phoenix, AZ, […]
Continue ReadingReview: Monkey Tales PC Games Combine Math, Mazes and Fun!
My kids play educational games on the PC at school and never once have they come home and said they’ve enjoyed that time. The only feedback they’ve ever given is that the games are not fun, but silly and boring and lame. So, when I told them I had some math games I wanted them to check out […]
Continue ReadingGeek Celebrates Hanukkah With Science: Day Three
Unconventional 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 ReadingMuse of Nerds: College Physics, Innovative Robotics, Homeschooling — Dr. McColgan Can Do It All!
For 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 ReadingK1, P1, Slst, and Other Such Coding.
I like to do a variety of crafts in my free time. I am an avid scrapbooker, I occasionally make clothing, I dabble in knitting, and I love to crochet. I prefer crocheting over knitting because if I make a mistake then I know how to fix it. When I knit and make a mistake, […]
Continue ReadingEntire Cyberchase Animated Series Now Available Online
As a GeekMom, I’m extremely choosy about what and how much children’s television and online programming my child consumes. After all, time is my family’s most precious commodity. Therefore, when my child engages with children’s programming, it has to be great. I am delighted that the entire Emmy Award-winning animated video series, Cyberchase, is now […]
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