Children of immigrants took 70 percent of the finalist slots in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search Competition, an original-research competition for high school seniors. According to LiveScience.com, only 12% of Americans are foreign born, so statistically, “one would expect only one child of an Indian (or Chinese) immigrant parent every two and a half years [...]
Archive for the ‘Physics’ Category
Immigrant Science Award Finalists Credit Attitudes
Posted by ginac on November 1st, 2011
Posted in Biology, Chemistry, Culture, Diversity, Eclectic Homeschooling, Physics, Science, social change, technology 
Tags: culture, family values, immigrants, intel science award, Science, science award, success, tolerance 
Comments OffVia Nova: Carl Sagan Reads From Pale Blue Dot
Posted by ginac on September 29th, 2011
Enjoy this short video featuring Carl Sagan reading from Pale Blue Dot. Watch the video to regain perspective after a bad day. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space is a non-fiction book written by Carl Sagan in 1994. Carl passed away in 1996, but through his writing and his award-winning [...]
Hands-on Physics: Making a Rube Goldberg Device
Posted by ginac on March 20th, 2011
The ultimate open-ended creative project is the Rube Goldberg contraption. Everything about a Rube Goldberg device involves physics, and what a great way to immerse kids in physics and engineering design principles. Depending on their set-up, kids will encounter friction, kinetic and potential energy, spring forces, magnetic forces, pulleys, Newtons laws, projectile motion, and more! [...]
Howtoons: Geeky Comics Show Kids How to Make Stuff from Household Items
Posted by ginac on February 26th, 2011
Howtoons is a comic-based website full of rich comic strips containing ingenious instructions on how to make things using basic science and engineering principles. Aimed at 8 to 12-year olds, Howtoons uses rich, colorful animation and a fun story to engage children’s natural interest in humor, comic strips, and having fun. Our youngster gravitated to the marshmallow [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Programming, Eclectic Homeschooling, Ecology, Environmental Conservation, Interdisciplinary, Make, Music, Physics, Science Tags: Arts, comic, Comic strip, Howtoons, Online 2 Comments »Serious Science ‘Toys’
Posted by ginac on June 13th, 2010
We love finding serious, fun learning tools, especially inexpensive options that require mostly household items. We recently discovered sciencetoymaker.org, which is an awesome website that shares fun science-based projects. Sciencetoymaker.org always includes an explanation about ‘why’ these toys work (the real science part). In my opinion, the fun part without the why part is just [...]
Posted in Activities, Online Tools, Physics, Science Tags: paper glider, Science, science projects Comments OffRichard P. Feynman ‘Fun to Imagine’ Series on YouTube
Posted by ginac on March 8th, 2010
I noticed that Richard P. Feynman’s BBC TV series ‘Fun to Imagine’ was highlighted on TED.com, and is hosted on YouTube. For those of you who don’t know, Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning American Physicist. His series is refreshingly informal, explaining atomic interactions in common language that kids can easily understand. Richard explains [...]
Posted in Physics Tags: Fun to Imagine, homeschool, Learning, Richard P. Feynman, YouTube Comments OffMAKE Presents: Educational Videos on Basic Electronic Components
Posted by ginac on January 16th, 2010
We found some very cool educational videos from MAKE magazine that every budding electrical engineer will enjoy. The videos are fairly short and offer history, physics and hands-on how-tos. Learning basic electronics is the first step in building basic electronic circuits. Our goal is to eventually learn enough electronics to build some papier-mâché creatures with [...]
Posted in Electronics, History, Physics, technology Tags: Electronics, homeschool, How-to, MAKE Magazine Comments OffSophisticated Science Gadget How-Tos on Scitoys.com
Posted by ginac on December 31st, 2009
Scitoys.com has an impressive array of science gadgets that kids and adults will enjoy making. The website even has an online store that sells everything you need to make some of the gadgets. However, your local RadioShack should have much of the items needed. What sets this website apart from most other science websites for [...]
Posted in Biology, Chemistry, Eclectic Homeschooling, Electronics, Gifted, Math, Physics, Science Tags: Electronics, homeschool, Science, science projects Comments OffGet Ready for Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day Oct.21
Posted by ginac on October 20th, 2009
Wolfram|Alpha, the online worldwide computation engine is hosting Homework Day on October 21, 2009. There promises to be a lesson plan showcase for all levels (K-12 and beyond), a chance to interact with the Wolfram|Alpha experts, and an amazing line up of thought leaders. The event kicks off online at noon and doesn’t end until [...]
Microsoft Research Makes Feynman Lectures Available for Free
Posted by ginac on July 17th, 2009
Microsoft Research, in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, makes the Messenger lecture series by physicist Richard Feynman freely available to the general public for the first time. The Messenger Series explains the relation of Mathematics and Physics. If you have ever read any of his books, you will really enjoy seeing and hearing [...]
