Feeding Science to a Young Mind

do they still make erector sets? There are robotics sets that aren't very expensive. I'd recommend projects--we need to build a bridge six inches long between this block and that block over there. And it needs to be strong enough to support a dead weight of one pound. And all we have to make it from is this sheet of paper.

let's stack blocks. place the first one so its edge goes over the edge of the table. How few blocks can you stack, each with an offset similar to the first one, until you have an entire block that is beyond the edge of the table. Challenge them to stack the blocks so one block lies beyond the edge of the table and another block is behond the edge of the first block. It's possible to do, but you'd need thousands of blocks.

probably the hard part is getting people to recognize that a block isn't a baby toy but a real-world means to learn about stresses and vectors. Jenga is a game I've never played, but it seems to teach important lessons. Don't buy the set from milton bradley but get home depot to donate the 2x2s, 2x4s, and 2x6s. Then cut them into--I don't know--eight-inch lengths. It makes the tower you build much taller and more interesting. I saw a group of adults playing jenga with 2x4s in a bar--a new phenomenon apparently is to go out dating to places where you play board games or table games that kids normally play and rediscover the fun and companionship.

Look for kits like model rockets, electronics, etc. Also make sure the young minds have access to a public library. For the kits, get something you can work with them and have some quality time.

I give you both a good answer for thinking in ways that are more child reaching.

I found with my kids that when I would just come up with the answer and try to tell them that they didn't don't want to know how I did it, they almost beg me to tell them how I did it. It's almost like magic to a youngster. (that reverse psychology is great stuff)

I believe that my interest in engineering is founded in one person . . . my 8th grade Earth Science teacher . . . I don't even remember his name . . . but anyway . . . He was a hands-on kind of guy. Since Earth Science back then was a compliation of a broad area . . . from geology to astronomy . . . he brought everything from his rock collection to a model of the solar system to class . . . so my recommendation . . . "Immersion Therapy" . . . create a "garage full of stuff" . . . old gasoline engines to wooden blocks . . . let the young person "play" with whatever "he" chooses . . . be there to watch, ask questions and answer questions. If needed, which must be carefully offered . . . give little hints and show-and-tell. I have seen this, or a similar process . . . used to "find the talent" . . . in musical instrument immersion therapy . . . it is totally astonishing how young people will gravitate to the area of their natural intersest and talent.

I taught a gifted and talented science class and we worked with paper airplanes, Farthest distance, longest hang time, etc etc. used tape measure for distance measurements and students calculated calculation of averages... Made paper helicopters.

gave them straws scissors and post it notes and same problems...

Converted mouse traps into self powered race cars using materials at hand.

I have a sound trigger, so we also took pictures of balloons breaking using open shutter technique. That was pretty exciting.

I personally did the model rockets and erector sets and built radios as a kid can't say that I had much luck with my own kids that way...

milo

lego mindstorms? create hybrid lego / wooden robots and combine his interests

http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/London_dest/default.aspx

http://www.lego.com/eng/education/mindstorms/default.asp

http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/

or some other ideas:

http://sci-toys.com/index.html

As diverse a set of experiments and building as possible. Ideas and a source of supplies from Edmund Scientific

I would certainly do the Mentos/diet coke thing because it is so spectacular.

So? What type of expensive? Mildly?

... I'm just crabby because I wanted to fire more model rockets as a kid.. but couldn't afford to.. <sniff>

The few that I did fire were almost always 100% home made...

low altitude.. slow.. , but yes.. enormous fun for the kids who enjoy them.

usually ridiculous designs made from available materials.. even my lowly Styrofoam cup rocket.. made from a bunch of cut up Styrofoam cups and masking tape.

I had to stick to less expensive forms of smoke and flame... but I did manage to spend a lot of money on my noise..

Julius Sumner Miller a you tube site of a person that spent a life time stimulating young minds in science.

Regards JD.

I taped hours of Julius when I was in my 20,s. I gave them to my sister to show to her son at about age 4. He graduates this spring from the U of Oregon. His starting

major - Journalism. His graduating major - PHYSICS !!!!

His show was all about hands on experimantation.

My favorite quote from Julius " A scientist will tell you what happened, a physists

will tell you why it happened"

Yes I have grandson who wants to go to uni at the end of next year, to do physics.

My favorite Julius quote: "why is it so?"

Regards JD.

Give the kids a collection of old stuff that doesn't work- clocks, radios, computers, whatever, and let them take them apart and put them back together...

Building remote controled aircraft with wireless cameras

Get involved in a robotics competition:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/

When I was a puppy I had a subscription to a service called "Things of Science." Every month I would receive a small package in the mail with all the pieces and parts to do a handful of demonstrations in a particular field of study. For example, one month the kit was for optics, and the package contained a couple of colored gels, a polarized filter, two lenses, etc., along with instructions on how to use everything and learn interesting things. Another month the topic was sundials, and the kit contained several templates for constructing different types.

While this particular service is defunct, similar kits are still available under a variety of brands. I'm sure you can find something of interest on Amazon.

You have made a great start by being involved with BB/BS. Lots of people say they want to do something like this, but never act on the idea. And you both should get some credit for the any of the learning projects you do. My best suggestion is to join some 4-H activities in your area.

Example link:

http://www.mass4h.org/index.php/programs/set

4-H offers leadership and project training for you. And your little brother can met others his own age with an interest in science and engineering. You'll both have fun. When he applies to colleges in the next few years, he will have a real advantage.

I usually start off with "how do we know what we know"........with grade schoolers it's not difficult to get the concept across as long as it isn't overly technical. Involve them so that all get a chance to do the hands on stuff. Make it fun to learn and their brains will process the information.

ps...while teaching how to use the compass the kids became capable of rudimentary navigation skills. We now have some 8-9 yr olds that can do trig. It's all in the approach to learning.

So far I've seen lots of great ideas so I thank everyone. It seems like model rockets is a very common interest so I may try that or possibly a model plane.

Keep the ideas coming. I'll probably have as much fun with them as he will.

If he likes to work with engines, you could do what my dad did when I was a kid - give him an old Briggs 5hp mower engine and some wrenches/socket set. Just drain the oil first.

A few things come to mind that may challenge a young mind in regards to science projects: model rocketry, astronomy, chemistry sets (like to blow up things???? LOL), microscopes, building plastic models, and Erector Sets for starters!!!! How about the lad joining the local Boy Scouts troop for starters!!!???? They have all kinds of neat projects a kid can do, including building a Pine Box Derby race car!!!! Socialization with his peers outside school would be a tremendous boost for him!

One of my favorites when I was a kid was pouring through our family World Book Encyclopedia and studying all the neat and very KEWL science projects. One of my favorites was building an Ion Propulsion Rocket! It really amazed the crap out of my neighborhood buddies as we played with it for hours on end and did some experimentation with progressively larger DC railroading transformers until we ended up with a pool of molten copper on the floor and tripped circuit breakers!!!

You touched on it here and raise a good point. People are motivated in different ways. In order to spark interest, you have to know what motivates the individual.

Kind of like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which measures how people perceive the world and make decisions.

For me, it was cars at a young age. I loved cars. It started with Hot wheels then went to model cars. It really started for me though when I got my first remote-controlled car for Christmas. I crashed it bad down the stairs in the house that same winter; never got the chance to take it outside *sniff*

But, my older step-brother had a bunch of balsa wood lying around though and I don't know what prompted me or where the desire or knowledge came from but, by spring, the remote-controlled car was transformed into a remote-controlled boat. Granted, it didn't last long, it was the first time I ever built anything myself, without guidance. And, well... all those small electric pieces got wet, but not until after it made two laps around the pool!

After that, I was continually getting in trouble because when mom needed to use the blender or mixer and called step-dad because they didn't work; it was eventually realized that they didn't work because I never got them back together quite right after taking them apart to see how they worked.

But that's where the feel-good part ends. The step-dad blew it at that point and sure I needed to get reprimanded, but he could have at least sat me down and showed me what I did wrong. Instead he spanked me and sent me to my room. I never did figure out what I forgot to do with that damn mixer, haha.

Anyway, about 3 years later, I was 10 I think, I hooked up with a friend a few houses down, him and his dad were building a go-cart. I pretty much lived there the rest of my grade school days getting my hands dirty. His garage was like a new world waiting to be explored. Where ours was always clean and dress-right-dress, this one was dirty, it had tools and benches full of stuff I've never seen before and the cool part, I got to play with most everything.

Anyway, to bring it back around to your question... the technical side of science and engineering will come of its own accord. More times than not, a young mind is driven by getting their hands dirty.

Build stuff with him, take stuff apart with him, blow stuff up, propel stuff into the sky, teach him to weld... I'll bet he'll be the only kid on his block that can lay a weld bead and he'll brag about it to all his friends. Anyway, that's the first half... hands-on.

To motivate the mind, expose him to the wonders of the natural universe... have his eyes ever peered through a telescope has he ever been to a natural science museum, do you have a NASA division near you? Up in Cleveland we have the NASA Lewis Research Center... oh my god! As a kid, that was THE coolest place!

The biggest thing is to give him as many tools for success going into his teenage years as you can, because the teenage syndrome will hit, he will get distracted, his grades may drop, he may cop an attitude, girls will take priority over building the latest project in the garage. This is when you can refocus back to the hands-on part and help him pick an old junker out of a scrap yard and assist him in bringing into existence his first car.

From there, you stimulated his mind, his desire, and his imagination. You loaded his tool box with a variety of resources; help him load them in the trunk of his new ride and wish him well.

JavaHead

Cingold,

Many thanks for an inspiring question. It has brought out the best in CR4 with all kinds of good, diverse suggestions. The opportunity to share why and how we love our work is a rare experience.

A couple of additional suggestions:

• Work in the areas where he already has an interest.
• Since he likes small engine repair, grab an old lawnmower engine and go over the science behind it. How can you increase the power? If you bore out the cylinder, what does that do to your compression ratio? How is a diesel engine different from gasoline? What tasks is a diesel better suited for, and where would a gas engine make more sense?
• In carpentry, why does a fine-tooth saw work better for thin materials and a coarse-tooth blade better for thicker materials? Why do we have both screws and nails? Use math to determine the size, weight, cost, etc. of a project, then complete it and compare the results to the calculations.

Above all, I would strongly recommend that you encourage him to recognize similarities and patterns of all types. Engineering and science is all about using what is known to create what is unknown. Recognizing that a new challenge has some of the same symptoms as something already solved helps determine the best way to approach the new one.

Keep up the good work. The world is woefully short of scientists, engineers and technicians, especially those of us who truly love what we do.

This is the opinion of someone that loved science from early on. Science got me through a bad learning disability. My Dad was a great teacher and the first thing he taught me was that science does not have to be done with lab equipment and expensive chemicals.

Household materials are cheap and abundant.

The experiments he set up on the kitchen counter were the best.

1. I remember mixing baking soda and vinegar in a small bottle lightly corked. What fun watching the cork fly. Works with baking power and water too no need for the vinegar.
2. Remember the old milk bottles? They are great for demonstrating combustion. One milk bottle (empty and clean), one birthday candle with wire holder, and one pealed hard boiled egg. Wrap the thin wire around the bottom of the candle and shape the wire so the lit candle can be lowered into the bottle. Now place the egg in the wide mouth opening of the bottle. The bottle should have an opening smaller than the egg. As the candle uses up the oxygen the CO2 produced takes up less volume and creates a vacuum, thus sucking the egg neatly into the bottle!
3. Small DC transformer(any voltage under 24V), 1Tbs of salt, a clear pie pan or bowl and two clear bottles. I think we used the tall thin bottles that olives came in. Fill the bowl with a quart of water and add the salt, stir until dissolved. Put the two clear bottles into the water, let them sink to the bottom. Tip the air free bottles upside down so you have two free standing columns of water. Now slip one wire from the DC transformer under one bottle and the other wire under the second bottle. When power is applied to the transformer bubbles will form on the wires. The bottles will start to fill. One will fill 2x as fast as the other - H2O. The polarity of the wire that fills the bottle faster is always Negative and will always be hydrogen. The other will always be oxygen and the wire will be positive. Use a match to ignite the hydrogen(makes a cool noise), then light the oxygen and watch the match burn faster.
4. Take a 2 liter soda bottle and pour it 1/4 of the way full with boiling water, now put the cap on tight, shake it a couple of times. Notice how the shaking caused the pressure to build in the bottle. Now set it on the counter and watch as it cools. It will slowly collapse in on it's self. A great way to teach about partial vapor pressures at different temps.
5. Here is a cool one on magnetism. You will need a 5 or 6 foot piece of 1/2 copper pipe( it should be rigid and straight, not rolled), and a super strong neodymium magnet. The magnet should be in the shape of a cylinder that will loosely fit in the copper pipe, 3/4 to 1" long. Ebay sells them all day. Now talk about how magnets are attracted to only iron and steel. Let them play with a magnet and get used to what it will do. Now the fun part , have one student hold the pipe straight up and down. Have other students drop similar shaped cylinders down the pipe, use a steel bar, a brass bar and even aluminium if you have one. Each time have them count how long it takes for the objects to fall through the pipe. Leave the magnet till last and you won't believe the hang time. At rest there is no interaction with the copper , but when it falls inside the pipe it creates eddy currents in the copper which produces a reverse magnetic field, slowing the magnet's decent. As the magnet slows, the eddy currents drop and the reverse magnetic field weakens. Because of this interaction the magnet will travel at a set speed and will not accelerate normally. The closer the fit the better (inverse square law and all) but not too close(friction).
6. Sugar is cool too. Make a super saturated solution of sugar and water. Pour the hot liquid into a clear jar and place a weighted string in the solution(You can wet the string and roll in sugar crystals. Let it dry, the string is now "seeded with crystals). Sugar crystals will grow on the string in the coming weeks. This will also teach patients.(Rock Candy)
7. Here is an example of water boiling twice. Fill a glass boiling flask 2/3 full with water. Heat until boiling, now remove from heat. Place a rubber stopper in the flask and let cool slightly. Pick up the flask and place it on a bed of ice cubes and watch the boiling start all over again. Now ask why?. If you want a liquid to boil you have two ways of doing it. 1) increase the temperature until boiling occurs. 2) Reduce the vapor pressure on the liquid. Cooling a liquid in a confined space will cause a drop in pressure. Water will boil at room temperature or lower if the pressure is reduced enough.

Don't even get me started on what you can do with wheat flour, powdered custard, corn starch, dish soap, flashlight batteries and a little copper wire. Now we are talking fun.

Enjoy! I hope this helps.

I think I've done almost all of these at one point but for whatever reason I didn't remember them until I read your post. Thanks for the input.

Try some of these:

http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/toys.html

Strong on basics, low on budget and lots of fun.

If you're looking for scientific and math related projects to involve the lad and his brain cells, then may I suggest that you investigate the Edmund Scientific catalog websites:

www.edmunds.com

http://scientificsonline.com

Edmunds may be a tad pricey, but there's a Godzillion ideas and kits available all in a single location. I remember when I was in my teen years, I literally poured over their paper catalogs for weeks imagining what very neat goodies I could buy, and by the time I was a High School Junior I had developed an very keen interest in building telescopes (thanks in part to some great library books I found in the HS library, and the Edmund catalog!). Eventually, I had begged my parents enough where they caved-in and I was allowed to order a rather pricey (at the time) Newtonian reflector telescope mirror grinding and polishing kit from Edmund. And by the time I had graduated from HS I had build 2 Newtonian Reflector telescopes of my own design....I still build them to this day, of course after a 30+ year hiatus!

Of course, you could always travel to your local public or college library and see what books they have available to check out! If the boy is into reading and has an inquisitive mind, then this may be a perfect choice of venue!

Good luck!! Let us know how you make out, okay?!

One enduring memory is the action of the science teacher at primary school demonstrating air pressure to a class of eight-year-olds. He connected a hand-operated vacuum pump to an empty metal drum that had been used to contain, oh, say cooking oil though it doesn't matter what it was. On winding the pump eventually there was a bang as the drum began to collapse under the pressure difference between the air on the outside and the much lower pressure on the inside. As the pump continued to operate, the drum got smaller and smaller to the great amusement of the class.

Here's another possibility. Obtain and empty a 1 litre polyethylene milk bottle with a screw top. Hold the open top upside-down carefully over the spout of a boiling kettle and let the vapour fill the inside. Quickly remove the bottle from the kettle spout and screw the top on tightly. Watch what happens and invite an explanation!

Here's another possibility: Meccano.

Basic bicycle maintenance can be educating, in terms of parent-child bonding as well as the mechanical principles and techniques.

One other thing did occur to me. It could come under the heading survival skills, - Cooking!

Most people don't have a clue of how to cook the most basic things. A lot of science goes into cooking, and you have something of value when your done.

Sure you can show them how to make a battery out of dissimilar metals and a common household acid(vinegar,lemons,potatos...). But can you eat it?

leavening - You know, it's what makes bread rise(yeast) or why biscuits grow tall and are not hard like hockey pucks(baking powder).

Specific heat of a substance - This is an easy thing to demonstrate when cooking. Why is deep frying so much faster than boiling or baking? Oil holds more heat per unit volume than liquid water or air.

Why does elevation come into play when cooking? Why do people in Denver wait longer for their food to cook as someone in San Diego?

Solubility - Explain why sugar dissolves faster in hot tea than ice tea. This is important if you have ever left sugar out of a recipe during the hot phase and tried to add it in the cold phase. Trust me if you have ever made a custard based ice cream and forgot the sugar when it was hot. If added in the cooled phase, it will taste like bland ice cream with a sweet sand finish.

Cooking is either physics or chemistry, mostly both.

With cooking in mind, I recommend "How to Read a French Fry and Other Stories of Intriguing Kitchen Science" by Russ Parsons. In this collection of recipes, Mr. Parsons also goes into a lot of the Chemistry and Physics that happens during cooking. The title is an explanation as to why a deep fried French Fry cooks not so well with fresh cooking oil but beautifully with slightly used cooking oil.

Along the lines of "Watch what happens when I..." This is one of my young mind science wows.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Fork-and-Spoon-Appear-to-Defy-Gravity

Lots of good ideas. But one more ingredient would be helpful.

Have a casual conversation about people... how s/he sees the world, it's problems, where they have empathy and/or sympathy. Then discuss how science or technology might be used to help. A passion only becomes a passion when directed. And a passion outside of oneself will reap greater rewards in the long run.