I recently scored a bag of brine shrimp (aka Sea Monkeys) to feed to my growing fish collection. The boy always looks forward to feeding the fish, and doubly so when the food makes it challenging. The problem is we’re fast depleting our supply, and resupplying weekly is out of the question. The jar I […]
Continue ReadingMost parents probably get their kids an anatomy book at some point, because all kids are curious about how their bodies work. The trouble is that most anatomy books—even most kids’ anatomy books—are very dry reading. DK has just come out with a hardcover anatomy book designed to be different. Dr. Frankenstein’s Human Body Book […]
Continue ReadingGrandma and grandpa spent a month with us this summer. Their TV viewing habits were slightly altered for the month on a diet of Dora the Explorer, Mythbusters, Clone Wars and animal shows on Discovery. We found that grandma doesn’t really enjoy watching ‘gators rend the flesh of assorted prey. She covers her eyes. Our […]
Continue Reading"Mommy, Daddy: Where did the first humans come from?" my daughter asked from the back seat. "Wow, sweetheart," I said, buying a minute to consider how to answer, "What a great question!" As I’ve mentioned before, my daughter has an uncanny knack for asking questions that my wife and I are completely unready to answer. […]
Continue ReadingDiscover recently posted up an entertaining slideshow called "Zombie Animals and the Parasites That Control Them." It opens with a one-night stand between a wasp, its larvae and a talented spider, and moves through cockroaches, crabs and — you guessed it — even humans. Cool stuff for the GeekDad with a macabre bent. While checking […]
Continue ReadingWe’ve recently moved to a newer home in a neighborhood that is purposefully keeping natural habitat as part of the appeal. This means lots of “green space” for the GeekDad and GeekMom. It means lots of cool animals, insects, and reptiles for the Geek-kids. There are several cat-tail-surrounded ponds within walking distance of the house. […]
Continue Reading"Witches’ broom," "frosty pod," and "black pod" may sound like exotic plants out of a fantasy novel, but they’re diseases that are all too real to cacao farmers all over the world. Cacao, which is of course the chief ingredient in chocolate, has seen its worldwide crop devastated by those three phages over the past […]
Continue ReadingOne of the many pleasures of being a GeekDad in semi-rural New Jersey is taking the offspring out on nature hikes. There is a treasure trove of discoveries to be had, but one recently has us discussing the philosophies and biologies of animal death. We recently came upon the picked-clean carcass of one of the […]
Continue ReadingMy experience as a kid as well as the GeekMom’s experience as a kid with Sea-Monkeys was disappointing at best. Both of us at one time ordered Sea-Monkeys, but neither of our kits worked. We were scarred for many years. Then, on the clearance rack after Christmas this past year, GeekMom found a set and […]
Continue ReadingWant to get all hands on with human anatomy? Corpus, a new amusement park/health education museum, may be just the thing for you. Located in the Dutch town of Oegstgeest (between Amsterdam and The Hague) this facility encourages visitors to learn how the body works. Associated Press reporter Toby Sterling writes: All the walls and […]
Continue ReadingWe homeschoolers often get a bum rap for trying to insulate our kids from evolutionary theory. But it’s just as likely that your public school student has never heard of the subject. In fact, "about one-third of biology teachers support the teaching of creationism or intelligent design," according to The New York Times. Even if […]
Continue ReadingThe secret ingredient for cool kid’s projects is a low-temp glue gun. It will glue almost anything instantly, including fabric (great for zany fashions or costumes), styrofoam, cardboard, and wood. It’s the “instant” part that really appeals to kids, who otherwise lose interest in projects while glue dries. The other day I set up my […]
Continue ReadingAs a lesson in anatomy, my son and I reassembled a chicken skeleton from the bones remaining after a chicken dinner. We cleaned and dried the bones, then hot-glued them together. It came out pretty cool. A chicken is a lot bigger than you’d think. We gave it a pouncing pose. From the proper angle […]
Continue ReadingA couple weeks ago I nearly stepped on a Woolly Bear Caterpillar in my garage. This near-miss turned into a quick, Saturday-morning science/zoology lesson for the entire family. The kids had a blast watching this fuzzy thing move across a leaf. GeekMom fired up her laptop to google different websites for information on the Woolly […]
Continue ReadingMy three year old has stumped the Internet. Or at least stumped my use of the Web to answer what might have been a straightforward, albeit geeky, question. How you might ask? Like most pre-K children, mine frequently has "Why?" days where everything is open to questioning, learning, and exploration. Why is it raining? Why […]
Continue ReadingQuick, how many sci-fi movies or TV shows feature some sort of ooze as an enemy/monster/threat? Once again, life imitates art. First it’s creatures with a deadly second jaw, and now, indestructible black slime! Within the walls of the entombed Chernobyl nuclear reactor (you know, the one that melted down and nearly took everything else […]
Continue ReadingThe balance between Dad and Geek is sometimes tested. A few days ago, my wife found little Alan choking on something significant. He recovered and she called me, worried that he swallowed a nail. Dad thinking gets him to an X-Ray machine, especially after reading this (pdf). Key sentence: "Although a majority of ingested foreign […]
Continue ReadingIt’s confirmed! (And Steven Spielberg had it all wrong.) Velociraptor had feathers. This is something suspected for a while, and depicted in countless illustrations, but researchers at the American Museum of Natural History have just published a paper in Science that floats very convincing evidence and should force a remake of Jurassic Park. The bones […]
Continue ReadingA recent discovery covered in the journal Nature shows how one species of Moray eel use a second moving jaw to secure wiggling prey – just like the creature in Alien (almost). "… the second jaws, called pharyngeal jaws, lie in wait inside the throat, and then extend forwards into the mouth to grab prey […]
Continue ReadingWe just arrived back in Canada after an action-packed two weeks (so much for “relaxing”) in Provincetown, on Cape Cod. One of the highlights of the trip that might be of interest to GeekDad readers was an afternoon excursion of whale watching. We’ve taken the kids to Marineland several times, but watching Dolphins, Orcas and […]
Continue ReadingAsha has detailed recent events in her daughter’s life concerning bugs. When we were in Red Cliff, the boys were interested in bugs for other reasons – like fishing and when the tribal elder pointed out the Purple Pitcher Plants growing near Raspberry Bay….definitely thinking it was cool to know there were plants that ate […]
Continue ReadingThe geeklings and I finally ventured out to create the tabletop biosphere as featured in the recent issue of Make magazine, as well as their very recent "Weekend Projects" video podcast. It is too good not to try. After our spring outing and nature lesson, the big jar was begging for something better. This was […]
Continue ReadingAs I was saying, my four year-old daughter loves bugs. This evening, she was playing with a banana slug, carrying it all around the back yard. After gently depositing it on a leaf, she went in to wash up. Ten minutes later, I heard a bewildered cry from the bathroom. Prolonged scrubbing with soap had […]
Continue ReadingMy four year-old daughter is a budding entomologist. Wherever she goes she collects bugs. Nothing is too creepy or crawly for her — she just scoops whatever it is up, peers at it with awe and appreciation, and whispers little comforts to make the experience less frightening. For the bug. If there’s a gadget for […]
Continue ReadingMy wife and I recently visited the number one shell hunting beach in the US, Sanibel Island, FL (as picked by Coastal Living Magazine). I read that Ponce De Leon named this island "Costa de Carocles" (Island of Shells). It’s easy to see why. You don’t have to be a shell enthusiast to be […]
Continue ReadingIf I could pick one easy perennial to grow that would show a kid and a dad a lot about how life and metamorphosis work, it would be fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). For years, we’ve been growing a little patch of fennel. The original idea was that it would give us some good fresh herbs to […]
Continue ReadingWhen my son expressed an interest in fossils I saw an opportunity to geekdad Old School style and pretend I was one of the original geekdads, the gentleman naturalists that are stock characters in most movies about Victorian England. Not knowing much (anything) about fossil hunting, we turned to the internet where I found sites […]
Continue ReadingWant to amaze your child during teeth brushing time? Ask him to watch his own eyes move in the mirror. He’ll be amazed that he can’t do it. I was also amazed when I first discovered this phenomenon. The explanation is simple; you can only see your own eyes when the light is reflected off […]
Continue ReadingI was invited by a friend and geekdad-to-be to a showing of Bodies: The Exhibition in San Diego, and I have to admit I’m torn about the idea. It’s a display of plastinated cadavers in active poses, supposedly designed to teach about the different systems of the human body. "Celebrate the wonder of the human […]
Continue ReadingWhen it’s TV time at our house, The Backyardigans and Spongebob are usually in high demand. But lately, the requests have been for “Planet Earth.” Planet Earth is an 11-part nature documentary currently being shown on the Discovery Channel. The series was originally a BBC program, narrated by naturalist David Attenborough. The US version is […]
Continue Reading