For parents and teachers wanting to raise curious children, “Hunting the Elements” is an amazing tool which shouldn’t be missed.
Continue ReadingFor parents and teachers wanting to raise curious children, Hunting the Elements is an amazing tool which shouldn’t be missed.
Continue ReadingExperiments make a bath fun (and messy). Plus, says Shar Levine, author of Bathtub Science, your kids “won’t be terrified” in Chem 101 later on. Start with this lab work.
Continue ReadingSchool, like most of everyday life, is at times boring and occasionally a waste of time. We can place blame for that squarely upon the education system and teachers, or share it with parents if we’d like to keep diplomacy in the PTA. But although it’s true that the adults who shape and deliver education […]
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I love living in a university town! My kids get a lot of great chances for supplemental learning because of where we live, and this November was no exception, with our annual Carnival of Chemistry. The Kansas University Chemistry Club (Rock CaCO3 Jayhawk!) puts on this regional, accessible science event for children. My son was […]
Continue ReadingIf you’ve spent much time on YouTube lately, you’ve probably heard about VidCon, the great big vlogbrothers-organized convention for the amusement and edification of YouTubers that happened in Los Angeles last weekend. By all accounts, it was a smashing success, a rocking good time, and caused jealousy in the hearts of vloggers everywhere who were […]
Continue ReadingThis is the International Year of Chemistry, 2011 and it also marks the 100th anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Curie. Has there ever been a scientist as courageous as Madam Curie? Marie Curie …
Continue ReadingRobert Bruce Thompson, author of Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments, has assembled a chemistry set to sell to amateur chemistry buffs and homeschoolers. Because chemistry is widely considered to be the most difficult lab course to do well—particularly on …
Continue ReadingSo I was walking down the internet one day (doo-dah, doo-dah) and I found something small but significant to me as a woman and a science-lover. It sounds a bit dull at face value. After all, it’s a very brief video of several chemists telling the tales of how, as children, they first became interested […]
Continue ReadingA bucketload of bonus points for Mr. Girard’s A.P. Chemistry Class and the Super Awesome Video Production Club at the Horizon Science Academy in Cleveland for this great video illustrating how fission of Uranium 235 causes a chain reaction: GeekDad …
Continue ReadingIt’s that time of year again, when old calendars hit the recycling bin and humans hit the gym. Yes, brace yourself for the annual flood of blog posts demonizing food and canonizing exercise. Or, as I prefer to call it, the season of shrinky self-destruction. But this New Years Resolution post is not like the […]
Continue ReadingHere in my corner of North America the fall colors have finally started to emerge. And as I was admiring the reds, oranges, and yellows of the mountains surrounding my area, I was reminded of a cool experiment the kids …
Continue ReadingIf every element on the periodic table got this sort of treatment in school, future colleges might be overrun with chemistry majors. This funny little piece of edutainment could only be better if it was the trailer for a video game. For related educational amusements, read on: Rather like a latter day version of […]
Continue ReadingBytesize Science Presents: The Chemistry of Fireworks from ACS Pressroom on Vimeo. My family loves going to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July. Who doesn’t? And our friends at ByteSize Science have a new video explaining how all those …
Continue ReadingThis month I’ve been teaching a Saturday morning “enrichment” class at a local elementary school combining science and art. Actually, I’ve been going pretty light on the science (since I’ve found that the students would much rather get to work …
Continue ReadingRight around the time I started writing for GeekDad, I embarked on an adventure of learning about chemistry at home with my kids. Since I’m the type to obey any warning about using things only as directed, this was a …
Continue ReadingWhen O’Reilly published Bob Thompson’s excellent Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments (review) they encountered an outpouring of nostalgia from readers reminiscing about the ‘good old days’ of chemistry sets. Out of this sentiment came a new offering, Make: Science …
Continue ReadingSpider silk is one of the strongest fibers known having a strength greater than that of steel, just ask Spiderman, he’s been swinging through New York with it since 1962.* Now scientists have produced a tougher form by embedding metals …
Continue ReadingTheodore Gray has been mentioned here before. Gray is the co-founder of Wolfram Research, creators of the technical software system Mathematica. In 2002 he won the Ig Nobel Prize in chemistry for his Periodic Table Table, an actual table with little compartments for samples of all the elements. (At the request of his officemates, he […]
Continue ReadingDavid Hahn was a geeky kid growing up in the suburbs of Detroit during the early 1990′s. Like most geeky kids, he was socially awkward and had an intense fascination with very narrow subject matter; in his case, science. But when David began working on his Atomic Energy Merit Badge, his rather obsessive pursuits nearly […]
Continue ReadingAs a wrap-up to last year’s chemistry studies, I’d hoped to do something sort-of but not really explosive. Carbon Snakes seemed to fit the bill. Mix sugar and concentrated sulfuric acid and Whoosh! A tall black column of pure carbon rises out of the beaker. (YouTube video here.) Alas, the sufuric acid we had on […]
Continue ReadingSlashdot contributor "sharp-bang" put the following question to the supernerds who follow the site: When I was growing up, my Dad let my brother and I have the run of his wood shop, and kept up a steady stream of Lego kits, Estes model rockets, chemistry sets, Heathkit projects, and other fun science stuff from […]
Continue ReadingGeeks everywhere weep for the modern chemistry set. There was a day when kids of all ages could perform all sorts of fantastic experiments. We were not unfettered by safety rules — guidelines were strict and clear. You do not …
Continue ReadingChemistry Set. What young GeekDad-in-training didn’t feel a tiny thrill of mystery and power at the mere words? Those of us who didn’t possess one envied those who did. We just knew they could make all sorts of strange and wonderful products like gunpowder, tear gas, and (with the deluxe set) atomic bombs with which […]
Continue ReadingThere probably isn’t a geekdad out there who hasn’t blown a few bucks on some Mentos and dowsed their kid with Diet Coke. My own attempts have involved an array of PVC pipe, grey tape, and a recycling bin full of plastic bottles. So it becomes a natural evolution when you’re a Belgian college student […]
Continue ReadingTheodore Gray, creator of the Periodic Table Table, has come out with new element banners. The idea is to spell words or phrases using only the one- or two-letter element abbreviations, then illustrate the spelling with photos from the poster of his table. You can try your own name here: http://theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/MSP/ElementBannersGray says about 30-40% of […]
Continue ReadingCourtesy of people who have a financial stake in the success of biodiesel, today has been declared the Official Biodiesel Day in the United States, in honor of Rudolph Diesel’s birthday. (Not to be confused with International Biodiesel Day, which is August 10.) Biodiesel is getting big! Between 2004 and 2006, use increased 10 times, […]
Continue ReadingA cross-post from our friend, Aaron Rowe: Some people were born to be scientists. The girl in this video clip is certainly one of them. "I always wanted to find out if the reaction of vinegar and baking soda would burn the skin," said SquabAttack, the amateur chemist. "I eat a lot of sour foods […]
Continue ReadingCheck out the video below for a great little Instructable for making a Silly Putty-like substance at home. Of course, nowdays a lot of us don’t get newpapers, so the classic stretchy-comics application may be out of the question, but it’s a fantasic tool for talking about phases of matter. Check it out! Make Silly […]
Continue ReadingHow To Charge An IPod Using Electrolytes And An Onion – video powered by Metacafe Yesterday we tried to light an LED using lemon batteries. (See the preliminary results at my Home Chemistry blog.) But in researching that project I came across this great idea — charging your iPod using an onion soaked in Gatorade. […]
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