CREDIT: Martin Cron, via Flikr

One day after new test results showed that only 32 percent of U.S. 8^th graders are proficient in science, a group of 26 states has helped draft a document that may bring about a major overhaul of science education in this country.  Known as the Next Generation Science Standards, the draft sets ambitious new expectations for what students should learn in each grade from kindergarten through high school, specifying that evolution and an understanding of how human activity impacts the climate are essential components of scientific literacy. Starting in 2013, states will have the option of adopting these standards and bringing their school curricula in line with them.

The standards are based on recommendations from the National Research Council of the National Academies and address many perceived shortcomings in science education. “Currently, K-12 science education in the United States…is not organized systematically across multiple years of school, emphasizes discrete facts with a focus on breadth over depth, and does not provide students with engaging opportunities to experience how science is actually done,” wrote the authors of the NRC framework.  The standards also put new emphasis on engineering, an area that U.S. teenagers, judging by recent studies, know little about. They also stress process as much as content, explaining how scientists build on and revise their knowledge based on evidence, how they ask questions and define problems, how they develop and use models, and plan and carry out investigations. For example, the standards call for kindergarteners to “use observations to describe how plants and animals depend on the air, land, and water where they live to meet their needs.” Middle schoolers would develop models to represent the “cycling from carbon in the atmosphere to carbon in living things.”

The recommendations also explicitly include the teaching of climate change, evolution, natural selection and the history of Earth. Middle schoolers would “obtain and evaluate information about how two populations of the same species in different environments have evolved to become separate species.” They would also “use system models and representations to explain how human activities significantly impact: (1) the geosphere, (2) the hydrosphere, (3) the atmosphere, (4) the biosphere, and (5) global temperatures.”

Forty-five states plus the District of Columbia recently signed on to common math and language arts standards, and organizers of this effort hope it will be at least as successful. But, says Stephen Pruitt, vice president for content, research and development at Achieve, the Washington, D.C.- based non-profit that is organizing the effort with a major grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, “Its’s a draft! We want people to give us feedback and we will be responding to that feedback.”

Are you a parent with a child in public school? Read the standards for the relevant grades and see how they compare with what your child is learning in school this year. Are you a teacher? Then how big of a change do these standards represent for the grades you work with? If you’re a student, then let me know your opinion about what scientists and education experts think you ought to know. And everyone else  whose interested, please weigh in also in the comments section below.

Additional resources:

View the standards here.

Read the National Research Council’s framework on which the standards are based.

Read some of the research on which the NRC based its framework:

“Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8.” National Research Council, 2007. (Free PDF download)

“America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science.“ National Research Council, 2006. (Free PDF download).

“Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits.” National Resarch Council, 2009. (Free PDF download).

Read the Common Core Math and Language Arts standards here.

A goldenrod crab spider getting ready for takeoff. Credit: Jim McCormac

“Charlotte’s Web,” the E.B. White childhood classic, ends with Wilbur the pig eagerly waiting for Charlotte’s baby spiders to emerge from their egg sac. When they finally crawl out, they do something that seems pretty amazing to anyone not familiar with how spiders travel long distances: they fly away. Here’s the passage from the last chapter, “A Warm Wind.”

A warm draft of rising air blew softly through the barn cellar. The air smelled of the damp earth, of the spruce woods, of the sweet springtime. The baby spiders felt the warm updraft. One spider climbed to the top of the fence. Then it did something that came as a great surprise to Wilbur. The spider stood on its head, pointed its spinnerets in the air, and let loose a cloud of fine silk. The silk formed a balloon. As Wilbur watched, the spider let go of the fence and rose into the air.

“Good-bye!” screamed Wilbur. “Where do you think you’re going?”

But the spider was already out of sight.

Charlotte’s hatchlings were ‘ballooning,’ which is the method that baby spiders use to disperse themselves through nature.  Adults sometimes balloon as well. Curious about the phenomenon, I wrote to Richard Bradley, an entomologist who studies spiders at Ohio State University, for some advice on how to spot a ballooning spider in the wild. Here’s his reply:

Ballooning can occur whenever the weather is right, even in summer. It is actually most frequently observed in the autumn around here [Marion, Ohio].

The key is weather. You need a relatively calm air or a slight breeze, ballooning doesn’t happen often in wind.  The rising air currents created by the sun heating the ground are the launching force for these tiny flights.  In my experience a calm relatively cool early morning with strong sun is best.  Then go to exposed places with prominent launch pads.  Small bushes, stumps, fences or fence posts are frequently best.

That is the good news. The bad news is that it is a hit-and-miss proposition to actually find ballooning spiders.  The ones that use this technique are often very tiny.  On cool clear mornings, if you see silk lines on the foliage or fences of a park (such as Central Park in NYC), watch closely at the uppermost tips of the fence posts.  On occasion there will be a field (even an infrequently mown lawn) with lots of small webbing or silk that is visible, particularly on a dewy morning.  If you find this, you might be in for a treat.  Sadly, it isn’t that easy to observe.

Adults of small spiders may balloon, so it isn’t always spiderlings (a precious word that arachnologists use for “baby spiders”).  I’ve seen fair sized adults use this technique, but that is less common.  It (the phenomenon of ballooning spiders) does occur everywhere.

Good luck, I’d love to hear if you have any success.

 

Same here. I will be doing my best this summer to catch some ballooning on camera. If you do the same, please share what you’ve observed.

In the meantime, here are some other spider and ballooning resources:

A vivid account of ballooning by Ohio naturalist and blogger Jim McCormac

“What Are Spiders?” by Richard Bradley

Two graduate students from the City University of New York’s  NOAA-CREST program showed me this simple experiment, above, for young kids. The three of us volunteered at an Earth Day fair at a New York City elementary school on Friday, and kids were mesmerized by it.

It illustrates the concepts of accretion — when the tiny droplets of water that form clouds bump into each other and combine to form larger drops — and cohesion, the attraction that water molecules have for each other. The “saturation point” that Isabel mentions in the video is the point at which a cloud can no longer absorb any more water and may release it as rain.

You’ll need:

1. Wax paper

2. a spray bottle (optional)

3. toothpicks

Lay a piece of wax paper flat on a table or counter top. Spray it with the spray bottle, creating a field of water droplets of various sizes. Or just dip your finger in a cup of water and let several drops fall onto the paper. Let the child move water droplets around with the toothpick until they bump into and merge with other drops. At the Earth Day fair on Friday, kids had fun making the largest drop they could. You can explain that the larger the drop, the more likely it is to hit the ground before evaporating and that the largest raindrop ever recorded was 6.8 mm in diameter. Drops larger than that are believed to break apart.

For a full explanation, see JVC’s Science Fair Projects.
 

For other science project ideas, see Scientific American’s Bring Science Home.

Thank you to CUNY graduate students Isabel Perez and Roya Nazari for their help.

The Cambridge Science Festival 2011, courtesy of the M.I.T. Museum

Earlier this week The New York Times profiled the director of the M.I.T. Museum and founder of the Cambridge Science Festival, John Durant. The piece mentioned that science festivals have been multiplying across the country; last year there were more than 20. According to the Times:

“A science festival has more in common with a film, art or food festival. Festivals aim to bring in tourism dollars, introduce people to scientists and demystify science in an era when researchers and large sectors of the public diverge on major policy issues like climate change, vaccines and embryonic stem cell research.

‘People are living with tensions between what they think about science in one area and what they believe in another,’Dr. Durant said. Science festivals help bridge those gaps. ‘We shouldn’t just be trying to shove science down people’s throats. It never works and it’s very uncongenial.’”

Here are some of the celebrations that are coming up:

Cambridge Science Festival. Cambridge, Mass. Friday, April 20 through Sunday, April 29. Underwater robots, experimental games from the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab, mathematical origami and many, many more events.

Philadelphia Science Festival. Friday, April 20 through Sunday, April 29. Learn about olfaction, facial recognition technology and more from scientists and engineers throughout the city.

USA Science & Engineering Festival. Washington, D.C. Saturday, April 28 and Sunday, April 29. Celebrities (Mayim Biyalik of “The Big Bang Theory”; Bill Nye the Science Guy) and scientists and educators from 500 of the top science organizations in the country mix it up in 2 packed days of events. Scientific American is a sponsor.

International Dark Sky Week, April 14-20. A component of Global Astronomy Month, this event helps stargazers appreciate the beauty of the night sky and reminds them to help cut down on light pollution. Check for related astronomy events here.

World Science Festival, New York City. May 30 to June 3. Columbia University physicist Brian Greene and his wife Tracy Day launched this highbrow and highly entertaining celebration of the sciences in 2008. Among this year’s events: the winner of Alan Alda’s contest for the best simple explanation of a flame will finally be revealed. The judges: 11 year olds from 130 schools across the country.

Winners of the 2012 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge

Three high school seniors from Texas have designed an external pacemaker that may help reduce heart atrophy  in astronauts as they orbit the Earth. “After 180 days in space, astronauts’ muscles lose 40% of their capacity for physical work,” writes Camilo Ruiz, a senior at Cinco Ranch High School in Katy, Texas, who designed the “SPacemaker” along with two other Cinco Ranch students.

Ruiz’s team, The Moonwalking Manakins, is one of four that grabbed top honors at the annual Spirit of Innovation Challenge, sponsored by the Conrad Foundation, a non-profit aimed at sparking student interest in science, engineering and entrepreneurship.

Each of the four winning teams will receive a $5,000 grant to continue product development, a one-year membership in the international research society Sigma Xi and additional mentoring from scientists and business leaders, not to mention a trip to the NASA-Ames Research Center, where the winners were announced. The competition fields entries in three categories: aerospace exploration, clean energy and health and nutrition and was founded in 2008 by Nancy Conrad, an education activist and the widow of Apollo 12 astronaut and entrepreneur Pete Conrad. The next entry deadline is in the fall of 2012.

Earlier this month, I watched groups of kids ages 9 to 16 present their own original ideas for solving major food safety problems. They were participating in the annual  First Lego League challenge, the robotics competition founded by inventor Dean Kamen and Lego. We heard ideas for better ways of monitoring the pH level of water used to raise farmed salmon and another idea for sorting safe, raw oysters from those contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus using a conveyor belt equipped with a sensor and a robotic arm.

The competition has three components: a research component, where students identify a problem within a broader theme, investigate it, and come up with a solution that they present to a panel of judges; a robot-building component that involves programming a Lego Mindstorms robot to navigate a series of obstacle courses (shown above), and adherence to the First Lego code of conduct that includes presenting your research to the community, whether it’s in church, in school or to family and friends.

One of the teams I met were the GearHawks of PS 399 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. They attended a scrimmage organized by the New York Academy of Sciences, which mentors teams from schools that might not otherwise have the resources to participate in the competition. At the scrimmage, NYAS-sponsored teams faced off against a crossection of teams from public and private schools across New York City and surrounding areas.

Here’s Nigel Wardally, 10, of the GearHawks explaining his oyster project, with teammate Maximus Britton, also 10, in the background. It’s hard to hear him over the din in the background, but in the end he points out that V. vulnificus is a flesh-eating microbe:

And here’s their robot on the obstacle course. This robot is not related to the conveyor belt system they thought of for their oyster project, but it is navigating an obstacle course with  a food safety theme:

It’s too late to sign up for the contest this year, but next fall’s project sounds equally interesting: ideas for improving quality of life for seniors.

Earlier this week the Girl Scouts, which turns 100 this year, released an interesting report on teenage girls’ attitudes toward science and math. Some highlights:

Studies like this are a reminder to adults to be active in exposing kids to the full breadth of what they can do with their lives. Let’s remind kids to give equal weight to literature, the arts and math and science.

Here are a few activities that can get you started:

How state science standards stack up, according to a new report from The Fordham Institute

A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute paints a grim picture of state science standards across the United States. But it also reveals some intriguing details about exactly what’s going wrong with the way many American students are learning science.

Standards are the foundation upon which educators build curricula, write textbooks and train teachers– they often take the form of a list of facts and skills that students must master at each grade level. Each state is free to formulate its own standards, and numerous studies have found that high standards are a first step on the road to high student achievement. “A majority of the states’ standards remain mediocre to awful,” write the authors of the report. Only one state, California, plus the District of Columbia, earned straight A’s. Indiana, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Virginia each scored an A-, and a band of states in and around the northwest, including Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Nebraska, scored F’s. (For any New Yorkers reading this, our standards earned a respectable B+, plus the honor of having “some of the most elegant writing of any science standards document”).

What exactly is going wrong? The study’s lead authors identified four main factors: an undermining of evolution, vague goals, not enough guidance for teachers on how to integrate the history of science and the concept of scientific inquiry into their lessons, and not enough math instruction.

Let’s take these one by one. For evolution, the report points out that eight anti-evolution bills were introduced in six state legislatures last year. This year, two similar bills were pre-filed in New Hampshire and one in Indiana.  ”And these tactics are far more subtle than they once were,” write the authors. “Missouri, for example, has asterisked all ‘controversial’ evolution content in the standards and relegated it to a voluntary curriculum that will not be assessed … Tennessee includes evolution only in an elective high school course (not the basic high school biology course).” Maryland, according to the report, includes evolution content but “explicitly excludes” crucial points about evolution from its state-wide tests.

States cited for vague standards include Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and New Jersey. One example: New Jersey fourth graders are asked to “Demonstrate understanding of the interrelationships among fundamental concepts in the physical, life and Earth systems sciences.” Meanwhile, in A-scoring California, the standards explain to teachers and curriculum writers much more specifically that “Electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful applications in everyday life.” The standards go on to list half a dozen specific skills and facts that students must master in order to understand that overarching concept, such as “Students know electrical energy can be converted to heat, light, and motion.”

The report also notes that standards for introducing scientific inquiry into classrooms are, in many states, vague to the point of uselessness. In Idaho, students are “merely asked to ‘make observations’ or to ‘use cooperation and interaction skills.’ ”

Finally, the report noted that few states make the link between math and science clear. In its own words: “Mathematics is integral to science. Yet .. many [states] seem to go to great lengths to avoid mathematical formulae and equations altogether.”

A December report by Change the Equation, a group of CEOs working to support President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign, also found  that states set radically different expectations for students in science. The report looked not at the standards themselves but at how each state scores its assessment tests and how it defines “proficiency” in the subject.

Lastly, a bit of good news. At least 26 states have signed on to an effort to write new, common “Next Generation Science Standards” that will be more rigorous and specific than what many states currently have on the books. To read more about that effort, visit http://www.nextgenscience.org/ or http://www.achieve.org/ or read the document upon which the standards will be based here.

Obama delivering his 2012 State of the Union address

In his State of the Union address last night, President Barack Obama spent less time than in years past discussing his ambitions to reform science education. He referred to his administration’s offer to let states opt out of  No Child Left Behind (” … grant schools flexibility to teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test …”). And he brought up the Common Core State Standards in math and language arts which 45 states plus the District of Columbia have now adopted (“we’ve convinced nearly every state in the country to raise their standards for teaching and learning — the first time that’s happened in a generation”). (By the way, a state survey out today from the Center on Education Policy reports that most states believe the new standards will improve students’ skills in math, reading and writing but that many are struggling to pay for new curricula and teacher training).

I asked science education experts to weigh in on the president’s remarks. More will be sending in reactions throughout the day, so check back. And please leave your own comments below.

Jon D. Miller, Director, International Center for the Advancement of Scientific Literacy at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research

President Obama understands both science and education more than any President in American history. His speech on Tuesday night included an important reminder of the importance of funding basic research. This year, he linked the need for expanded scientific and technical education with the revival of manufacturing employment in the U.S. This is an important linkage, but it is the first step in a longer process. The President argues that there are open jobs requiring technical skills and that community college programs can prepare students (younger and older) for these positions. This is a necessary short-term fix, but I expect that the President and Secretary Duncan know that an associate degree is not a ticket for long-term employment. The growth of science and technology will continue to demand higher levels of skill and education and associate degree programs designed in response to this initiative should be built as the first step toward a baccalaureate and post-graduate degrees. It is encouraging to have a President that understands and values both science and education and who welcomes the challenges of the 21^st century.

Sharon Lynch, Professor, George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development; President-Elect, National Association for Research in Science Teaching

The President’s 2012 State of the” Union Speech was more about the economy and jobs than new programs in education. How to see the American Dream fulfilled unless you are the lucky child of a venture capitalist or banker? Social mobility and personal prosperity is likely going to involve work in a high tech industry or one that moves the U.S. closer to energy independence—STEM-related jobs and careers. There are at least twice as many such jobs going unfilled due to a work force that is not sufficiently STEM literate or not located where the jobs are. Increasingly, states and municipalities understand that the New American Community is likely going to involve business-education partnerships, including “Big High Tech Businesses” that produce high value items using new technologies, and linked to local education systems flexible and innovative enough to teach both adults and children. While the President did not dwell on specifics of these partnerships, our work on inclusive STEM-focused high schools suggests three things may be needed. The first challenge is how to ramp up the E (engineering) in STEM education. If the US does not have enough engineers, then it certainly does not have enough K-12 teachers able to teach engineering. This leads to second challenge; provided that we finally adopt (voluntary) common core science standards and assessments, we are also going to need new integrated, coherent K-12 STEM curriculum materials. There hasn’t been a major curriculum reform in decades (excepting innovative mathematics curricula). New STEM curriculum tools won’t look like those tired textbooks of the past, and put in the hands of creative and innovative teachers, should allow teachers strong in STEM disciplines the freedom to avoid re-inventing the curriculum wheel each day. These new materials would also provide video examples of how to teach integrated STEM. They would use technologies that are commonplace to anyone under the age of 25, introducing students to the boundless world of STEM possibilities, either during the school day or anytime outside of it. It is not hard to imagine bilingual materials that could help English Language Learners access STEM concepts and activities, escaping the isolation of mono-English classrooms. Moreover, these new materials would boost the ability and confidence of elementary school teachers who do not have adequate STEM backgrounds to teach more than reading and math computation. That leads to the third challenge, issues of scale and implementation. Currently each state struggles to produce its own standards, frameworks, assessments and curricula. This is hugely expensive and demonstrably ineffective. Why not provide educators with the choice to use the best set of curriculum materials that the nation can develop, a huge economy of scale? The third challenge is to stimulate local communities to come together to develop innovative variations that match their settings and the needs of their children. Business and community partnerships, including the arts councils and museums, would provide the rigor, the relevance and the relationships that allow all children to have a shot at the American Dream.

Adam V. Maltese, Assistant Professor of Science Education, Indiana University

In his SoTU address President Obama declared “The State of our Union is getting stronger.” While he attempted to defend this statement throughout the rest of his speech, education – specifically STEM education – did not get nearly as much focus as it did last year. The President threw out some provocative – but not new – ideas for K-12 including suggestion of a requirement to keep all students in school until they graduate high school or turn 18. The President also said we should keep the good teachers and reward the best. Sure! I’m on board with this, but how do we do this fairly and effectively?

As usual, the speech left me with more questions than answers. The focus of much of the edu-speak within the address was on higher education and higher costs for earning degrees. This is also where one of the President’s points raised my greatest concern with relation to STEM issues. President Obama laid down an edict to colleges and universities to halt increases in tuition or risk the loss of funding from taxpayers. While it’s not within the purview of the federal government to determine budgets for public institutions of higher education, our state government in Indiana is a few steps ahead of the President and already cut higher ed funding for the last few years. My concern here is that continued reductions in funding will ultimately affect the availability of money to attract top science faculty and students, to build state of the art research facilities, and for educational outreach efforts. Additionally, this will likely impact the availability of internal seed money used to fund ideas and efforts that often lead to the large scale R&D projects the President and other politicians love to tout.

James Gentile, President and CEO of Research Corporation for Science Advancement

U.S. economic preeminence has depended for more than a century on scientific and technological innovation, and President Obama addressed key issues for sustaining our leadership in global innovation. In his “blueprint for an economy that’s built to last”, he reminded the nation that “innovation also demands basic research” and called on Congress to “support the same kind of research and innovation that led to the computer chip and the Internet.” He focused heavily on improving education and job readiness, setting a goal of training “two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job”, noting that “growing industries in science and technology have twice as many openings as we have workers who can do the job.” Citing the role that foreign students play in research labs, he called on Congress to “stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs.” And he emphasized his commitment to clean energy, a field ripe for innovation, saying, “I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany.” The foundation that I lead is in the forefront of supporting scientific innovation in solar energy conversion, and the President is right to advocate U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies. Innovation is the key to American jobs.

Francis Eberle, Executive Director, National Science Teachers Association

Last night in his SOTU address, President Obama called for more skilled workers in the science and technology industry and announced a national commitment to training 2 million Americans in these and other areas. He talked about new science and technology innovations needed to help companies grow jobs and about increasing basic research funding in the sciences. The Administration wants to support 600k new science jobs with new clean energy sources that will reduce our dependency on foreign oil. The president is  also seeking support from Congress so that engineers can rebuild the roads and bridges that make up our nation’s infrastructure. Although science education wasn’t mentioned specifically, its pretty clear that the jobs of tomorrow and much of our future depends on STEM, and STEM education.

A rendering of the exterior of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences' Nature Research Center

Imagine walking through a science museum and, among the usual displays of dinosaur bones, butterflies, and amphibians you come upon a series of windows into state-of-the-art research labs. Inside, scientists from nearby universities and veterinary schools work on projects related to biodiversity, genetics, nanoparticles, and animal health and welfare.  In front of each window is a touch screen. Tap it, and you can learn about each researcher’s specific project and the tools with which he or she is working. A few minutes later, one of the scientists emerges to discuss the research with visitors and answer questions. The exchange benefits the scientists as well: some are PhD candidates learning how to communicate what they do to a broader audience.

One of the future "Meet the Scientist" labs, still under construction

Starting on April 20, visitors to Raleigh’s North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences can see this concept in action. I toured the museum’s Nature Research Center, still under construction as you can see, on Friday along with colleagues attending the Science Online 2012 meeting. The older parts of the museum display scientific knowledge accumulated over hundreds of years, a sort of 3D encyclopedia, said Roy Campbell, director of exhibits, who lead the tour. “This new center is not about what we know, it’s about how we know,” he said. Science, he added, has been on the defensive, attacked by climate-change skeptics and creationists. Part of the mission of the new wing is to explain how scientists gather information and learn about the natural world. “We’re hoping to change the way science is taught,” said Meg Lowman, director of the new center, in an earlier talk.

A rendering of a "Meet the Scientist" space

Other features of the new center include a Citizen Science room, where visitors can sign on to participate in research projects together with scientists; hands-on labs, where they can stage their own open-ended experiments in collaboration with researchers and educators. Many of these projects may spawn new citizen science collaborations of their own.

The Raleigh museum is not the first to put scientists on display. London’s Darwin Center, Boston’s New England Aquarium and others also feature “scientists in action.” How do scientists feel about being on exhibit? One tour participant tweeted: “gonna be sweet exhibits! Though kinda scary to be a scientist on display in glass lab…” The changes do reflect a growing emphasis among educators on teaching the process of scientific inquiry and the nature of science itself.

PHOTO CREDITS: NC MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCES (TOP AND BOTTOM IMAGES); ANNA KUCHMENT (CENTER IMAGE)

One winning solution, displayed at the Museum of Science Boston

The paper bridge we built, holding up numerous poker chips

How does a bridge work? Here’s a simple activity for kids that demonstrates the principles that keep bridges standing: all you need is a bowl or plastic container, a small sheet of paper, and a few pennies (or a few small toys). Ask your child (or children) how they might fold the paper so it would bridge the container and hold one or more of the plastic toys.  I found the solution to be completely unintuitive, so if the child looks totally lost, show them one possible solution [above] and then let them experiment with other designs to see if they can figure out why some work better than others.

For a more in-depth understanding of bridges, including the forces of compression and tension, visit our Bring Science Home page.

I found the above activity at Boston’s highly recommended Museum of Science. The museum’s well-staffed Discovery Room, for kids 8 and younger, is staffed with volunteers who excel at introducing concepts of engineering, paleontology, biology, and other scientific fields. See more Museum of Science activities here.

Budding Scientist: For what age range of kids would you recommend “Fabric of the Cosmos”?

Greene: In terms of grasping all that the films have to offer, I think someone in the high school range would be ideal. But I’m always thrilled that younger kids are able to immerse themselves in the ideas and get something out of the programs as well. And that is due at least in part to the power of animation and graphics, which can draw in even a young viewer. Already I’ve gotten an email about the first program from a 6 year old asking a question about black holes.

Is there anything parents can do to help further their children’s understanding of the series?

I think the most effective way is not to exert pressure on the kids to watch these shows, because once they turn into something you have to do, something that our teacher requires us to do, then they lose their magic.

What I do with my own kids is I put the program on, and if they want to sit and watch it, great, and if they don’t they don’t. I wasn’t here with my kids last week [when the series debuted], but we had the babysitter put on the first program, and my 4 year old promptly fell asleep, and my 6 year old lasted 15 minutes. And that’s fine. Nine pm is a little late for them. Maybe at some point in the future they’ll catch them at a better time and enjoy them then.

What advice do you have for lay parents who might want to expose their kids to some of the concepts you discuss in your program?

To me science is a story, a dramatic adventure of discovery, and anything that communicates that helps kids see science in a different light. When you’re passionate about something it’s so much easier for your kids to get excited about it. My own dad didn’t finish high school. He was a singer and entertainer, but he was deeply interested in all ideas, and he introduced me to the notion of an atom, and to galaxies. Even though his knowledge is limited, he was excited about it, and that’s how it began.

What kinds of science-related activities do you do with your own kids?

We have these wonderful electronics sets that are so much better than when I was a kid. My son has been building little radios, motors that can make little circular propellers fly into the air. And electronics is a great place to introduce kids to science because they see it all around them in the world and then to be able to make their own is really eye opening. The one that we have, which I think is great, is called Snap Circuits. And even small hands that might have difficulty bending wires can make circuits in this version, because it’s just a snap connection, which really opens the door to kids being able to build things.

We also have books on science projects you can do at home. A lot of these experiments you can do in 15 minutes. Some are the standard ones, but we’ve had fun building helicopters out of paper and a straw and you really get ideas about airfow and how a helicopter works and you don’t need any background as a parent.

The Obama administration is bent on improving science and math education in this country. Do you have thoughts on how to do that?

One big thing is we often teach — not always — but we often teach the details of solving equations or parts of the cell or balancing reactions, because they’re important and they’re easy to test. The problem is we don’t often always teach the big ideas that make those details matter: how those details allow you to understand how the universe might have begun or where life might have come from, or how we’re struggling to understand the nature of consciousness. Kids can get these big ideas and in that way realize that science is not a bunch of facts and figures that are set inside a textbook, but rather science is a dynamic, living, breathing undertaking that can connect us to the universe in a far deeper way. And when kids see science in that light they’re more excited to see the details, and it can really transform the experience of learning science into something that’s exciting

The idea that science is dry and removed from daily life seems to have permeated not just our textbooks but our popular culture.

That’s what the World Science Festival aims at. We’re seeking a shift, where science moves from the outskirts to center stage, a stage that has been occupied by art and music, theater and dance and film. Science has a rightful place alongside those elements of culture, because it too is vital to a full and rich life.

I really enjoyed “Cool Jobs,” one of the presentations you had last year that featured young, dynamic scientists engaged in really interesting fields.

We are actually working out the details now to give “Cool Jobs” a nationwide presence. There are scientists who have cool jobs throughout the country and kids in their locality. We’re also working on giving Cool Jobs and the World Science Festival a more robust online presence.



How did science wind up on the outskirts of our culture?

As science has progressed, the language has become ever more esoteric and the details have become ever further removed from everyday life. What you need is a bridge to go from the abstract language to more the familiar everyday experience so you can understand why those abstract details really matter.

What other projects related to science education do you have planned?

We have one coming out where I’m going to be basically answering any question that anybody asks me. We started it just now, [Ask Brian Green Anything] and we’re going to have a more robust version. It helps if you have a human presence that really gives you a sense of all these great ideas in science. If anybody has any questions, they should just send them in because we want to get a whole reservoir of questions, so they can send those in through my Facebook page or through the WSF Web site.

How are you going to have time for that? Is that where the multiple universes come in?

I’m trying to do a small number a day, and if you multiply that by many days, you can do a hundred, and you can do a thousand over a year. Many of the questions people ask are timeless.

Mt. Olive High School's trebuchet

Got a Jack-O-Lantern that’s past its prime? In the story below, Rose Eveleth reports on one creative way of tossing it.

David Bodmer is the Robotics Engineering teacher at Mt. Olive High School in Flanders, New Jersey. Every year he leads a team of students in a nation-wide robotics competition. But last year they started a new project: tossing pumpkins. His team of students built a trebuchet, a type of catapult used to breach castle walls in the middle ages, to launch a pumpkin 548 feet. And this year, they’re at it again, upping their distance to 959 feet. The team, lead by student Matt Dunster, headed down to Delaware last week to compete in the Punkin Chunkin contest. Here’s what they had to say about the project and the contest.

How did you get started chucking pumpkins?

DAVID: I found out about it last year through [a colleague]. We started working on it in June and went to a contest in New Jersey where we won with a distance of 548 feet. This year is the first year we’re going down to the official Delaware event, and Matt started working on building in August.

What’s your design like?

MATT: It’s a floating arm trebuchet. Pretty much, if you look at a normal catapult, the weights go in an arching motion. On this the weights fall in a straight line. So when the weight gets to the halfway point, it starts pivoting on two wheels and that’s what creates the rotational effect. We figured out some improvements from last year by raising our counterweights higher, which took some work. You can’t just look up on Google how to improve your trebuchet, so we had to figure out how to do it ourselves.

How far do you hope the pumpkin will go?

MATT: Last year we hit 548 feet. This year, at the last contest we reached 959, but we think we can break 1,000. The current record is 800, so we’ll at least try to beat that record, but I think we can break 1,000.

What does it take to start a project like this at a school?

DAVID: You have to have students that are excited about it, a faculty member that’s excited about it, and parents and mentors that are willing to help out. It takes more than just one person, or even a small group. You have to have a lot of people who are excited to try it and understand that there’s a big learning curve. It’s definitely fun, but you have to have the people all willing to put the time and effort in.

What are the students learning from the trebuchet project?

DAVID: For this project we have a team of about 30 people, and our full robotics team is about 100 students. To get that many people to look past their own thoughts, is a life lesson of being able to listen to what other people have to say.

MATT: What I’m learning is about real life projects. In school you’re sitting at a lab table with a controlled five-minute experiment, like adding baking soda and vinegar together. This is real life. It’s going on for a while, we’re seeing a large result, and we get to see that finished products take a while. In the real world it’s not a five-minute project at a lab table, you’re working on things for days, weeks, months, maybe years. And we’re learning to work with students of different ages, likes and dislikes, ideas, and seeing how people come together.

You can learn more about the Mount Olive Robotics Team (MORT) and their trebuchet at their website. And check the results from the Punkin Chunkin contest to see how they do!

Seriously, it is significant that fourth graders scored 28 points higher this year than in 1990 and that eighth graders scored 21 points higher than in 1990. Clearly, we’re doing something right. But it’s still startling to read the overall statistics that only 40 percent of 4^th graders and, even more alarmingly, 35 percent of 8^th graders are considered “proficient” in math. I called Bill Schmidt, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University and an expert on math education and math assessments, to get his reaction to the latest results. [For a broader analysis of the results, see my colleague John Matson's news story here.]

Me: How significant is this 1 point increase in scores, given the fact that a majority of students still get very low grades on this test?

Schmidt: There clearly is an upward trend, and we should applaud that kind of improvement, though it does seem to have flattened out a bit.

But I think the key which people tend to ignore is that just a small percentage are considered proficient, and that’s not changed that much over this set of years. You’re talking about a third of our kids being proficient, not advanced, just proficient, and that’s strikingly bad news.

Me: What percentage of students should be testing at or above proficiency?

Schmidt: It should be at around 70 percent.

Me: It jumped out at me this year that Massachusetts and Minnesota do strikingly well on these tests. Massachusetts students earned the highest overall scores, and more than half were at or above proficiency. In Minnesotta, 53 percent of fourth graders and 48 percent of 8^th graders scored at or above proficiency. In 2007, both these states were measured against foreign countries in math and science, and they did well:  Massachusetts’s fourth graders scored behind only two jurisdictions in math (Hong Kong and Singapore) and behind only Singapore in science. Minnesota’s scores were only slightly lower. What are these states doing right?

Schmidt: I can speak most directly to the Minnesota story, but in both cases I really believe it’s the curriculum. That’s not the only factor, of course, but Minnesota worked hard at its state standards. They have very coherent, focused and rigorous standards. Those are things we worked with them on. Those came into place in 2003. Their teachers then changed what they were covering as a result. They began to teach to more rigorous and coherent standards. It got to be a major aspect of why they improved. Massachusetts, too.

Me: How do Minnesota’s and Massachusetts’s standards compare with the Common Core Standards that most states have now adopted and plan to implement by 2014?

Schmidt: They are as demanding as Minnesota’s and Massachusetts’s, if not better and more so.

The most crucial aspect of all right now is to make sure these new Common Core Standards are implemented. I mean we really have the chance to do this in these states. That’s the good news in my mind. If we deal with this correctly, we can give our kids the best chance they’ve had in the last 50 or 100 years at a world class education in mathematics.

Image Credit: © Bill Denison Photography; U.S. Department of Education

A Monarch butterfly on a goldenrod plant

Watching a Monarch butterfly flit past the 9^th floor windows of our Manhattan offices the other day reminded me that the annual fall migration is in full swing. And with that thought came another: the end of summer need not spell the end of outdoor entomology projects.

On a recent trip to Western Massachusetts, I stopped by the Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox to stock up on bug activities for fall. Rene Laubach, the sanctuary director, had plenty of advice, starting with the best equipment.

Tools: Laubach recommends two pieces of equipment for those who regularly observe insects: binoculars that focus within 10 feet, and a digital camera with a good zoom lens. On a walk around the sanctuary, he snapped a picture of a butterfly sitting in the middle of a dirt path. When Laubach zoomed in on the captured image, we clearly saw the butterfly’s unfurled tongue scooping up moisture and minerals from the ground. See this helpful review for how to select close-focus binoculars: http://www.naba.org/binocs.html

Now on to the projects.

Monarch migration: Each September through November, Monarch butterflies travel south to their winter homes. Monarchs West of the Rockies head for the California coast, and those East of the Rockies head for Mexico. The Monarch Watch Web site has a detailed list of peak migration and abundance dates by latitude.  According to the site, New York City is just past its peak in Monarch abundance, while towns in Florida won’t see a peak until late October. My fellow blogger Amy Maxmen has a nice piece about Monarchs in the big city, their biology and migration habits here.

Butterfly licks: Now that you’ve noticed the Monarchs, what else can you do? Laubach, who leads regular bug safaris for kids and parents, suggested capturing one with a net and transferring it to a small jam jar with a lid. (There will be enough oxygen in there for the butterfly to survive for the duration of this project). Next, wipe your finger across your brow to collect perspiration, which is salty, open the jar slightly and stick your finger inside. Very likely, the butterfly will climb on your finger and lick it, before flying away.

We actually tried this with a pretty yellow butterfly we caught and, while it did not lick my daughter’s hand, it lingered on her finger just long enough for us to observe it up close.

For next year: Tagging. It’s too late in the season for this activity, but keep it in mind for next year. Laubach and his wife have tagged Monarchs, and he recommended it as a family activity. The Monarch Watch Web site sells tagging kits, which help experts track the butterflies and their survival rates. Detailed instructions are here: http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/tag.htm

A woolly bear caterpillar

Woolly bear races. Gayle Tardif-Raser is the education coordinator for Pleasant Valley, and she sent me lesson plans for two activities she does with school children at this time of year. The first, which she does in October, involves catching the furry, orange-and-black-banded woolly bear caterpillars and racing them. “Woolly bears are among the fastest and smartest of all the caterpillars. (They can be trained to run through a maze),” she writes in the plan. You’ll need these supplies, in addition to the caterpillars themselves:

1)    a wooden ruler

2)    a stopwatch

3)    some caterpillar food for encouragement, such as bits of apple, pumpkin, or maple leaves

4)    wet paper towels

Once you’re set, place your woolly bear at one end of the ruler, and encourage it — “by tush push, dragging food in front, or turning the ruler” — to crawl to the other end. Record the caterpillar’s time on a stopwatch. Ideally, you’d catch two or three caterpillars, pit them against each other, and crown a winner at the end. Like all athletes, though, the woolly bears need to stay hydrated, so check their condition and put them on a wet paper towel if they appear lethargic or are curled up.

One caveat: if your kids are like mine, they will want to keep the caterpillars. Woolly bears will sleep at your house through the winter, pupate in the spring, and transform into Tiger moths. Find detailed advice is here:

Two goldenrod ball galls, one cut open to reveal a larva

Ball Galls. You might have noticed that some goldenrod plants, hardy weeds found throughout the United States, even in vacant urban lots, have tumor-like growths on their stalks. These “galls” are the homes of tiny insects called goldenrod gall flies (Eurosta solidaginis) that inhabit a particular type of goldenrod plant known as tall goldenrod, or Solidago altissima. In the spring and early summer, adult flies lay eggs on the stems of these plants. “The egg,” says Tardif-Raser, “has a chemical that causes a reaction in goldenrod so it starts to grow over the egg and completely encapsulates it. Then the larva hatches and spends the whole summer in there eating.” In fact, the larva digs a small tunnel out to the edge of the plant, and then crawls back inside. The adult fly will use that tunnel to escape. Now, here comes the experiment: “At the end of October/early November you can find goldenrod ball galls that could have larvae or they could have pupa,” says Tardif-Raser. “It’s a great exercise for kids to predict what stage, based on their observations.” Some other possibilities: the ball could have been pecked open by a woodpecker or chickadee or parasitized by a wasp. For visual evidence of each of these scenarios, click on this amazing key.

What you’ll need:

1)    a ball gall or two or three

2)    a knife, ideally a Swiss Army knife

3)    paper masking tape

Ask your child to predict what you’ll find inside: a larvae, a pupa, or perhaps nothing if the pod looks like it’s been pecked open. Next, place your gall on a table, slice one-third to halfway into it, and turn the knife so the gall cracks open. “The larva looks like a white chocolate chip,” says Tardif-Raser. “As it warms up, especially in a classroom, it starts moving around which is kind of a cool thing. Kids go a little crazy when they see them moving. Then, they stop moving around so much and start to turn a yellowish color and get more tan, and that’s the pupa forming. It takes 30 hours for that to happen, but you’ll see it start.”

Next, place your pupa or larva back inside the plant, tape it up and stick it back in the field where you found it. (The plant will die anyway with the first frost, and the flies can dig their way through masking tape but not through Scotch tape).

More to explore on ball galls:

(All of these resources come from Bucknell University)

Detailed instructions on identifying the right species of goldenrod: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/abrahmsn/solidago/plantid.html

“The Goldenrod and the Gallfly,” an incredible educational video: http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/abrahmsn/solidago/gallfly_lowspeed.asx

For more on ball galls, read about the fascinating work of Bucknell biologist Warren Abrahamson: http://www.bucknell.edu/x47371.xml

Photo credits, top to bottom: KoolPix via Flickr;  amberlgrunden via Flickr; stevemd via Flickr.

Sir David Attenborough, © BBC/Rolf Marriott.

Molly Josephs, who teaches 5^th, 7^th and 9^th grade biology at The Dalton School in Manhattan, wrote to me recently about the educational value of nature films for kids. “I would love to write something about the power, intelligence, and importance of nature films for families to watch together in order to cultivate curiosity and a love of the natural world,” she wrote.  My response was, “Yes!” And now, over to Molly:

I teach in the concrete jungle of Manhattan. On the first day of school, I promise my students that by the end of 9th grade biology, they will be in love with the natural world and life’s great diversity. While I can’t always bring them to nature, I can always bring nature to them.

I have a secret weapon of inspiration, a clandestine co-teacher named Sir David Attenborough, the unofficial spokesman of BBC’s Natural History Unit. He has a subtle enthusiasm and magical voice. He speaks in an elegant English accent and has fantastic timing. He has been making nature films for decades but never seems to age.

In biology class, we begin the year with an overview of some basic ecology. With a projector, I can cover the classroom walls with clips from my BBC Natural History Unit archive and watch my students get lost in nature’s secrets.

They sit slack-jawed, wandering through deserts with chameleons and in Brazilian rain forests with pygmy geckos. Over the course of the year, they scream with laughter at the aggressive open-mouthed territory battles of the appropriately named sarcastic fringehead fish. Nothing tops the escape tactics of Venezuela’s pebble toads. There are always delightful squeals while listening to the mellifluous mimicries of New Zealand’s lyrebirds. They squirm while watching a naked, slimy, hairless inch-long fetal kangaroo climb into its mother’s pouch. Everyone loses total self-control when they see bullet ants go crazy and sprout fungal thorns from their brains. Science is fun. Nature is awesome. When used to illustrate a point, these truncated video clips are priceless teaching tools. It is much harder to forget a concept when you’ve personally witnessed an example of it.

The brilliance of Sir Attenborough and the BBC Natural History Unit lies not only in their shocking footage but also in the intelligent narration. The narration provides scientific insights that provoke genuine intellectual fascination. Attenborough communicates evolutionary and ecological principles perfectly.

There is truly nothing like touching a dolphin’s rubbery skin, watching a tarantula crawl on your shoulder, smelling a misty cloud forest, or holding an earthworm in your hand. But as I watch my students on their treks with David Attenborough, it’s very clear: they think they’re right beside him, and they never forget what they learn in the jungle.

If you and your family want to be inspired and fascinated by the diversity of life, or if you’re simply looking for worthwhile material to watch with your kids, here are my recommendations:

BBC and Discovery’s Life series

If you’re anything like me and my students, you’ll be gleeful and flabbergasted by the strange solutions organisms have evolved to confront life’s many challenges. The footage is magnificent and the narration is clear and informative. This series truly conveys the strangeness and beauty, the unity and diversity, and the wonder of life forms on this planet.

A clown anemone fish © BBC/Georgette Douwma

The focus is on vertebrate (back-boned) life but there are also episodes on plants, insects, and the deep sea. For the most part, each episode features one particular group of animals such as birds, mammals, primates, or amphibians and reptiles. The series provides prolific examples of evolution’s most extraordinary adaptations. People connect with the creatures and their shocking strategies for survival.

Planet Earth

After watching an episode, you will fall head-over-heels in love with this planet.

Throughout an episode, you will seamlessly traverse the earth’s depths and surfaces. Covering every continent and the poles, this series is majestic in its grandeur. Each episode, for the most part, features a certain type of landscape whether it be rivers, caves, forests, mountains, and more. Each landscape plays hosts to a wide range of creatures.

You will watch a shark weighing thousands of pounds wriggle in the air as it propels itself from the ocean depths. You will see the first ever footage of wild Himalayan snow leopards as they hunt and scale cliffs. In the deepest, darkest caves you will squirm as you see what could only be sick science fiction…except its real. On the highest mountain peaks, you will experience almost impossible views. You will bear witness to the largest migration patterns on the planet. The scale is mind-blowing.

In the world of wildlife film, Planet Earth was a complete game-changer. It redefines what a “nature film” could be. This series took ten years to make, uses HD technology, and some of the footage was from space!

Planet Earth captures Earth in all its glory and brings us to the wildest, most “untouched” places in the world. However, at the end, in the final episodes, you will find that no place has escaped the greatest force of all: mankind.

Blue Planet

As a child, I watched this with a religious zeal. It inspired my passion for marine biology. Throughout the eight part series, one bears witness to the greatest symphony of life. From swirls of schooling anchovies to blue whale migrations,  the majesty of marine life is present in every episode. Each segment covers a different ocean landscape from ranging from the alien ocean floor to the coral coasts, the open ocean to the frozen seas. This series imbues in its audience a great appreciation for the diversity beneath the ocean’s surface. After watching this series for the first time, I felt like I finally had vision in a world where I was previously blind. Blue Planet was the first comprehensive marine series and it too, like Planet Earth pushed the limits of our ability to, experience the grandeur of our world.

In addition to these three, I highly recommend David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals, Private Life of Plants, Life in the Undergrowth, In Cold Blood, The Life of Birds, and all of his other films

Kindergarten counting bears

There are big changes underway in how kids across the country are learning math. Forty-four states plus the District of Columbia have adopted a common set of standards that detail what students should understand and be able to do at each grade level, from Kindergarten through the end of high school. Known as the Common Core State Standards, they apply to both math and English and by most accounts, they are rigorous–not vague, watered-down generalizations wrestled onto paper simply to achieve consensus. One study found that the new core standards were stronger than the English standards in 37 states and the math standards in 39 states. “We did not average all the state standards. We produced something that was a step beyond,” says mathematician William McCallum, founder of the Institute for Mathematics and Education at the University of Arizona and lead author of the math portion of the common core. Many feel the standards are an important milestone in helping America close its achievement gap with other countries in math and science education; states that signed on to the common core won points in the competition for a share of the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” dollars.  “The common core gives us the best chance we’ve ever had to really improve our student performance,” says William Schmidt, co-director of the Education Policy Center at Michigan State University and an expert on math education policy and teacher preparation. “If we blow this, given Americans’ propensity to throw everything out if something doesn’t work, it could be a real doom-sealer.”

Schools in the states that have adopted the standards have until 2014 to implement them, and most are grappling with them now.  Overall, the standards aim to de-clutter curricula and allow teachers more time to focus on individual subjects, like fractions or multiplication, and to explore them in greater depth. They also emphasize the progression of ideas from grade to grade, so that teachers and students have a better understanding of why they’re doing what they’re doing, though some have found that the standards for the high school grades are more disjointed. Having a majority of states teach the same basic skills in every grade could also improve the way teachers are trained. “If you have everyone reading from the same playbook you can imagine that the way we prepare teachers could be much more focused on what they’re teaching,” says McCallum. “A generic ability to teach math could be replaced by: this is what you’re going to be teaching. You can’t do that in a country with 50 different standards.”

The teachers and administrators I interviewed in various parts of the country were generally supportive of the common core. “There is much more of a focus on problem-solving,” says Dianne Smith, principal of Russell Elementary School in Broomall, Penn. who has been working with her district’s math supervisor to implement the standards.  “We are allowing more collaboration in math, students working together, bouncing ideas off each other: ‘This is how I did this problem’; It’s not so much like there is only one right way.”  Many were concerned, however, about having to implement them during a budget crunch. Some mentioned they were using textbooks that were more than a decade old and weren’t sure they’d have funds to purchase new ones in time – though Schmidt and colleagues are working on a digital resources that would help teachers rip-up older textbooks “electronically” so that they better aligned with the standards. Even so, it’s far from clear how many districts and schools will actually be able to adapt classroom instruction to reflect the new standards.

Here’s where parents come in. Read the standards for your children’s grade levels, find out how they will change instruction at your school and where your  principal and your district are in the implementation process. Far from dreary reading, this document is an excellent tool for parents, especially at the K through 8 level: it provides simple and straightforward benchmarks against which to measure your child’s progress. In Kindergarten, for example, children should be able to “count to 100 by ones and by tens,” “fluently add and subtract within 5,” and “compose simple shapes to form larger shapes. For example, ‘Can you join these two triangles with full sides touching to make a rectangle?’” among many other skills.  Examples of the 5^th grade standards include: “Fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm,” “Use equivalent fractions as a strategy to add and subtract fractions,” “Graph points on a coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems.”

Here are some additional resources:

To find out if your state has adopted the standards and to read the full version of them for each grade level, go to:  http://www.corestandards.org/in-the-states

For a more reader-friendly version of the common core standards, see the guides put out by the National PTA: http://www.pta.org/4446.htm

Find out how strong your state’s standards are (or were) as compared with the common core. (Massachusetts and California are among the states with the most rigorous standards, and their decision to adopt the common core standards met with local controversy): http://standards.educationgadfly.net/

Bill McCallum’s iIlustrativemathematics.org, still under development, will provide examples of specific math problems for many of the standards

Helpful news articles about the common core:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/06/08/20100608scottsdale-schools-math-program.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/education/21standards.html

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/01/06/states-having-problems-with-common-standards/

PHOTO CREDIT: shawncampbell via flickr

Credit: Old Shoe Woman, via Flikr

If you live anywhere between North Carolina and Connecticut, chances are you felt the earth shake a couple of hours ago. If you have kids, they are probably asking you lots of questions–or will be, soon. Here are some resources to help you answer them, adapted from the blog of the National Science Teachers Association:

USGS: Earthquakes for Kids
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/

Yahoo Kids! Plate Tectonics Page
http://kids.yahoo.com/directory/Science-and-Nature/The-Earth/Geology/Plate-Tectonics

Scholastic: Reading the Richter Scale
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4892

CBS News: How Earthquakes are Measured
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-202_162-10007016.html?tag=page

Scientific American: Seconds Before the Big One – Progress in Earthquake Alarms
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=tsunami-seconds-before-the-big-one

MSNBC: How Quake Prediction Works (or not)
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/11/6247882-how-quake-prediction-works-or-not

USGS Earthquake Science Explained (10 articles)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2006/21/

Earthquake Teaching Resources
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/earthquakes/

***

To get more involved, join the Quake Catcher Network, a citizen science project based at the University of California, Riverside, and get your own earthquake sensor:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/project.cfm?id=seismic-sensor-network

Virginia Tiger Moth, shot by DaynaT via Flickr

So, our caterpillar finally came out of its cocoon, and  it’s a … beautiful white moth. To be specific, it’s a Virginia Tiger moth (Spilosoma virginica), which comes from the arctiidae family (eNature.com and discoverlife.com are two useful sites for identifying bugs). Now that I’ve seen the moth, I realize that our caterpillar was a yellow woolly bear.

What next? You’re probably thinking: that’s obvious, release it! But here’s our dilemma: the moth ‘hatched’ in the country at my parents’ house, and we are here in New York City. We had dragged its cocoon, inside a plastic container, all the way out there on vacation a couple of weeks ago, not wanting to miss The Big Day. When the time came to return to the City, I didn’t want to lug the cocoon all the way back to Brooklyn via rental car and Metro North. Wouldn’t it be happier in the wilds of Western Massachusetts, anyway? Now, unfortunately, the moth is stranded without us for at least another week.

To keep it alive until our reunion, Jeffrey Miller, the entomologist who had helped me so much with my original caterpillar entry, sent me this advice via email: “Have your mother put the container in the fridge until you can get to it … there may be a slight ‘ick’ factor here.” And that’s exactly what we did. More on refrigeration and the moth metabolism in my next  post.

P.S. Due to a glitch, an early draft of this story was mistakenly posted on Sunday, August 7. Apologies to the readers who left comments yesterday.

The 15 Google Science Fair finalists

Several Scientific American staffers recently flew out to Mountain View, Calif. for the culmination of Google’s first annual science fair. SA was an event sponsor, and editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina served as a judge and as the awards dinner host. We were impressed with all 15 finalists: they were bright, engaging, articulate – and, of course, they truly loved science.  (For info on the three winners, click here.) We couldn’t help wondering: what first drew these impressive teens to math, engineering, medical research and the many other subjects in which they immersed themselves for this competition? And what lessons might parents and educators draw from these kids’ stories? Reporter Francie Diep interviewed 14 out of the 15 finalists to find out. What stands out from her reporting is that even the most casual early exposures to science –trips to a botanical garden or zoo, fun math problems tossed out during a car ride, a chance to punch tickets at a train station – can change the course of a young person’s life. Here’s Francie’s report:

What does it take to make it as a finalist at the Google Science Fair, where winners earn hefty scholarships and internships at CERN, home to the Large Hadron Collider? First, let’s look at some basic statistics. It does help if at least one parent is a scientist. Of the 14 finalists I spoke with, only 5 had two non-scientists for parents; 5 had one scientist parent and 4 had two scientists for parents.

As for schools, 10 finalists went to general public schools; two attended specialized public schools that focused on math and science; and 5 attended general private schools. (I counted one finalist twice for spending time in two different kinds of schools).

Leaving stats aside, the top things finalists named as the foundation of their interest in science was having a family member who was interested in science and making trips to the local science museum. Seventeen-year-old Shree Bose, this year’s grand prize winner, admired her older brother. “He was always a role model to me and he always loved science,” she says. She won for a study on the interaction of a protein and a cancer drug on ovarian cancer cells.

Naomi Shah, a winner in the 15-to-16 age category, recalls visiting Portland’s Oregon Museum of Science and Industry every few weeks with her family when she was little. She liked the experience so much that she now volunteers there. “In the chemistry lab, they let me light my hand on fire,” she recalls of her early visits. She also remembers the “Flubber Room.” “My mom would get tired of the Flubber Room, but I just wanted to stay in there,” she says. (Flubber is an easy-to-mix substance that acts as a liquid and as a solid. To make a similar substance called Oobleck at home, watch this video.) Her project investigated the effects of indoor air pollution on people with asthma.

Some finalists recalled their parents’ efforts to introduce math and science in a fun, unintimidating way. Vighnesh Shiv’s parents (his dad is a computer scientist, and his mom studied journalism and literature) began teaching him to count and do basic arithmetic on his Magna Doodle toy before his second birthday. Later, they instated “pink spoon challenges”— “sets of interesting math problems, the rewards for which were trips to Baskin Robbins,” Shiv, 17, explains. The problems included a sort of math crossword, where clues such as “10 * 10 * 10″ yielded numerals that could be converted into letters that spelled a funny word or phrase. His mother also introduced word problems such as: “Three apples are needed to make one apple pie. What fraction of an apple pie can Mommy make with one apple?” “My mom would casually toss me math problems on the way to Tae Kwon Do class or while accompanying her on errands, and my dad would do the same on car rides to school,” he says. “They still chuckle about how once I solved their problems, I would come up with my own and toss them back.”

Volunteer opportunities can help build confidence and deepen knowledge, even at a very young age. Daniel Arnold got interested in trains when he started volunteering at a local tourist railroad when he was just five years old, at which tender age he helped punch tickets. Now 14, he volunteers as a fireman on a steam locomotive at the railroad, located in his hometown of San Diego, California. “I watch the fire, make sure we have enough steam, make sure we have enough water,” he says. For the fair, he demonstrated a better train tracks switch. (His mom is a rheumatologist and his dad is an electrical engineer).

TV and movies can also inspire an interest in the sciences.  Luke Taylor, who built a robot to respond to voice commands, finds inspiration in Star Wars, Iron Man and I, Robot. And Dora Chen, who built an audio-video recorder to help caretakers keep track of people with dementia, had “great science teachers and awesome parents” — and Bill Nye. (Nye is best known for hosting “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” a PBS show from the 1990s; he now hosts “Solving for X,” a show about algebra, for Disney Educational Productions). “Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!” Chen enthused over e-mail. Chen’s dad is a CTO and her mom works as a statistics analyst.

So it seems that having fun—whether out at a botanical garden or at home, while watching TV—is the way to nurture an interest in science in kids. It may even lead to a career in science. Nearly all of the finalists I talked to want to major in science or engineering in college, and to research, program or build devices for a job.

PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Federman

Eliza with the caterpillar (look closely at her hand) before it doubled in size

And so began a brief adventure in entomology that’s still going. What started as a skinny, inch-long creature quickly grew into a fuzzy brown and black smudge that looked to be about twice its original length and three times its original girth.  All the while, our guest was eating through the begonia leaves at an astounding pace – and leaving an equally astounding amount of waste, in the form of little black pellet balls, all over my windowsill. My daughter, Eliza, however, was smitten. Every morning and every night, Eliza, who is 5, would pluck the caterpillar off the plant and let it crawl across her fingers and up her arms. As it kept growing and growing and eating and eating, I decided to call on an expert for advice, just to make sure I wasn’t inadvertently harming the creature – or my daughter, for that matter.

Here’s what I learned:

• Our caterpillar is a “woolly bear,” from the arctiidae family, said Jeffrey Miller, an entomologist at Oregon State University after I sent him a photo. It would grow into a moth, not a butterfly. To identify any caterpillar in the wild, get a copy of Caterpillars of Eastern North America, by David L. Wagner, an entomologist at the University of Connecticut, or go to his terrific U.S.-wide Web site. Miller has a detailed guide to Pacific Northwest caterpillars here.
• Unlike many caterpillars, a woolly bear goes through a “wandering” stage just before weaving its cocoon, so Miller urged me to sequester it ASAP, which I did using a plastic Tupperware container topped with some gauze that I held in place with a rubber band. Eliza and I cleaned the container every day and gave it fresh begonia leaves, but no water, because, as Miller said, “they will drown themselves.”
• Wild vs. kits. Kits are simpler, because everything’s already there for you. But, to me, catching a caterpillar in nature was much more fun. Miller also noted that butterflies born from kits would most likely not be native to the region where you live. “You don’t want to mix genes from different populations, because you don’t know the consequences,” he says. “For Monarch butterflies, the consequence would be confusion in how and where to migrate.” The tricky part of adopting a caterpillar from the wild will be figuring out what it likes to eat; in an ideal world, you’d find a baby caterpillar that is still on the leaf where it hatched. But the guides mentioned above should help with that as well.
• To make caterpillar observation more fun for kids, Miller suggested observing two or more caterpillars at a time, and making a race out of which will weave its cocoon first. Keep one in a cool place, and one in a hot place to observe how warmer temperatures help them grow faster.

Here are some other entomology projects and events to look into. We might try these this summer as well.

Help Cornell University scientists track U.S. ladybug populations.

Join Nature’s Notebook, a national plant and animal phenology observation program in which Scientific American is a partner.

If you happen to live near Penn State University, they host an annual Great Insect Fair at their University Park campus. This year’s is on Sept. 17, 2011.

As for our project, about a week ago, the caterpillar wove a small hairy cocoon for itself against the gauze top of its plastic container.  I feel as nervous as an expectant parent. Will it come out okay? When will it emerge? What will it look like? Stay tuned.

Do you have successful entomology projects to share, or other tips? Please leave a comment.

This is an exciting time for anyone concerned about the quality of science education in the United States. Not since 1957, the famous “Sputnik moment” that President Barack Obama invokes so often, has the country been this focused on improving the way young people learn science, math and engineering. In 2009, the White House launched its Educate to Innovate campaign, in which Scientific American is a partner, and which aims to move students from the middle to the top of international scientific literacy rankings in the next decade.

Budding Scientist will closely follow this effort, covering the latest policy research on science education as well as legislative developments as Congress prepares to revamp No Child Left Behind this fall. We will also go beyond the news and offer ideas for enriching children’s experience with science – whether it’s a national science fair, an outstanding camp program, a film, a museum exhibit, books, educational toys, or a project that one of our editors recently embarked upon with his or her own kids. At every step, we will encourage you to share your own ideas and projects, and answer your questions.

This blog will also serve as a hub for Scientific American’s many other education-related projects, including our Citizen Science
initiative, where volunteers can sign up to help researchers observe wildlife, “catch” earthquakes and conduct many other projects; Bring Science Home, which features videos and descriptions of projects that grown-ups and kids ages 6 to 12 can do together; 1,000 scientists in 1,000 days, which matches teachers and scientists for classroom visits or curriculum help; our partnership with Google on the Google Science Fair, and our work with the White House on Change the Equation, a CEO-
led initiative aimed at improving scientific literacy as part of the Educate to Innovate campaign.

I’m looking forward to sharing this coverage with readers, and I hope you’ll check in again soon. In the meantime, here’s a recent piece I wrote about whether schools teach the scientific method in too linear a fashion: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=schools-should-teach-kids-more-abou-2011-02-22