Dangerous Things Your Kids Should Do

There is just too much cool stuff on the Internet! I have just discovered TED, a conference (and more!) that began as a change to gather people from "Technology, Entertainment, and Design" to share ideas. I think there best idea may be to limit presentations to 18 minutes. Seriously - can you imagine how much better most of the lectures you have attended lately would be if so edited?

Here is an example of TED that is buzzing around the 'net today and is about a technology/design program for kids. Gever Tulley of the Tinkering School talks about "5 dangerous things you should let your kids do."

Science Center Business Models

For those in the museum business, there is an interesting discussion at ExhibiTricks about the recent closing of COSI Toledo. The fact that this hand-on science center, a branch of on an existing successful center in Columbus, OH, was not able to sustain itself presents an interesting case study. I posted a long response to the story, but the short version is - science needs to be where the kids are first. We should be reaching them in their schools, community centers, and even at home.

What Happened to Chemistry Sets?

Wired Science from KCET PBS has a great story about the old-school chemistry set. Liability, and presumably some common sense, has removed from the toy store shelves such oxymoronic projects as "preparing a safe explosive". This story shows some of those old sets, and demonstrates the interesting and exciting world of chemistry that is available in a safe and controlled environment. Yet another reason to incorporate science into informal learning - it can be fun, but it may also need to be supervised.



Get more Wired Science at their website - I could really post dozens of their stories here. They are great!