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Science Documentaries for Youngsters?
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun May 04, 2008 09:12 AM
from the billions-and-billions dept.
from the billions-and-billions dept.
An anonymous reader writes "My 7-year-old daughter is asking some interesting questions, such as, 'How did everything get created?' I've explained, in general terms, our family's non-religious views on the subject of creation and the Big Bang. I'd like to find some documentary videos geared to this age level that may explain better these concepts and theories. I've found a few PBS specials online - Stephen Hawking stuff - but they seem to be geared for young adults and older. Does anyone have recommended titles that might be better geared to children of this age bracket?"
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Submission: Science Documentaries for youngsters by Anonymous Coward
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Symmetry (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/ [symmetrymagazine.org]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
To be honest, I can't see a 7-year old being that excited about particle physics and the daily routine of scientists at Fermilab.
In fact I can't really see anyone being interested in the daily routine of scientists at Fermilab...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Seventh-graders have demonstrated that you are completely and utterly wrong [fnal.gov] .
Avoid TV, go for discussion and books (Score:5, Interesting)
As parent says, get the kid interested in books and magazines. Take them to public lectures. These are all typically higher quality than TV/video. Read up yourself and do some of that quality time stuff.
I'm a homeschooling parent and spend a lot of time having discussions on a wide variety of subjects with the kids. Sure, this is a bit more effort (I have to read up on stuff I don't know about), but that gives you a second chance at an interesting education too.
... And don't give me that "I don't have the time" BS. It does not take a lot of effort to read up on stuff, instead of watching crap on TV. If you don't have the time to interact with kids, get yourself sterilized.
Parent
Beginnings. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Beginnings. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Beginnings. (Score:4, Insightful)
So, apart from the meaningless, out of context quotes from "authorities", your mystics tap into something that can't be detected and produce no communicatible results.
I'm sure it's a very nice delusion, with a way to train the release of endorphins or self-stimulate that part of the mind that produces that "one-with-the-universe" feeling (that can also be accomplished with an electrode), and it may even produce some nice rule-to-live-by....
But if you stop at mysticism - you're no better than those parents that let their kid die because they used prayer instead of medical attention.
Parent
Re:Beginnings. (Score:5, Insightful)
It can also be accomplished with hallucinogenic drugs, and it is indeed a wonderful delusion. I just wish other people would realise it IS only a delusion (I'll happily have a couple of tabs of acid and go all mystical for 12 hours or so, but while I still marvel at the tricks my mind plays on me, I still KNOW they are just tricks.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Ergo, anyone who cannot reproduce the experience is not practicing meditation intensely enough. Your statement is unfalsifiable.
Falsifiable (Score:3, Insightful)
Well if you want to get down to it, nothing can be proven to you until your senses and your reason have sifted it and found it to be consistent with your experience. In some cases an hypothesis will be so out of whack with your experience that no argument will be able to convince you of its truth, and you'll need to see for yourself.
Insight experiences are simply the most powerful example of this principle. The only validation to be f
Re:Beginnings. (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of quoting the matrix you may want to change to quoting Einstein:
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear-that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms-it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.
-Albert Einstein, The World as I See It
Parent
Re:Beginnings. (Score:4, Interesting)
That's worth a big damn.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's worth a big damn.
Whoa!
Wonders of Life Series (Score:5, Informative)
Our Mr. Sun
Hemo the Magnificent
Unchained Goddess
The Strange Case of Cosmic Rays
are available on DVD. The whole series had nine films, but I haven't been able to find the others.
Winged Migration is also quite good.
www how things work dot com of course (Score:3, Insightful)
as for books, try the library
Re:www how things work dot com of course (Score:5, Informative)
Wikipedia for Kids:
http://schools-wikipedia.org/ [schools-wikipedia.org]
Article on Wikipedia for Kids:
http://www.marrowbones.com/commons/technosocial/2007/12/wikipedia_for_kids_teaching_a.html [marrowbones.com]
NASA for Kids:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html [nasa.gov]
and yes, if you want kids books, ask a librarian at the library, imho
Parent
Re:Wikipedia lessons for kids (Score:5, Insightful)
Edit it. Add the fact that she has a dinosaur for a pet. Or the part about her having five elbows. Save. Show. (And then revert.) Ask your kid about the wisdom of using Wikipedia. (*)
Better idea, do all of that, but DON'T revert it. Go back to the page sometime later and point out that someone else has fixed the mistakes. THEN ask your kid about the wisdom of using Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is not infallible, and mistakes can slip through and even remain for a long time in some rare cases, but most things will be fixed very quickly, and "in general" it is a fairly accurate resource (especially if you actually check cited references). It is, on the whole, far MORE accurate than many other accepted resources precisely because it is editable.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
SLIGHT problem with your method - it almost always will not work. On the occasions that I review a Wikipedia article, I don't just "check that there is a source", but I actually check the validity, quality, reliability and veracity of that source. And I'm not alone in my thoroughness.
I am definitely NOT new to "this Wikipedia thing"
Pure FUD (Score:3, Informative)
There are a lot of smart, careful, and bored people who do nothing but watch the global changelog and review new edits.
I am actually proud of my kids' school, where they have banned wikipedia for use as a source.
Good for them. In the coming century, that policy will make it that much easier for my kids to outcompete yours.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
WP should not be used as source material. That does not make it useless. The same is true for any encyclopedia.
WP is an excellent resource for several things. It provides a good overview of a subject. Often, if you're only somewhat knowledgeable on a subject, it can fill in some gaps in ways that are obviously not horribly wrong. For example, I've learned a lot of math on WP -- I can follow the derivations, and see their correctness independent of any other source, but I couldn't produce them on my o
Simpsons to the rescue again! (Score:5, Funny)
Torrents? (Score:2, Informative)
"The Universe" on the History Channel (Score:4, Informative)
Cosmos (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Cosmos (Score:4, Informative)
But with the science? Cosmos is of profound educational and inspirational value. It's been something like 30 years since it came out -- I tend to think of Cosmos in one mental breath with the specials about relativity that came out in 1979 for the centennial of Einstein's birth -- but I remember feeling like this was something special. Sagan was a guy who really had a sense of just how damn cool the universe is.
Parent
Just tell him what the scientists tell us (Score:2, Insightful)
That should put everything in the perspective a 7 year old can understand and not be anything less than our scientists told us. It just happened!
Look at PBS again. (Score:5, Informative)
in fact that tv show is good for chemistry, molecular physics, biology, etc....
The only thing that I know is this: (Score:5, Insightful)
The best thing that you can do IMHO is to take your daughter in hand and go find the answer. She will learn two things at a minimum: The answer to the question as best as it can be answered, the fact that you care to do that for her, and the methods you use to find answers. That last one is way more important than you might think.
I used to hate hearing the words "go look it up" but it did lead to me looking for a lot of things... and finding them. When she learns from you HOW to look for answers, hopefully she will never stop looking for answers as long as she lives.
Magazines and the Public Library (Score:3, Interesting)
http://richarddawkins.net/growingupintheuniverse (Score:4, Informative)
Not a title of a documentary per se (Score:3, Informative)
But a repository of good multimedia clips and lessons aimed at children of different ages: http://www.teachersdomain.org/ [teachersdomain.org]
This site is run by the PBS station WGBH. You might be able to find footage of what you are looking for here and questions that could spark and interesting conversation between yourself and your child.
Kids TV has gone downhill (Score:3, Informative)
Bill Nye and Beakman (especially Beakman) were not as good because they were too interested in being flashy and funny and catering to kids with no attention spans.
I don't know if there's anything comparable on TV today.
Old, but brilliant... (Score:5, Informative)
I know it's fairly local (i.e. our planet) - but it is inspiring.
Planetarium Possibilities (Score:4, Insightful)
Check your local planetarium, if possible. They often have shows geared to younger children.
I took my niece (then about 6 years old) to one a couple of times after she showed interest in star-gazing. I think these days, she (now 9 years old) might be better than me at picking out constellations!
Kids can handle it (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They DID remove people's hearts. Why do you think it was inappropriate for your son to gain this factual knowledge? As long as you aren't showing him graphic depictions of the process that are going to give him nightmares, I seeing absolutely nothing wrong.
Observe your daugher carefully (Score:5, Interesting)
By far the biggest screwup of modern western education - with huge, seemingly unrelated consequences for society - is that it treats kids under teenage and even teenagers far to much like intellectually fully developed grown-ups. Appealing to pure reason and logic in a 7-year old does more damage than good, with consequences that show up far later in life (lack of will and motivation, concentration problems, undeveloped social skills, restlessness, etc. - we geek kids of the 80ties know all this). If here questions are of the usual nature (her *praticing* the process of questioning!) then see it as a game and follow along, even if it turns into seemingly strange circular Q&A sessions. Ask her repeating questions in return yourself - she's praticing the act of questioning, the subject hardly matters ("Where do you live?" and a few other related questions repeatadly asked and answered, is a classic for this sort of thing). You'll actually notice that this questioning goes away after a while and comes back during the teenages if it was dealt with appropriately at younger age.
The first specs of true scientific interest come at the age of about 9. And then a trip to the library or the zoo or a science park and you sticking to personal and live explainations (that needant be all that scientifically detailed) of real phenomenon (weather, "Where do rivers come from?" "How can a car drive?", etc.) are all she needs. And don't worry - if you give her the right kind of education at the right time, she'll be a bright kid all by herself when her intellect and her strength for own reasoning fully awakes. Usually at the age of adolescence - as parents all around the world know very well. In fact, her reasoning will be far more healthy and her own if she doesn't get intellectually challenged to early in life. And it will be supported by a healthy own will, if she has the correct treatment as a child to look back on. There are other things children need to develop before they can develop a healthym intellectual reasoning. It's for that exact reason that the question "What would you like?" often is totally misplaced towards a toddler or small child.
And FYI: Yes, that is an essential conclusion of waldorf education. An educational methodology sometimes considered heretic by other educational trends. I've found it to be spot on. Make you own experiences, but do your and your sibling a favour and don't burry your kid in all kinds of media to early before you know what's really going on.
My 2 cents as a father of a 10 year old daughter.
Re:Observe your daugher carefully (Score:5, Informative)
Some kids develop faster, others slower. If you look more closely, it's usually even more of a mixture: some kids learn some things faster and other things slower. I still remember my first primary school teacher insisting that at age 5 I could not possibly have learnt to read yet, and not allowing me to have books beyond 'A is for Apple' when I wanted to have something more like 'Thomas the Tank Engine' (not so much more advanced, maybe, but there are complete sentences in the latter even if they're short). Three weeks of boredom seems like a lot when you're five (that being about how long it took her to understand that I could read simple sentences without sounding out the words).
(incidentally - sibling = (brother or sister), not child)
Parent
Check out "A Cartoon History of the Universe" (Score:3, Interesting)
This combines basic cosmology (a bit dated now), some palentology, and mainly history or the world. One does need a pretty good vocabulary to handle it, but it's good.
Most of it originally came out as comic books (black & white only), but it's been rebound into some fairly thick books. (If you want, at the end of each section there's a bibliography of his sources, so you can check him for accuracy.)
The Universe on The History Channel (Score:3, Informative)
When in the car, we also listen to the Astronomy Cast [astronomycast.com] podcast. Dr. Pamela Gay [starstryder.com] does a great job of getting the science across in an informative and entertaining way without dumbing it down too much for us non professional physicists and astronomers.
Yes, a lot of it is over his head (heck, a lot of it is over my head), but he asks very intelligent questions about time, space, where everything came from, and where it's all headed, so I highly recommend those two sources.
We've tried watching reruns of Cosmos [wikipedia.org]. It was an absolutely groundbreaking and stunning show 28 years ago. But by today's standards, the graphics are weak and some of the science is dated. It's amazing how much we as a species have learned about the universe we live in in that short amount of time.
-S
Connections with James Burke (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
C.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, that's exactly why it's *right* (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a good way to give the kid antibodies against superstition and mysticism, in other words. "No, we don't really understand what stuff is really made from. Nobody does... not yet. But people know a lot more about it than they did I was your age, and we can do a lot of cool stuff with the knowledge we have."
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, by all means, show her the scientific documentaries. But also let her read religious texts and go to church, as well as watch religious videos.
NO! The problem with doing this is that without very good guidance from her parents, she is almost certainly not mature enough to weed out "snake oil salesmen", of which many religions are far too rife with.
If you read some of my previous posts, you may find that I am quite staunchly atheist (I actually strongly believe religion to be a harmful mental delusion), but putting that aside, let's try a little thought experiment. Can you imagine a strongly Christian person accepting their daughter being expo
Mod Parent Up (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want a solid, secular explanation of evolutionary biology, do yourself a favor and watch this series with your children. You can tell your children "God was behind it" or anything else that will make you feel better about it, but at least they'll have an accurate understanding of the