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 | What's it all about ? : A Common Sense
Guide to Science Fairs |
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What are some good science fair information sites and resources?
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| Where do I find information about regional science fairs ?
 | A listing of regional fairs :
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| Some National fairs listings :
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| Some other activities, fairs, and competitions of interest :
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| Visit a science themed museum. All of these offer classes, camps,
activities, gift stores and rotating exhibits :
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Science Videos, Films for the Family
| Watch these Videos, Television programs, and Movies with the whole family.
Many of these are broadcast weekly and cover different topics every week :
| PBS Nova Series :
http://www.pbs.org/nova (old episodes can be found at Los Altos library,
Palo Alto Library and can also be ordered online. Check out the great
web site with a per episode guide) |
| Real Science : Careers in Science, produced by kids and local PBS
station KTEH :
http://www.realscience.org |
| Rough Science : Gather some clever scientists on a remote island, give
them a bunch of challenges and watch the fun. Science challenge :
http://www.pbs.org/roughscience |
| Scientific American Frontiers : Covers the annual robotics bakeoff
at MIT.
http://www.pbs.org/saf |
| Bullfrog Films : A catalog of science/ecology films :
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/index.html |
| October Sky : Based on the book "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam Jr. Rated
PG
http://www.homerhickam.com/osky.htm |
| Apollo 13 : Based on the real life events of the Apollo missions.
Rated PG |
| The Dish : A Delicious little comedy about Australia's role in the lunar
mission. Rated PG-13 (for strong language) |
| The Day the Universe Changed & Connections : Television series based on
books by James Burke. A wonderful ramble through the messy nature of
science, progress, invention and serendipity. Terrific education and
entertainment for kids and adults. If you have a notion of scientific
advances as being pristine, laboratory bound and developed for the purest
intentions, you have some surprises in store. |
| American Experience on PBS : American Experience has done some terrific
programs on scientists and inventors such as Edison, the mathematician John
Nash |
| Ken Burn's American Stories : Empire of the Air tells the story of
radio. A nice telling of how science and commerce come together to
change the way we live. |
| Triumph of the Nerds : A PBS series on the history of the computer -
Lively and entertaining with vignettes starring some people you might bump
into while you're downtown. |
| Decoding Nazi Secrets : A PBS Nova special on how the Allies cracked the
secret codes of the Nazis. |
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| One of the best things families can do is to read together. As
children grow older, they still enjoy the spoken word and being read to.
Here are some books that are best read by parents to children (with
appropriate edits).
| Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman : A great romp
through the life of a scientist. The mischief and joy of playing at
science spill over on most pages. Watch for a few passages here and
there that are PG-13. |
| October Sky by Homer Hickam Jr. : A hard but terrific tale of a boy
persevering against the odds to become a scientist. Some joyful
moments mixed with some hard truths about growing up in a different place
and time. |
| Uncle Tungsten : Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks :
Entertaining but with many digressions into the history of chemical
pioneers. Might inspire some interesting experiments at home.
Other books by Sacks include "The man who mistook his wife for a hat". |
| Around the World in 20 Days by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones : A
great adventure story of the first team to fly around the world in a hot air
balloon. Written as an alternating narrative between the pilots, its a
grand story of how ambition, science, luck and politics come together in
this quest to go around the world. Even though you know the ending,
its hard to resist tearing through it. You'll never see a weather
report the same way again! |
| A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman : A classic that many
kids will enjoy with their parents. |
| Longitude by Dava Sobel : The book could have been better but its still
a very accessible story of the challenge to solve the problem of determining
longitude on the seas to aid sailors and the determination of one man
untutored in science to find the solution. |
| In Code by Sarah Flannery : A marvelous book by the winner of the Intel
Science Fair and her journey through mathematics and cryptography.
Many wonderful problems to twist your mind around. |
| The Code Book by Simon Singh : If you're interested in cryptography,
codes and codebreaking, this is a must read that takes you from simple
ciphers and codes to Public Key Cryptography - the reason why you can shop
online with Amazon without being too paranoid about that charge card number. |
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| Many intriguing pieces of software are available that have a hefty bit of
science behind them or that need some scientific skills to play well.
Here are a few :
| Mathematica : If you think your calculator is cool, wait till you check
this out : http://www.mathematica.com |
| Land of the Zoombinis : Middle schoolers may outgrow some of the themes,
but the challenges are still interesting. |
| The Incredible Machine : The most fun you'll have designing Rube
Goldberg contraptions. |
| How things work : The Classic to understanding how things are put
together. |
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| From your water quality to your car's smog test, science has an impact on
the policies adopted by our government and on how we live and interact with
the environment around us. Here are some interesting links to science
and the public interest :
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| Here are some places to go stock up on science gifts for birthdays,
science supplies for your projects.
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Resource Links
