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http://nerdywithchildren.com/best-science-toys-for-kids-by-age/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=best-science-toys-for-kids-by-age

We’ve discovered the best science toys for kids and teens to make learning fun!

Kids learn a lot from playing. In fact, play is a lot like science: kids make hypotheses about how the world around them works (I bet I can jump off that thing and not die) test them (SPLAT!) and report their results to a community of like minded individuals who share their quest for knowledge (Did you guys see that?). The science toys on this list let your kids play science, which will help them learn about science. By the time they hit middle school or high school, their playing at science with programming or gardening or taking apart an old car will have become actual science. As always, these age categories aren’t scientific principles—feel free to ignore them if you want.

Elementary School (Ages 6-11)

Engineer Academy Space

This is a combination activity book and papercraft space toy making kit. The box opens to contain a book on one side and a drawer full of punch-out paper models of planets and spacecraft on the other. The book explains the phases of the moon and the planets, and some cool experiments that are easy to do at home. It also includes instructions for building the paper spaceships, which for me is the main attraction. Kids can start with simple papercraft models like the planet Earth and work their way up through the Space Shuttle and Voyager probe to a three stage rocket that uses the box as a launch pad. The models can be a little fiddly—it’s best for you and your kids to work together on them until everybody gets some practice. Remember, Scotch Tape is your friend. There’s no need to be a papercraft hero.

Think Fun Gravity Maze Marble Run Brain Game

In this game, kids and their grown-ups assemble a three dimensional maze out of “gravity maze towers” to channel a marble from the top of the maze to the bottom. It’s a great choice for kids who are into puzzles. The game comes with 60 different logic challenges, some of which are hard for adults. The challenges that come with the game are only the beginning. The game is flexible: kids can build their own mazes and set their own challenges. Gravity Maze can also be a gateway to learning about electrical engineering—the mazes are similar to circuits and getting the marble to where you want it to go is similar to getting electricity to where you want it to go.

Stuffed Water Bear (Tardigrade)

This is just what it says on the tin: a stuffed animal version of a tardigrade, or water bear. These microscopic animals are famously tough: they can survive extremes of temperature, pressure and radiation. There are a lot of plush tardigrade options out there for the discerning stuffed animal enthusiast—this one is the cutest that I found.

Middle School (Ages 12-14)

Ion: A Compound Building Game

The goal of this card game is for players to form neutrally charged compounds from a hand of cards representing elements and ions. Different compounds are worth different scores, with more complex compounds netting higher scores. Players can expand the game with action tiles, which let you play more cards, rearrange the cards in play, and other feats. There are also expansion cards representing transition metals, polyatomic ions, and every self respecting middle schooler’s favorite, radioactive elements. It’s a lively game, makes an excellent vector for trash talk (another middle school favorite), and will reinforce some of the chemistry lessons that your kid will encounter in middle school.

Erector by Meccano Super Construction 25-in-1 Motorized Building Set

Okay, there’s something I need to get out of my system. Travel back in time with me, Nerdy With Children readers, to a State High School Theater Festival in the early 90s, held near a construction site at which a prominent piece of equipment bore the legend “Super Erection System”. It was hilarious when I was 15. It’s hilarious now. I can’t think of Erector Sets without thinking of the Super Erection System.

Erector sets are far more hard core and less forgiving than Lego. There are no Marvel Erector sets. Will Arnett does not host a TV program called Erector Masters, much to the relief of parents of 12 year olds. The models in this kit require close attention and more coordination than Lego does. My daughter and I have found that it helps to take breaks and build the models in multiple sessions. In the process of building the dune buggy, we’ve both learned a fair bit about mechanics and how machines fit together.  Erector is better practice for real robotics, carpentry and other making than Lego because Erector pieces are fastened with screws and bolts instead of plastic studs. If you have a contrarian kid, someone who doesn’t want to follow the Lego crowd, then maybe Erector is the creative medium for them.

High School (Ages 14-18)

Arduino and Raspberry Pi

Arduino and Raspberry Pi are platforms for serious hacking and making. I’m not an expert on either system, but I’ll do my best to explain what they are for and the difference between them. You can learn more about both systems here and here. 

Arduino is a microcontroller that can be programmed using the Arduino programming language and Arduino IDE software. It’s good for simple, repetitive tasks like opening a door or watering plants. Arduino is easier to use than Raspberry Pi, is relatively inexpensive and will run on basically any operating system. Arduino software is open source and there is a vast user community out there to consult with when you and your kids get stuck. The Arduino organization maintains a Getting Started With Arduino Products web site that’ll put you on a firmer foundation than I can. 

Raspberry Pi is a build-your-own computer that runs Linux. It can do anything the computer you’re reading this on can do: play games, run applications and control complex electronics projects like drones and robots. You can program it in a variety of programming languages, including Scratch, which your kids may already be learning in school. Although Raspberry Pi materials are not open source, there is still an extensive user community out there to support/cheerlead/commiserate with you on your software projects. Raspberrypi.org maintains a Getting Started With Raspberry Pi web site, and Make: Magazine has published a Getting Started With Raspberry Pi book.

North Spore Blue Oyster Mushroom Grow Kit

Join the Blue Oyster Cult and grow your own mushrooms! This kit contains a block of sawdust called a substrate that is pre-populated with blue oyster mushroom mycelium, as well as instructions for how to grow and harvest the mushrooms. You just cut open the box, spritz the substrate down with tap water a couple of times a day and the mushrooms take it from there. North Spore sells kits for growing many different types of mushrooms, but they say that the blue oyster mushrooms are the easiest to grow. Growing their own food can give your kid confidence at a time when they really need it. Plus, blue oyster mushrooms are packed with riboflavin, and who doesn’t want more riboflavin? For more information about fungi and how awesome they are, take a look at Merlin Sheldrake’s book Entangled Life.

The post Best Science Toys for Kids By Age appeared first on Nerdy With Children.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-killing-of-kenneth-chamberlain-interview-with-frankie-faison/

Frankie Faison is a seasoned actor whose distinguished career spans nearly five decades in theater, television, and film, including Do the Right Thing, the HBO series The Wire, and the Cinemax series Banshee. Now, he’s giving an extraordinary performance in his latest film The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain, based on a true story.

BGN had the opportunity via telephone to speak with Faison about this life-changing role and what he wants people to walk away knowing from the film.

What about this role grabbed ahold of you? Why did you want to take on the role of Kenneth Chamberlain?

The humanity. He’s passionate about his family. He’s passionate about life, and he just happened to get caught up in a bad situation. It ended up being the thing to take his life. He was a man who was wearing a medical alert system to save his life, and when the thing goes off accidentally, it ended up inviting the bad, bad law enforcement people to his home. That ended up being the thing that cost his life. I have a very dear, close connection to who this man was. I felt it from the very first time I read the script. I felt that I could be very good at telling his story and revealing it to people who come and see this film.

This role was obviously very emotionally and physically challenging. How did you go about preparing yourself for it?

It was certainly the most physically, emotionally, mentally challenging role that I’ve ever done on film in such a sustained way — from the beginning, to the middle, to the end. As an actor, what I do is depend upon the writing of the writer. Then I just give myself to what is going on in the scene and what is going on physically around me. All those elements filter through me as I present the challenges in this role.

The thing about it is, we had such a short time to film it. From the very first moment that I read the script, he began entering my body, my spirit, and my soul. So, by the time we finally started filming, he was there. I just had to sustain him and not let myself get distracted by other things.

The director of the film, David Midell, said that he is “drawn to stories that ask questions about how we, as a society, treat our most vulnerable citizens.” What did you focus on to ensure Kenneth Chamberlain’s humanity came through in the film?

Well, the honesty of who he was and what he was saying. We talked about his bipolarism and his PTSD from the time he was in the war. We talked about them, but we didn’t focus on them. We didn’t make the film about that.

I think David was very good about that. He did it very subtly in the film but enough to see that it’s there. He is very much an advocate for making sure that people with mental health issues are treated right by any establishment — law enforcement, health providers. He has had a lot of experience in that. He didn’t have to speak to me a lot about that. He lives it in every aspect of his life and the way that he carried himself on the set, with people and with me. He was always so careful to make sure that I was comfortable. We were a very small film with a very small budget. But that doesn’t mean anything if you have the right responsible people leading the show.

There was a particular scene in the film when he had the last phone call with his son, Kenneth Junior. It was agonizing and heartbreaking to watch — the fact that he cared more about what could happen to his son than himself.

Yes, that goes back to what I saw in this character that I felt in myself. I very much believe in family and family values, and the protection of your family. You see that he could be in the throes of guys banging at the door and going through shock, and then he would speak to one of his family members and be as calm as a cucumber. It’s because he wanted to let them know that he was okay. He didn’t want them coming over there rushing into something and get in harm’s way.

I found it very moving because I’ve met his son and I see what an amazing man he is. It always brings a tear to my eye as well because he’s saying to his son, his sisters, his niece, “I’m fine. Don’t come here, I’m fine.” But in his head, you can see there’s all kinds of things that are going through it. I think it has something to do with him being focused on the moment and making sure that everything is good for everybody else. I agree that it’s one of the most moving moments in the film.

One of the things that stood out in the film were all the preconceived notions towards the main character. In terms of conducting welfare checks, how do we combat those attitudes?

I think one way is having people see this film and use it as a learning tool. We all have preconceived notions about certain things. You go to a low-income apartment, and your expectations are that the people aren’t doing well, they’re not educated, or they’re using drugs. I think it’s important to know that behind those doors are some of the most brilliant minds you’ll ever find — some of the most sensitive people you’ll ever discover. The only way to break stereotypes is to open people’s eyes and allow them to see stories like this.

What do you want people to walk away knowing after seeing this film?

One thing I want them to walk away with is a better understanding of what a crisis situation can do to a person. This could be the people who are responding to the crisis, as well as the person who is in the crisis. This crisis Kenneth Chamberlain was in was not self-provoked. It was provoked by outside forces. So, I want them to walk away knowing that behind every murder, behind every interruption of someone’s life, there is a real person who has the same kind of feelings that anyone else might have.

I want people to be shaken a bit. Every time I see the film, I’m shaken myself. I’m seeing it as an observer, rather than someone who actually did it. It upsets me to a great degree. I can never watch it without crying.  

Kenneth Chamberlain was a man who lived a simple life, and was not just a victim or number. He was a loving, family man. He was a military man — a marine — and fought for his country. He was all those things. At the end of the day, he ended up being a victim of a terrible invasion by the people who were supposed to be protecting him.

The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain will release in theaters and on-demand on September 17^th from Gravitas Ventures.

https://www.themarysue.com/y-the-last-man-dystopia-fatigue/

Timing is a curious thing that can make or break the entertainment we consume. As time goes on, our collective tastes change and mutate, both on an individual and societal level. Jokes that were permissible a decade ago are no longer culturally acceptable (if they ever were to begin with). Technology catches up to or surpasses science fiction’s future predictions, or disregards them entirely. And sometimes, art from the past collides brutally with our present day lives.

When Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s comic book series Y: the Last Man debuted in 2002, its creators had absolutely no idea that less than two decades later, the world would be gripped by a pandemic. But here we are, with Y: The Last Man premiering on FX on Hulu 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Much like Hulu’s sister series The Handmaid’s Tale, which slammed into pop culture consciousness in the first months of Donald Trump’s presidency, Y: The Last Man catches us as we struggle with our own global reckoning.

After a mysterious Event wipes out every living creature with a Y chromosome, throwing the world into chaos, Congresswoman Jennifer Brown (Diane Lane) becomes President of the United States after the line of succession is decimated. Jennifer assembles a dedicated team of women to rebuild, but her plans are upended when she learns that her son Yorick (Ben Schnetzer) and his monkey Ampersand are the only living beings with Y chromosomes who survived the Event. Facing massive unrest fueled by widespread conspiracy theories, Jennifer teams up with covert operative Agent 355 (Ashley Romans) to keep Yorick’s survival a secret and transport him to Dr. Allison Mann (Diana Bang), a top geneticist who may be able to discover how he survived.

The first two episodes of the series masterfully build the suspense and dread that we know is coming. And when the men start dying, viewers are plunged into the terrifying chaos of half the global population suddenly being gone. Television is positively littered with series about the apocalypse, most notably AMC’s blockbuster franchise The Walking Dead. And much like TWD, Y: The Last Man focuses on the survivors: those struggling to right an upside-down world, and those ready to pour gasoline on the flames.

But where TWD often revels in the carnage (as one does in the zombie genre), Y: The Last Man dials into its characters. The first two episodes introduce not only the main players, but their relationships to the men in their lives, making it all the more devastating when the Event occurs.

And make no mistake, it is devastating. The qualifier “as a parent” is overused and clichéd, but as the mother of a son, it was almost too intense to watch, and for those who cannot stomach the series well, I get it. But Y: The Last Man doesn’t seem interested in becoming misery porn. There is so much more to the series, which oscillates between political thriller, spy caper, and yes, moments of comedy.

This is largely thanks to its killer cast. While Schnetzer’s Yorick is an amiable escape artist with a romantic streak, it’s the women who really command the series. In the ensemble drama, Lane shines as the capable president struggling to make sense of the end of the world. Beside her are stellar performances from Ashley Roman as hyper-competent Agent 355 and Amber Tamblyn as Kimberly Campbell Cunningham, a Meghan McCain surrogate with frighteningly authoritarian tendencies.

Y: The Last Man has already set up a cast of nuanced, richly developed characters while also covering the narrative ground of the first few issues. And despite the intensity of these early episodes, I’m eager to see how the series shapes its tone going forward. Showrunner Eliza Clark promised “so much adventure” in future episodes. Will Y: The Last Man avoid the mistakes made by series like The Walking Dead and The Handmaid’s Tale, which doubled down on despair and torture porn? Your mileage (and mine) may vary. Will it become something else entirely? Time will tell, but in the meantime, they’ve set the table for a terrific season of television.

That was intense. But I promise, there is so much adventure on the way. #ytlmwatchparty

— Eliza Clark (@TheElizaClark) September 14, 2021

(image: Rafy Winterfeld/FX)

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The post Can Y: The Last Man Surmount Our Dystopia Fatigue? first appeared on The Mary Sue.

https://www.themarysue.com/trump-pence-fight-friendship-over/

Another day, another book going behind the scenes of the presidential administration we wish we could Eternal Sunshine out of our brains entirely. The latest installment in this series is Peril, from veteran journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. And like the others, I look forward to never reading it, but I am enjoying the titillating anecdotes coming out ahead of its release.

According to Woodward and Costa (as relayed by CNN), the last few months of Donald Trump’s time in office were just as tumultuous as they appeared to be from the outside, and possibly even more so. Trump’s advisors worried he “had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election,” and after the January 6 Capitol riot, he was “now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.”

Trump tried to get others, including Mike Pence, to adopt that “alternate reality.” On January 5, he and Pence met in the Oval Office, where Trump pressured his vice president to help him overturn the election results. Pence—evil in his own right but still not trying to make the U.S. a full dictatorship—reportedly tried to convince Trump that he did not have the power to singlehandedly decide the outcome of an election, and that he “wouldn’t want any one person to have that authority.”

Trump’s attempts to convince Pence otherwise read like a child’s tantrum, confined by a child’s logic. He asked if Pence thought it would be “almost cool to have that power.” He threw a fit when Pence apparently wasn’t swayed by how “cool” it would be to go full authoritarian.

“No, no, no!” Trump shouted, according to the book. “You don’t understand, Mike. You can do this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.”

The next day, while would-be insurrectionists stormed Capitol and chanted “HANG MIKE PENCE!” with actual gallows sitting outside, Trump fueled their rage by tweeting that his VP lacked “courage”—Which I suppose is as clear a message of “friendship over” as you can send.

Just in case we walk away from this anecdote thinking Mike Pence has anything resembling principles, another story from the book—this one as relayed by the Washington Post—makes it clear that was not the case, and that it actually took the coaxing of fellow former VP Dan Quayle to convince him to stand up to Trump.

From the Post:

So intent was Pence on being Trump’s loyal second-in-command — and potential successor — that he asked confidants if there were ways he could accede to Trump’s demands and avoid certifying the results of the election on Jan. 6. In late December, the authors reveal, Pence called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, for advice.

Quayle was adamant, according to the authors. “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,” he said.

But Pence pressed him, the authors write, asking if there were any grounds to pause the certification because of ongoing legal challenges. Quayle was unmoved, and Pence ultimately agreed, according to the book.

I really was not expecting our Democracy to hang on the words of Dan Quayle, but here we are.

(image: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

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The post Gigantic Baby Donald Trump Reportedly Told Pence He Wouldn’t Be His Friend Anymore if He Didn’t Help Him Do a Coup first appeared on The Mary Sue.