You can use Valentine's Day chocolate and your microwave to perform sophisticated physics calculations! All images: Kathy Ceceri

If you’re a long-time reader, you may remember the great leftover Easter Peeps microwave experiment. Well, today we’re going to be nuking leftover Valentine’s Day chocolate to demonstrate one of the constants of physics, the speed of light. Chocolate makes a very appropriate medium, because the heating property of microwaves was first discovered by a scientist whose candy bar melted in his pocket when he got too close to a microwave device being tested for use in radar.

WARNING: This experiment may take several tries to get right. We are not responsible for any weight gained. To avoid familial strife, be sure to only do this experiment with your own chocolates or with candy which you have been authorized to access. You can probably find some leftover boxes on sale this week.

The demonstration works because microwave ovens produce standing waves — waves that move “up” and “down” in place, instead of rolling forward like waves in the ocean. Microwave radiation falls into the radio section of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most ovens produce waves with a frequency of 2,450 megahertz (millions of cycles per second). The oven is designed to be just the right size to cause the microwaves to reflect off the walls so that the peaks and valleys line up perfectly, creating “hot spots” (actually, lines of heat).

What you do with the candy is to find the hot spots and measure the distance between them. From that information, you can determine the wavelength. And when you multiply the wavelength by the frequency, you get the speed! Here’s what you do:

1. Make sure the candy is in a microwave-proof box. Better yet, take the chocolate out and put in a microwave safe dish.
2. Remove the turntable in your oven. (You want the candy to stay still while you heat it.) Put an upside-down plate over the turning-thingy, and place your dish of candy on top.
3. Heat on high about 20 seconds.
4. Take the chocolate out and look for hot spots. Depending on the candy you use, you may have to feel the candy to see where it has softened. With the cherry cordials we used, we saw several shiny spots and one place where the chocolate shell melted through, releasing the sweet syrup inside.
5. Measure the distance between two adjacent spots. This should be the distance between the peak and the valley (crest and trough) of the wave. Since the wavelength is the distance between two crests, multiply by 2. Finally, multiply that result by the frequency expressed in hertz or 2,450,000,000 (2.45 X 10⁹ for my son who is just learning scientific notation).

In our trial, we measured a distance of roughly 6 centimeters. 6 x 2 x 2,450,000,000 = 29,400,000,000 centimeters per second, or 294,000,000 meters per second. This is awfully close to 299,792,458 meters per second, which is the speed of light. Not bad for some leftover chocolate and a kitchen appliance!

I discovered this experiment at Null Hypothesis, although it can be found all over the Internet, including many versions with fancy charts and animations. By the way, melted chocolate bars are perfect as ice cream topping. Just saying.

Kathy Ceceri also blogs at Home Physics.

Image: Discovery

File this under cool science to share with your kids! Bees continue to fascinate and often surprise scientists, and this rather interesting experiment certainly falls into both categories.

In a story from the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers report that they have determined bees can learn how to differentiate between human faces. From Discovery News:

The study’s authors placed a sugar solution in front of a picture of simple symbols arranged in a “normal” face-like image — two dots for eyes, a short vertical dash for a nose and a longer horizontal line for a mouth — then rewarded the bee for going to the photo.

Dr. Arian Dyer from Monash University, Dr. Martin Giurfa from the Université de Toulouse, France, and their team conducted the study.

They then added in other dot-dash images to the mix with the symbols cramped together, others with them farther apart, and the bees continuously went to the original photo — the one most face-like and where the reward was given — even after the sugar solution was taken away.

The researchers say this proves that the bee could recognize a specific pattern and remember it as a reward source. But now they wanted to see if the insect could distinguish between more complex, more human-like faces.

Looks like these bee-utiful insects still hive a lot to teach us. Certainly they’re creating a good deal of buzz. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)

[via Discovery]

Instant Egghead Guide: Physics

You’ve gotta love a book that follows “Chapter One: Matter” with “Chapter Two: Quantum Theory.” The Instant Egghead Guide: Physics by Brian Clegg and Scientific American does just that, and then continues on through chapters about Light, Relativity, Forces and Energy. The cover calls it “60-Second Science,” and each subject is a two-page spread that takes about a minute or two to read. The chapter about matter, for instance, is broken down into subjects such as atomic structure, various phases of matter, string theory and the big bang.

Each subject has three short sections: The Basics, On the Frontier, and Cocktail Party Tidbits. The Basics is just that: a very simple, straightforward explanation of the topic at hand. On the Frontier is usually a little extra information, sometimes but not always about the current state of knowledge on a subject, or perhaps an example of how this bit of information is used in practical applications. Cocktail Party Tidbits is the fun stuff: little trivia about Einstein or a snarky remark Feynman once made.

My main complaint: the book tends to shy away from using formulas, probably to make things more accessible for the “Math is hard!” contingent, but I ran into this sentence which I had trouble parsing until I realized they were using the parentheses as in math, rather than as in English:

As mechanical work is the force applied times the distance moved, and power is work divided by time, then power is also force times (distance over time)—that is, force times velocity.

(The other potential source of confusion is spelling out “times” in a formula which also includes “time.”) I don’t know if avoiding mathematical notation really does anyone any favors or just muddles things a bit. Fortunately, this sort of thing didn’t occur too often but this particular case stood out for me.

Also, I think this is the first time I’ve read an entire physics book without a single diagram in it, which is a shame. I think a few well-constructed diagrams would have gone a long way toward making some key concepts easier to understand and remember.

Those of you who are physics geeks most likely won’t learn anything new from this book (except some nifty trivia that will come in handy next time you’re at a cocktail party, whatever that is). But if you need a refresher course—if, say, your high schooler starts asking you about things you haven’t studied since you were in high school—this is a handy book to have around.  With a little over 100 topics, you can spend just a few minutes a day and get a pretty good overview of physics in a short period of time. At the very least, it’ll help you get a few more of the jokes on The Big Bang Theory.

The Instant Egghead Guide: Physics is available from Amazon or other fine booksellers.

Wired: A broad overview of physics in bite-sized, easy-to-swallow chunks.

Tired: Some diagrams and mathematical formulas would have been nice.

Note: St. Martin’s Press provided a review copy of the book for GeekDad.

(image by user jelielsdistrurbance from Photobucket.com)

I am a geek. I am not however, a nerd. There was a time when I would upend nerds into the trash can just for being nerds. Of course, being labeled a nerd is quite subjective and sometimes the label was applied to those less deserving, but still deserving (by adolescent factors) of being tossed in the trash. This was based on purely socially derived factors, nothing more. Intelligence quotient wasn’t taken into effect. It was shallow, callous and wrong. It’s this logic that has prompted Professor David Anderegg of Bennington College to suggest that the terms “nerd” and “geek” be banned from the general lexicon.

Seeing that I write for a site entitled “GeekDad” you’d think that my first response would be confusion, followed by outrage. Perhaps. But I come from a logical school of thought with massive failures in psychology in college. So it’s my thinking that there is more to this statement than what’s on the cover. In order to understand Dr. Anderegg’s meaning, we have to understand the terms. To much debate up to this point we can agree on a majority vote that “geek” implies a certain expertise on one subject. Such as photography, computers, comics, television and so on. Whereas “nerd” has an almost strictly social connotation based on the way someone appears and behaves. You can be a geek and not a nerd, or you can be both. To me, “nerd” has not always just meant someone of great intelligence, so when I read an article about the need for more “cool nerds” in the future, what I see is simply a call for more geeks as they lack the social ineptitude that seems to plague nerds.

When Dr. Anderegg calls for the abolition of these terms from the language, he’s got to be referring more to abolishing the stereotype that comes along with them, right? I pose that as a question to Anderegg, because he must know that even if the terms themselves (which are just words) were to be stricken from the lexicon, the individuals that they describe would not cease to be and new words would be created to replace them. Then it becomes a twisted little paradox with nerds still getting tossed into the trash bin for wearing glasses from the 1950’s.

In Dr. Anderegg’s defense, this statement was meant as a wry hypothetical theory. I know that’s a bit redundant, but I phrase it that way to be clear that he’s not running a headstrong and misguided campaign to remove those words. In fact, his book “Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them” is quite contradictory to his statement, but says a lot about why he made that statement in the first place.

The world does need more nerds and geeks. Math and computer sciences, green science and so on are growing fields of study and employment. The world will need intelligent people to function in these roles. This is under the assumption that all nerds and geeks are intelligent. As I mentioned before, that’s not always the case as the terms are social identifiers. So the world needs smart nerds and smart geeks, who are classed with the rest of the nerds and geeks who are just plain social outcasts.

Which is why it makes perfect sense to obliterate the stereotype itself! Easier said than done. Growing up is rough. Especially those teenage years where in most public schools social behavior is more important to children than excelling in the classroom. This further stigmatizes the geeks and nerds and proliferates their exoneration from the circle of social acceptance. For a child to admit and embrace their geekiness or nerdiness is difficult. They will face constant opposition in their behavior but it’s for the greater good. Geeks believe in what they love and geek out about, nerds believe that suspenders and a belt are cool. See, even I’m doing it.

So it’s up to society to change the stereotype, which is exactly what is happening mostly due to the outpouring of new technologies. Every kid sitting in class texting on their phones is a cell phone geek. When I was growing up, a kid talking endlessly about video games would be labeled a nerd and ostracized. Now every kid is talking about video games. Are they all nerds? I’m a little out of touch, but not too far removed from the high school set. What constitutes a nerd these days? How about a geek? I’m thinking that one is pretty much the same.

Then there are movements such as the ‘nerdcore’ music scene. Not only does it celebrate being a nerd or geek and accepting that fact as an adult, but it expands that message to the upcoming generation that there is a community and a part of the world that accepts you for what you are, that you don’t have to pander to the rest of society.

Society has to take a role in this because the more nerds and geeks (which we are assuming are the smart people that will run this tech heavy world someday) that withdraw from the world due to social stigma the worse off we’ll be for it. The nerd that is getting pantsed right now at some high school just for being a math honk, could be the kid that was going to grow up to invent the cure for cancer. Instead, his constant social torture at the hands of his so-called peers cause him to withdraw and spend his life collecting turtles. Yeah, that’s a bit extreme, but you get my drift. This kind of behavior and stigma attacks their self confidence, things they carry with them into adulthood. I don’t expect that knowing this will change a tormentors mind, but knowing this might change the nerd or geeks mind about how they handle such behavior.

On the other hand, the world has taken a lighter view of nerds and geeks in society. They are more accepted and common place among adults with less of a social stigma. Children however, have not changed their views. That will be hard to change, and probably never will. Kids will always make fun of other kids for being different. Those are the trials we have to go through to shape us for adulthood.

So then once again it comes right around to good parenting and the role of the teacher in the classroom. If nerds and geeks aren’t stigmatized at home (sadly, as they often are) or in the classroom, perhaps the jocks and so-called “popular” kids will give them less of a hassle. I really doubt it though. What geeks and nerds need to do is exactly what they are doing: what they love to do, without regard to what other people think of them.

Which is exactly what I believe Dr. Anderegg is saying and what is being misinterpreted by the NY Times. Get rid of the negative stereotypes of being a nerd or geek, replace them with the positive stereotypes of being a nerd or a geek. There will always be nerds and geeks; how society views them is the only thing we can change.

Bill Nye speaks at Science Matters at NSTA (Photo: Jenny Williams)

A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to attend part of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) area conference held in Phoenix, Arizona, from December 3-5. More than 2000 educators were supposed to attend for this gathering on Science Education. There were hundreds of workshops, presentations and seminars to teach about developments in science and science education.

If you ever have the opportunity to attend an NSTA conference, I highly recommend doing so. It is a gathering of a bunch of teachers from all branches of science and all grades in school where you can learn about science, attend workshops about new techniques and materials and just be around people with whom you have a lot in common. Doing that kind of thing always feeds my soul, and I know I can’t be the only one.

I really wish I could have gone to the entire convention. I love being around geeks and it always makes me feel at home. I missed the keynote speech on Thursday by Ira Flatow, host of NPR Science Friday, and Friday’s session included tracks for a few different branches of science, filled with drool-worthy topics. I was able to attend the Saturday morning session, however. The hours for Saturday were only 8am to 12pm, so I had to create a sampler platter for myself, trying to experience all the different parts of the conference in just a few hours. Additionally, Saturday was special because they held an event for the general public called Science Matters (more on that below).

Taken through Galileoscope (Photo supplied by Robert Sparks)

I only had time to attend one workshop, but I picked a good one. It was called “The Galileoscope and the International Year of Astronomy” and was held by Rob Sparks. All of the participants got to assemble (and then keep!) a Galileoscope. Mr. Sparks was much more informative than the included assembly instructions, which he admitted were useless and were actually written before there was a complete working telescope! So if you buy a Galileoscope, use the building directions on the website.

The workshop started with some background information on the Galileoscope project, and then we were walked through the tools-free telescope assembly very quickly. It wasn’t too hard to build with good instruction, but you had to be very careful to arrange the lenses correctly.

Saturn, through the Galileoscope (Photo supplied by Robert Sparks)

The Galileoscope was designed for urban settings, since so many people live where there is light pollution. It comes with three eyepiece options. The small eyepiece is similar to the one Galileo used on his telescope. It is a diverging lens, which gives a right-side-up image and 17x magnification, but it has an extremely narrow field of view (0.4 degrees). The larger eyepiece has 25x magnification and 1.5 degree field of view, which is the same width as a pinky at arm’s length. It has an inverted image. The third option allows you to combine these two lenses to create a 50x Barlow eyepiece.

Despite being a very affordable telescope, it is a high quality one. The Galileoscope was reviewed by Al Nagler, who said, “It’s embarrassingly good.”

While you can’t see the quality of images that Hubble sees, with the 25x lens you can see many interesting things and follow in the steps of Galileo. See the phases of Venus, moon craters, rings of Saturn, the Pleiades, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy and track Galilean moons around Jupiter.

The Galileoscope website has many more specifications on the telescope and plenty of information to help you in your quest to see the night sky, including such resources as an observing guide and an optics activity guide.

Looking through the larger eyepiece in the telescope inside the workshop room, I could easily see pixels on the projector screen from the back of the room. Mr. Sparks said the smaller eyepiece was mostly included so you could see how patient Galileo was and how hard he worked to make his discoveries. I tried it out, though, and ended up reading “field of view” on the screen! Many people in the workshop said something to the effect of, “I have a lot more respect for Galileo.” Apparently, with that eyepiece you can’t even see a full moon all at once.

After that energizing workshop, I headed over to Science Matters, which was held for two hours. The NSTA hosted this free community science event, sponsored by the ExxonMobil Foundation, for elementary teachers, parents, school officials and community members. There were hands-on activities and plenty of things to look at and watch. NSTA describes Science Matters as “a major public awareness and engagement campaign designed to rekindle a national sense of urgency and action among schools and families about the importance of science education and science literacy.” Their goal for participants was this: “Learn how to bring science to life for your students and children.”

Many of the booths had hands-on science projects, some of which you could take home. Projects included a catapult and a Bernoulli experiment with a ball. You could also watch demonstrations with dry ice, liquid nitrogen or bags of M&Ms showing climate change.

I arrived at Science Matters to catch the end of a speech given by Bill Nye the Science Guy. He spoke on why science matters to us all. I had hoped to add him to my geeky autograph book, but he seemed a bit overwhelmed and wasn’t doing autographs.

Door prizes were given out at the end of Science Matters, and we won a Smithsonian book about creatures in the sea. As nice of a book as it is, apparently it was one of the smaller prizes. Many people walked out of there with big gift baskets full of things!

The NSTA Exhibit Hall

The highlight of the conference for me was the exhibit hall. I spent over an hour in there, going through it at lightning speed. I wish I had had several hours to peruse, discuss, ask questions and learn more. I had the unique opportunity to be there as both a member of the geeky press and as a homeschooling parent. The people at the booths plied me with all kinds of catalogs, samples and brochures. One booth (I think it was The SeaWorld/Busch Garden Adventure Camps) even had wild animals with them. And not animals like an iguana or a snake. They had penguins. And an owl. Right there in the exhibit hall. There were also plenty of text book publishers, educational material companies and concerns that make various gadgets and software. It was a geeky educator’s dream.

About the NSTA: The National Science Teachers Association was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is the “largest organization in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.” Their membership has more than 60,000 members. NSTA provides products, services and programs. They have four award-winning journals for teachers of different grade levels. They even have a publishing division, NSTA Press, which develops and produces books, websites and other products. They also sponsor the annual Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision program and the Toyota TAPESTRY grants.

The NSTA website has reviews of learning materials, plenty of educational resources, free professional development materials, a science store and many other helpful pages.

(Image: Oxford University Press)

I have often wanted to sink my teeth into real writing by real scientists, but I don’t feel qualified to dig through the endless of pages of writing to find snippets that get to the point. I don’t have time to read entire books or papers on subjects that are way over my head. So I was very glad to come across a book that had done all of the gathering for me. I can finally read what scientists themselves had to say about their chosen fields, and about life in general, all in one place.

The book is The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, and Oxford University Press was kind enough to send me a review copy. Richard Dawkins, famous biologist and Darwinian evolution supporter, put together this impressive anthology of writing by modern scientists. For the purposes of this book, “modern” is defined as being written in the past 100 years, more or less. Dawkins did much more than just assemble the writings, however. He organized and wrote introductions to each of them. The introductions give some background for the topic and, if needed, the scientist. It puts the writing in some context.

Throughout the book, all of the well-written entries teach you about who the scientists are or were, their passions, how they came to be scientists and anything else they felt moved to write. Personal experiences about their scientific careers are related. You get a view into the mind of the scientists, a glimpse into their thought processes and and an explanation of their work in their own words.

There are big names and some not so big names. The book includes plenty of scientists that I’ve heard of, such as Rachel Carson, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Leakey, Stephen Jay Gould, Oliver Sacks, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Erwin Schrödinger, Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking. There are also quite a few names that I haven’t heard of. The book is divided into four sections: what scientists study, who scientists are, what scientists think and what scientists delight in. Some of the subjects covered include: astronomy, biology, genetics, evolution, math in science, flora and fauna, ecosystems, chemistry and relativity.

Some of the 83 selections are very short and some span several pages. Some will teach you something new, others will only pique your interest and make you want to read more. I find that reading books like this one leaves me with pages of notes on things I’ve learned, and many more pages of things I want to learn. This book will give you a taste of many branches of science, many fields of research and study.

Richard Dawkins explains it best as to why this book is a great read: “This is a collection of good writing by professional scientists, not excursions into science by professional writers.”

I especially liked “Avoid Boring People” by James Watson. It contains good advice for life, not just for science. Another favorite of mine was, as always, the entertaining genius of theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. His writing is always enjoyable, and he has a way of explaining complicated concepts in a way that is easy to understand, and quite fun to read. His section entitled “The Character of Physical Law” is much more interesting than the title suggests.

Oxford sums up the book very well: “Each essay or excerpt has been selected and is personally introduced by Dawkins, producing a collection that is as wide-ranging and intellectually substantial as it is a pleasure to read.” I know this book will be picked up and read many times in our house.

Wired: This book is almost 400 pages of science-y goodness. There’s no fluff here, it’s all solid scientific thought, research and writing. For the length and content, it’s an incredibly good price.

Tired: The book only has a few diagrams and graphs, so if you’re a visually oriented person, you’ll need to work to create images in your mind.

This week’s installment of the GeekDad gift guide covers science gifts as well as green gifts. Please leave a comment if we missed any, and don’t hesitate to click on the graphic above to see more gift suggestions.

Mythbusters Science Kits
Everyone’s favorite faux scientists, the Mythbusters have been explaining things forever on their awesome show. Now they’ve come out with a small assortment of science experiment kits. Here’s two: MythBusters Weird World of Water and MythBusters Forces of Flight.

Molecular Model Kit
Connect colored spheres (the atoms!) with simulated bonds to make your own molecules! The set comes with 52 atoms, three dozen bonds of various types, and instructions. Great for classroom, home or cubicle. Buy it on ThinkGeek.com

Living Green: The Missing Manual*
Your guide for living green. Packed with suggestions and resources for living as benignly as possible. How to green your lifestyle, explore alternative power sources, and ethically source your next home improvement project. It even covers such radical notions as zero-consumption living. Buy it on Amazon.

Oregon Scientific Solar Weather Station*
Counter-top weather station detailing date & time as well as a variety of weather stats such as humidity and pollen count. Comes with two sensors, one for outside and one for inside — but you can buy additional sensors. Best of all, it has a large solar cell on the back of the unit, so it recharges as long as there is light. Buy it on Amazon

Green Toys
Made from mostly recycled plastic milk containers, Green Toys makes pleasantly colored toys for kids for kids like trucks, tea sets, sand toys, a tool set and more. The sets designed for food play are dishwasher safe and FDA approved for food contact. Buy them at Amazon.

LifeGear 6-in-1 Flashlight*
Power grid down? Don’t fret when you’re packing this 6-in-1 crank flashlight. It features a flashlight, emergency flashers, FM radio, cell phone charger, and emergency siren, making it perfect for your next society-crippling disaster. Can also be powered by regular AAAs or DC12 in. Buy it on Amazon.

Uberstix
Uberstix is a fun building set that can also link up with other major build systems as well as recyclable materials such as straws, popsicle sticks and paper cups. The company makes a wide variety of building sets from skyscrapers to pirate ships. Once you’re done building a set according to plan, use your imagination and design your own creation! Buy it at Amazon.

Anamalz
From the conventional cow and horse to the more unusual emu and reindeer, Anamalz Environmentally Friendly Animals are posable figures made out of wood and other materials for kids aged three and up. The toys are made from maple wood from sustainable forests. Each figure is handmade using waterbased paint. The fabrics are even formaldehyde free and the packages are made from recycled paper. But most of all, they are very cute. Buy
them at Amazon.

Vers Audio Bamboo iPod Dock
Bamboo has a reputation for being a green material (it’s renewable, grows quickly and pretty much anything is better than plastic). Vers, the maker of cool natural wood iPod cases, also offers the Vers 2X iPod Sound System. Hand finished bamboo makes a green statement while filling your room with 30W of premium sound. The $169 price tag includes a 14 function remote.

SolChat Solar Powered iPhone Speakerphone
When driving, handsfree talking is the way to go with your iPhone, regardless of whether it’s the law where you live. The <> lets you be doubly-virtuous with fully hands free operation combined with a solar recharger; voice dialing makes it especially appropriate for the iPhone 3GS. Scosche says the solChat’s lithium ion battery is good for 10 hours of talk time. Car charger and USB cable is also included in case your auto conversations exceed the sun’s output that day. Buy it on Amazon.

QX-5 USB Microscope
200x microscope with a twist… the images of amoeba and hangnails you stare at can be saved to your computer. Imagine the killer science reports! Also records 640×480 VGA video. Mac compatible but you need to buy the software separately. Buy it on Amazon.

Soopsori Wood Toys
These wood toys are 100% recyclable made using natural wood without paint or bolts. Soopsori has chosen 20 types of wood to create the color differences in the toys. There are no sharp edges, and the wood is finished with linseed oil. The packages are recyclable, and all sawdust generated by the company is also recycled. Toys are available for kids of all ages, including infants. Buy a few of them at Amazon, or visit their website for more locations.

This Little Piggy’s Playhouse
We reviewed the original This Little Piggy’s Playhouse for the holiday season last year, and they’re still going strong. The all-cardboard playhouse, made in the USA from 100% recyclable materials, is still a great gift for your little ones to begin testing their art skills. This year, they’ve added some premium selections in they way of hand-painted versions making them ready for play right away. The blanks TLPP is available for $49 in cardboard brown or white, and the hand-painted models II and III run $199. All can be found at This Little Piggy’s Playhouse.

Thames & Kosmos C3000 Chemistry Set
Chemistry sets have suffered a great deal of quality slippage lately, with litigation-fearful companies offering laughable experiments like making slime, basically amounting to magic tricks that don’t teach any science. But there’s still hope: the C3000 chemistry set packs 387 experiments covering 32 topics, leaving out only a couple of notable chemicals such as are used in meth labs and so on — chemicals that are easily sourced by other means. This set is definitely not watered down. Buy it on Amazon.

The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments*
And to go with your awesome new chemistry set, this excellent book. Author Robert Bruce Thompson seems to be singlehandedly trying to stave off the decline of hobby chemistry. This book helps you assemble your own laboratory if you don’t simply want to buy everything in a kit. It follows up with chapter after chapter of sensible, intelligent and challenging experiments. One surprisingly important thing this book teaches is how to follow proper scientific journal keeping procedures to record your experiments. Buy it on Amazon.

Bedol Water Clock*
Cute little alarm clock, similar to many others except for one thing — it doesn’t use batteries, any batteries. Instead, it runs off regular tap water. Just make sure to fill it up periodically, because it doesn’t even have a button cell to retain your settings. Buy it from Bedol.

Sneaky Green Uses for Everyday Things
Sneaky Green Uses for Everyday Things, part of a series by Cy Tymony, includes instructions on lots of interesting projects kids and adults can do together, using easy-to-find materials, to save energy. The book serves as a useful guide to everyday conservation while also providing a fair bit of fun. Buy it on Amazon.

Kill-A-Watt Energy Monitor
That stereo is turned off, yet still has a LED glowing dimly. Clearly it’s still sucking power, but how much? With an energy monitor like this one, now you can tell. DIYers can even able tinker with the Kill-A-Watt — for instance, Adafruit’s Tweet-a-Watt reports your energy usage on Twitter. Buy it on Amazon

Celestron FirstScope Telescope
Celestron introduced this product in honor of 2009, the International Year of Astronomy. It’s a decent first telescope at a reasonable price. 76mm aperture rather than the typical 60mm; comes with two respectable eyepieces. Very compact, the FirstScope stores well and fits on a bookshelf. Buy it on Amazon.

Beka Blocks
Nice block set made by a small company in Saint Paul, Minn. This particular set has 68 pieces. They don’t use sweatshop labor to make their toys so of course they cost a little more. Beka also does awesome kid looms and easels. Buy them on Amazon.

Suunto MB-6 Matchbox Compass
While a variety of technological innovations have reduced the value of a compass, nevertheless there remain many reasons for having one — they store indefinitely without needing batteries, and are easy to learn how to operate. If you go the compass route, you can do a lot worse than this one: Swiss-made from a design intended for World War II-era officers, and comes in a “matchbox” cover keeping the unit safe in your pack or pocket. Buy it on Amazon.

Snap Circuits PRO SC-500
Kids’ electronics learning set. Build over 500 projects using over 75 snap-together components. Lots of flashy projects to keep kids paying attention. An easy way to spark a kid’s interest in the hobby of electronics. Buy it on Amazon.

Desktop Carnivorous Plant Set
Plant seeds for more than 10 varieties of carnivorous plant, and watch the magic. Grow them to protect your cubicle from pesky insects or simply for the cool factor. Also comes with ’swamp rocks’ and ‘bog buddies’. Buy it on ThinkGeek.com.

Thames and Kosmos Power House
This model of an earth-friendly house features a solar array, green house, solar oven, air conditioner, a wind power generator and more, giving kids 30 experiments and 10 building projects. Buy it on Amazon.

*Indicates the reviewer who wrote that gift suggestion has received a free sample of the item described.