The collection of discarded and non-working gadgets has been growing so the boys and I gathered some of them together to do some creative deconstruction. We pulled up chairs to the work bench, gathered some screw drivers and other tools, and set … Continue reading →

Eric Mazur is a professor of physics at Harvard. Like many successful academics, he was trained to teach in the same way he learned — standing in front of a room filled with students and lecturing them on the fundamentals of Newtonian mechanics (among other things). If his course evaluations ...

Look deep into the heart of postmodern EDUCATION and r e l a x Everything will be just fine.

How can I keep my children from growing into entitled little bastards?

This year, the celebrated children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth turned 50. It’s a fantastic story about a boy named Milo “who didn’t know what to do with himself — not just sometimes, but always.” It’s a book about being bored and uninterested, and discovering a whole new way of looking ...

The world needs engineers. For many of us geeks, we have an engineer in our life (or are one ourselves) and have been exposed to the impact engineering has on society and industry in the United States. For many folks in the U.S., especially teens, the glorious and productive field ...

Our girls already play the hell out of their Legos, so on a purely personal level, I don't really feel too worked up about the new Lego Friends thing that supplants traditional minifigs with girlier "ladyfig" dolls and sets...

Gene Marks, the guy who wrote "If I Were A Poor Black Kid", offers up similar advice for dads.

Over at Motion Math Games, a developer GeekDad has long admired for bringing math to kinesthetic learners, they have put their app where more apps should be – under the researcher’s microscope. They invested their own funds and partnered with the GamesDesk Institute to have a look at the real ...

We learned about gambling at this year’s vacation. The resort gave us three $10 vouchers to double any $10 bet we placed at the roulette or card tables. With the kids waiting in the lobby, I placed a two-for-one bet and won on red. I came back to announce I ...