Education | Page 21 of 41

A conversation with Dr. Scott Viguie, AKA Doctor Geek at Dragon Con

Subscribe: RSS

Education, especially STEM based education can be tricky thing for some students and educators. It’s frustrating for parents too because STEM based jobs will grow by 5.5 million jobs between now and 2022. Doctor Geek’s Laboratory hears you and is there to help you in many ways that you may not even know you need help.

As part of Dragon Con we interviewed Doctor Scott Viguie. He’s has two doctorate degrees, is an archeologist, attorney, actor and author. His life story is nothing short of impossible, inspiring and fascinating. Growing up with Cerebral Palsy, his thirst for knowledge, natural curiosity and determination offer lessons that anyone-regardless of their passion for science, technology, engineering, art or math can learn from. Yes, art. Dr. Scott Viguie, AKA, Doctor Geek incorporates ‘Art’ into his materials. His podcast, Doctor Geek’s Laboratory is more of a radio soap opera than podcast. It presents real science lessons that people can learn from. It’s science inspired by fiction that applies itself to home scholars, students who want to be entertained while they learn or just folks looking to hear a top notch podcast.

The Pursuit of the Pesky Pizza Pirate draws in young readers with doodles

The Pursuit of the Pesky Pizza Pirate is a book that if for the kids that like to doodle. The daydreaming kids that draw dancing robots, enjoy snow globes and yearn to be stuck on a pirate ship eating pizza. At some point in time that description applies to most 9 year old kids. If that’s you, or that sounds like your child then you’ll want to explore this book, but be warned, it’s best done with a pencil and a reader who’s quick at the draw.

Continue reading The Pursuit of the Pesky Pizza Pirate draws in young readers with doodles

The Snurtch, a fun book for kids about their id, ego and behavior

What is a Snurtch? A Snurtch is that (id) inside all of us that does the opposite of what we should. My adult Snurtch makes snide or sarcastic comments when they’re not needed. Thankfully the adult version of my Snurtch is rarely seen. For children though their Snurtch is seen on a daily basis and that is the premise behind The Snurtch. The book follows Ruthie, a typical first grade student who likes school, but has a problem with her Snurtch when she’s there.

Continue reading The Snurtch, a fun book for kids about their id, ego and behavior

The Late Jurassic, detailed, educational-all age, dinosaur book

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Both of our children loved dinosaurs. This is great for us because we like dinosaurs too. We’ve saved all of the dinosaur toys and models that they have (Dinovember!!!) and are still thankful that one of our kids is in this zone. The problem for parents and therefore young children has always been a lack of all age accessible dinosaur books. They’re too cartoonish or detailed for the short attention span that young children have. Early Earth Journal, The Late Jurassic by Juan Carlos Alonso and Gregory S. Paul fills this void of dinosaur books perfectly.

Continue reading The Late Jurassic, detailed, educational-all age, dinosaur book

How This Book Was Made, brilliant, unusual and really funny

How This Book Was Made is the latest book by Mac Barnett. The book’s illustrations are from Adam Rex and together they’ve made one of the most difficult to categorize, utterly strange and wildly enjoyable books we’ve read in a while. From the title you’ll think the book is an inside joke at how an author perceives a book’s creation process-and to an extent you’re correct.

But then you’ll dig into How This Book Was Made and see Barnett arm wrestling a tiger. We’ll meet his editor who eats fancy lunches in her skyscraper while wearing a tiara. Barnett’s multiple drafts will also be sent across the country, leaving dotted line like Billy from The Family Circus. The tiger returns with a fox, octopus, seagull, chef, panda and more to confront the author and look over the draft.

Continue reading How This Book Was Made, brilliant, unusual and really funny

Dog Man by Dav Pilkey takes the baton from Captain Underpants

If you have a young reader then you know Captain Underpants. He’s the erstwhile principal who fights evil while wearing his underwear and is often assisted by George Beard and Harold Hutchins, two fourth grade students. It’s also the publishing juggernaut that’s seen millions of books in dozens of languages, a feature film in the summer of 2017 and Dog Man is the character that started it all more than 40 years ago.

Continue reading Dog Man by Dav Pilkey takes the baton from Captain Underpants

The Pinkaboos, middle school fright-friendly books scare up courage

The Pinkaboos are a group of friends who are Frights that are being picked on at school. The bully, Vex, is an older student who picks on Bitteryly, Belladonna and Abyssma for no reason other than the fact that they’re younger than her. It’s the job of a Fright to help their assigned human conquer the fears that they encounter during a nightmare. Vex refers to them as Pinkaboos because they attend Fright School, and pink is the farthest thing from scary, isn’t it?

Continue reading The Pinkaboos, middle school fright-friendly books scare up courage

Kids want science to make sense-what do you do to help that?

This is a sponsored post, all thoughts are our own. As an ex-educator I know that teaching our kids about STEM is incredibly important. All you have to do is look at what jobs companies are hiring for and you’ll see its backbone of science, technology, engineering or math somewhere in that job description. Bayer recently conducted a study, which revealed exactly what parents are thinking and doing when it comes to educating their kids in science outside the classroom. From helping your child’s teacher to tips for the homeschooling parent it’s got at least one insight that proves parents need to embrace science learning and keep kids interested in science.

Continue reading Kids want science to make sense-what do you do to help that?