Galileo Learning Blog

Come Follow Us on Pinterest for Fun Ideas to Share with Your Kids

2012-05-16T15:24:44+00:00

Follow us to learn things like simple science experiments using candy to how to make a tabletop hovercraft to how to build a bat house. Don't miss out on the fun! Follow us on Pinterest, we promise it will be worth it!

Rubber Chickens Take Vacations Too!

2012-05-14T17:42:07+00:00

London calling!

Heeelllllloooo Buckingham Palace!

Extra dangerous for trim chickens!

Dreaming of Camilla at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.

These seats are for the birds! Only fowls, no foul balls up this high.

Philly cheesesteak whiz wit! Beef, not chicken, of course.

Finally back in California, trying not to deep fry in the sun.

Special thanks to Jessi Leary, camp director at Camp Galileo Menlo Park, who accompanied Spot, the rubber chicken, on her trip to London.

Bay Area Fun for Kids this weekend: Get Exploring Outdoors!

2012-05-11T18:49:59+00:00

Learn about pollinators while making a Mother's Day gift. The UC Botanical Gardens is holding a garden walk with a talk about pollinators, followed by making a floral themed gift for mom. The event is May 12 from 1- 2:30 p.m. and costs $12 per person, $8 for members.

Powwow! It's Stanford Powwow weekend, giving families a great opportunity to see Native American dances, drumming, and culture, up close for free. The event runs all weekend, from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.

Learn to fish! Free fishing clinics continue around the bay, but act fast, as this is the last scheduled weekend of the California Dept. of Fish & Game program. This week free fishing clinics will be offered in Novato and San Jose. In Novato, head out to Stafford Lake from 9 a.m. to noon this Saturday to learn the basics of freshwater fishing. There is a $10 vehicle charge to enter Stafford Lake. For San Jose anglers, the event is Sunday from 8 a.m. to noon at Lake Cunningham.

Celebrate the Golden Gate Bridge at the Marine Mammal Center. The Marine Mammal Center in Marin is offering a free Marine Science Sunday this weekend from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Family friendly tours and activities this Sunday will be based around celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Mother's Day Bike Ride! Cruise around Jack London Square in Oakland this Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Following the ride will be family friendly activities in Jack London Square, including crafts, a jump house, and bike check ups.

Innovation Station: Build, Think, Prototype!

2012-05-10T14:22:22+00:00

“Unpacking” A Plane Trip: Help your child understand that big solutions are made of many smaller ideas by “unpacking” all the factors that affect your enjoyment of an airplane trip: people (passengers, pilot, flight attendants, maintenance crew, places (airplane, gate, security line, parking lot), things (seats, food, inflight movies) or systems (ticket website, air traffic control, flight crew training), to name a few. It will quickly become clear that there are hundreds of things you can prototype. How can we make the food tastier? How can we better customize inflight entertainment? Have your child choose one of these questions to explore with a prototype.
Secret Prototype: Give kids ten minutes to work independently to brainstorm a problem they want to solve, and have them sketch one or more solutions to the problem. They should label the parts of their sketches and provide a descriptive caption, but should not put names on their work. Gather the sketches and have kids randomly choose one and work for ten minutes to build a prototype based on their secret sketch. Then ask kids to guess which prototype is based on their sketch.
Proto Music: The setting: Your group is a nationally recognized improvisational music orchestra, invited to play music at an important party. But disaster strikes when your luggage is lost, along with your instruments! You’ll have to make new instruments and start practicing, because the concert starts in ten minutes! Provide basic prototyping materials—anything that makes a noise can be an instrument (rubber bands, balloons, coffee cans)—or modify toy instruments such as whistles, kazoos or tambourines. Have kids start practicing on their instruments as soon as each is built. In ten minutes, you’ll have a room full of banging, clanging noisemakers. Try conducting this prototype orchestra!
Before I Paint My Masterpiece: Artists often create multiple sketches, or prototypes, of a scene before creating a piece of art. Share examples of this process by looking at the sketches of famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. Then choose a work of art, and have your child work backward by rapidly producing three sketches that the artist might have made before creating the masterpiece.
Prototype Life Forms: Look at pictures of extreme environments such as a volcanic crater, the surface of Mars, the deep sea or an arctic glacier. Challenge your child to draw or model an organism that is adapted to live in that environment. Encourage your child to come up with wild solutions, and to explore extreme adaptations. Share the designs and discuss how natural selection is similar to the prototyping process.
Prototype Fair: You can organize the prototyping process like a mini-science fair. Have teams share their prototypes along with poster board displays that describe their observations, their questions and their “experimental plan” to test their prototype.

This post was written by Jim Ratcliffe, a Bay Area designer and educator with a Master's Degree from the Learning, Design, and Technology program at Stanford University. He has been involved in education and curriculum development since 1998, and he's taught at the Stanford d.School's K-12 Lab.

Innovation Station: Getting Prepped to Prototype

2012-05-09T22:29:31+00:00

Focus on a Question: Know what you want to learn, narrow it down to one or two points and eliminate distracting elements. Build several prototypes that approach your challenge in different ways—you’ll get better feedback if you share multiple prototypes.
Build to Think, Don’t Think to Build: Working with materials and making an idea real will trigger unexpected insights. It will also help you quickly identify and solve potential challenges before it’s too late. Building to think also helps maintain energy and momentum—if a team is stuck, building a prototype can get them moving again.
It shouldn’t be perfect: You will learn more from a low-resolution prototype than from a polished model. If it is too detailed, people will be less willing to critique it and your team might be too committed to the solution they designed. And who knows? That pipe cleaner you slapped on at the last minute may provoke a breakthrough idea!
The team that holds the prototype owns the room: Prototypes change the conversation from “who’s right” to “what’s right.”
Looks Like, Feels Like, Works Like: Prototypes help us explore form, experience, and function. With kids, we often say that prototypes help us understand what something “looks like,” “feels like” or “works like.” When you are exploring an idea, try building separate prototypes to explore each of these dimensions.
Prototype Early, Often and Everything: Almost anything can be a prototype—a sketch, a model, a simulation, a skit, etc.—and almost any product, service, or system can be prototyped.

Here are some basic materials you can keep around the house to use and reuse for prototyping:

Physical Materials: drinking straws, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, toothpicks rubber bands, paper clips, paper plates, paper cups, cardboard boxes, empty water bottles, foam core board, fabric scraps, packing peanuts, wire, pens, ping pong balls, foam balls, balloons, wire ties, zip ties, Velcro, double-sided tape, a hot glue gun, magnets, old CDs, toys, Legos, playing cards, index cards
Modeling Materials: modeling clay, Fimo, Sugru, Instamorph
Digital tools: Scratch (for simple programming), Arduino (for more complex hardware/software projects), PowerPoint, Basalmiq, Omnigraffle (for simple website mock-ups), Comic Life (for storyboarding).

Win Free Camp By Helping Us Shape Summer 2013

2012-05-07T15:13:30+00:00

The winning week can be used at any of our camps, which means this contest is open to all of our campers, not only Camp Galileo families. Maybe a Camp Galileo alum will have the winning idea!

Let us know what would make a fabulous week of Camp Galileo by commenting on our Facebook page by Tuesday, May 22. Theme suggestions should be suited toward art, science, and outdoor exploration, be something we have not yet covered, and can represent subjects including:

Notable Events and Celebrations (examples: Olympics, 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge)
World Cultures, Time Periods, Tourist Attractions (examples: The Maya, New Orleans, The Renaissance, Yosemite, Taj Mahal)
Kid Passion Subjects (examples: Toys, Dr. Seuss, Pirates)
Art Topics (person, movement, genre) (examples: Modern Art, Picasso, Sculpture)
Science Topics (person, concept, invention) (examples: Einstein, Light and Sound, Cars)

To enter, leave a comment on our Facebook page sharing your ideas. Each distinct theme suggestion counts as a separate entry, with one entry allowed per day. At the end of the contest, we'll randomly select a winner for one free week at Camp Galileo, Galileo Summer Quest, one class at Chabot Space & Science Camp, or one class at The Tech Summer Camp. Winning the contest does not mean that suggested theme will be used at camp. Idea selection is an important first step in our curriculum development process that includes in depth vetting and testing.

Talk to your campers, do a little brainstorming, and start suggesting! Help us shape 2013 into something awesome!

Bay Area Fun for Kids this weekend: Celebrate Culture, Children, and Outdoors

2012-05-04T14:51:43+00:00

May Fete parade. Celebrate children and spring during Palo Alto's 90th annual May Fete parade, Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. The parade will begin at the corner of University and Emerson, and end at Heritage Park for a May Fete Fair that runs until 1 p.m.

One more celebration of culture and children: the Japantown Children's Day Festival! The free event in Japantown Peace Plaza will feature crafts, Mochi pounding, and local youth group performances. The Children's Day Festival is on May 5, and runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Math is fun! The Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival at Stanford will remind you that math is fun! The festival is a noncompetitive day of mathematical problems and puzzles aimed at getting kids excited about math. The festival will feature different tables with math challenges that are grade appropriate and overseen by an adult. It's open to students in grades 6-12, and costs $10 per student. Advance registration is recommended.

Streets Alive, Parks Alive! Meet up at Laurelwood Park in San Mateo this Sunday for a fun day outdoors, including hiking, wildlife shows, games and crafts. The free, county-sponsored event is aimed at encouraging people to visit local parks and be engaged in their community. The event is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sail away with Cal Sailing Club. Cal Sailing Club is offering a free sailing lesson on Sunday, May 6 from 1 to 4 p.m. Bring a change of clothes (in case you get wet), and sunglasses. Life vests will be provided. Children must be age five or older and accompanied by an adult.

Step into an old time learning fair! The Peninsula School in Menlo Park is hosting it's 40th annual Spring Fair, which includes hands-on fun for all ages, with a kid-safe zip line, spin art, wax hands, make your own wood crafts, stomp rockets, a robot chariot ride, and more. Imagine a very early version of the Maker Faire. The Spring Fair is May 6 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $30/family, $10/adult, $5/child, and children under 3 are free.

The Maker Faire Sneak Peek for Educators and Students

2012-05-01T18:26:34+00:00

Education Day is for anyone, from teachers to homeschoolers, regardless of placement on the learning curve. In fact, one of the goals of Education Day is to engage people who may be struggling within the traditional education system. Curiosity and motivation matter more at the Maker Faire than education level or background.

Education Day is May 17 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with 90-minute preview tours beginning at staggered times. Advanced registration is required. As an added bonus, students participating in Education Day will receive a free pass to return one day during Maker Faire weekend, May 19-20.

For those attending the Maker Faire, but not Education Day, discounted advance ticket sales end May 10. Not only is the Maker Faire an incredible celebration of innovation, but we'll be there too! We can't wait to see our friends and have fun exploring creative possibilities!

Photo courtesy of the Maker Faire.

Bay Area Fun for Kids this weekend: Sailing, Dutch Day, and Math for Movies

2012-04-27T17:25:30+00:00

Movies and Math! Get kids excited about math by showing them how it's necessary to the creation of some of their favorite films. Tony DeRose, senior scientist and research group lead at Pixar, will be at Los Altos High School speaking about how math is central to Pixar's production process. In addition, DeRose will talk about the Young Makers program and other educational initiatives supported by Pixar. The talk begins at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. Tickets are $20 for adults/$12 for members, and $7 for students under 18.

Get girls excited about engineering! This Saturday, Stanford's Colorwheel Toys will be the the Children's Creativity Museum in San Francisco leading a workshop using toy kids and hands on work to get girls interested in math and engineering. The workshop is included with admission, but spots are limited and preregistration is recommended.

Go Dutch! It's Dutch Queens Day in Golden Gate Park, near the big windmill, this Saturday. There will be Dutch games, problem solving, story telling, and an opportunity for kids to decorate their bikes. Put on by the Dutch Consulate, the free event runs from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

BMX Bike Show! Think your daredevil needs a little inspiration? Treasure Island Flea will feature the Clayton Bike Stunt Team for the event's one year anniversary, but don't let the big ramps scare you, the program will include a talk for kids on bicycle safety. The bike show is happening both Saturday and Sunday, with show times at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. each day.

Indus Heritage Day! Learn more about this south Asian culture through the first annual Indus Heritage festival in Milpitas featuring hands on activities including Indus seal, jewelry, and hat making, a Mohenjodaro walk-through, an ancient photo booth, and Indus-inspired Henna art. In addition, there will be dancing, a documentary, and a talk by an archeologist. The free event begins at 10 a.m.

Wild Cats, up close! Learn and see wild cats, which may include a cougar, snow leopard, ocelot, Siberian lynx, Canada lynx or a rare king cheetah during Wild Cat Adventure at Foothill College this Sunday beginning at 2 p.m. Learn more about each cat shown, including habitat, and what can be done to protect them. The ticket price is $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12.

Glen’s Notebook: Reflections on How Creativity Works

2012-04-26T18:16:52+00:00

I was particularly struck by Lehrer’s story of Anne Adams. Anne was a 46-year-old cell biologist who was one day overcome with the desire to paint. She had no artistic training or experience, but simply felt a new need to express herself. The new Anne painted for hours each day, and began getting high profile commissions and exhibitions. This went on for 15 years before an incurable brain disease felled her.

The disease was Frontotemporal Dementia, which impairs the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the part of the brain that controls our impulses and avoids risk. Anne’s story is not unusual—hundreds of cases of the disease have played out in more or less the same way: out of nowhere, people in previously mundane jobs start creating incredible art. Once the powerful censor in their heads is shut down, their inner self emerges.

While the ultimate result of the disease is unspeakably tragic, its symptoms reveal the possible. As Lehrer writes, the disease “shows that we all have a vast reservoir of untapped creativity. The desire to make something beautiful, to express our luminous sensations, is not a rare drive confined to those with artistic training. That same desire is present in cell biologists and stockbrokers, janitors and housewives. We don’t notice this need because the timid circuits of the prefrontal cortex keeps us from risking self-expression.”

What can Anne’s story teach us about how to nurture creativity in our kids? You’ve no doubt noticed that kids create freely in their younger years, but become less willing to express themselves in their later elementary school years. It’s no coincidence that the DLPFC is one of the last parts of the brain to develop, coming on strong around fourth grade. The trick for parents and educators, it seems, is to practice habits early that will allow children to keep their DLPFC’s in check as they grow. As Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

Here are five things you can try with your kids to keep their brains creative as they grow:

Normalize the fear that can go along with creativity. Share the basic brain science that part of our brain tries to protect us, but it sometimes goes too far. Brainstorm ideas for tricking your brain into taking creative risks.
Celebrate progress over perfection. Praise effort over outcomes.
Set the example by overcoming your own DLPFC—tap into your child-like creativity!
Choose schools, clubs and programs that nurture a creative mindset and teach creative process.
Create a weekly dinnertime tradition in which everyone shares a way they tried something new or took a healthy risk that week.

Our society needs creators and innovators to evolve. Let’s teach our kids—and ourselves—to push through the fear that comes with trying new things and access those vast reservoirs of untapped creativity.