science and natural history

You are certainly not alone!
I find that nature walks, even just round the garden, are a great way to keep the grandchildren entertained. My grandson (8) has a great interest in geology, sparked off by collecting various types of pebbles from an early age.

If you've read Gerald Durrell's books you may remember his tutor and mentor, Theodore Stephanides. I would have loved to have such a figure in my life. My grand-daughter has just turned two but I've already started introducing her to the wonders of our cosmos.

Thanks for the feedback. I have a long distance relationship with my grandsons but want them to grow up to wonder at and understand the natural world around them. The eldest is two and like you PoppaRob we think the night sky is a good place to begin. He's showing signs of interest at growing things and creepy crawlies too. Any suggestions for starter books /identification guides he can use with his parents. Good luck to your grandson Joanniek, both my daughters are geologists and it's a great career as well as a fascinating hobby.

Hi Joyce44. I include everything in the cosmos, but I agree that the night sky is full of wonder for littlies. One night when my grand-daughter was staying over we watched the clouds scudding across a full moon and she was in utter awe! She and I are starting a garden in the very back section of my backyard. I'd upset an ant nest and they were busy doing anty things so we left some sugar in their trail and watched the ants hard at work taking it back to the nest. Like all toddlers she has the attention span of a goldfish, but I think we're making a good start!

What a wonderful grandfather you must be ..... In years to come your grand daughter will remember things like that more than anything! Just proves that you don't have to spend money to entertain children.. all they need is our time, and experience... and the love they deserve.

I was bad at science at school, though I always wanted to be good at it. I just couldn't understand the stuff in physics and chemistry. I loved biology and did well at that. I still love love natural sciences, and always consider the biology when I plant things in my garden.

I learned a lot from Richard Dawkins' book 'The Greatest Show on Earth'. It is partly about evolution, but it also acts as a very effective science tutor for those of us who didn't learn the stuff at school. For instance, I didn't even know what the periodic table was till I read the book, but it was all explained so well.

My husband loves astronomy and has a great astronomical telescope. We're still waiting for grandchildren, but when they come he'll be able to share it with them.

Does anyone watch that Lancashire lad, Prof. Brian Cox on TV? He explains the solar system so well. Not bad to look at either!!

Hi PoppaRob,
Regarding anty things. My Mum used to put an upturned flower pot on top of the ants nest, a few days later you can remove the pot and find a 'sand castle' underneath with the nest showing galleries and eggs which the ants will work hard at to move into the dark. Replace the pot and look again next day. It doesn't seem to bother the ants but will entrance the children, it certainly did with me and then with my own children.

Brian Cox, yes definitely. Had to watch every one because my son's astrophotography was used. My son has an observatory in his garden and astronomy is a part of daily life for the children.

There's some excellent info in here! I just ordered a copy of 'The Greatest Show on Earth' from an eBay seller, and we'll have to try the flower pot penthouse for our resident ant nest!

Re Dawkins... did anyone else have trouble getting into "The Selfish Gene". Like Joan, I struggled with Physics and Chemistry so I settled for Biology the following year and totally loved every second of the subject. I've tried several times to really understand some of the material in The Selfish Gene, and despite having read it twice I have to confess that some of it just didn't click.

PoppaRob, you'll find some bits of Greatest Show on Earth a struggle, but most of it is fascinating. I haven't tried The Selfish Gene yet - must get it from the library and see how I get on.

@Joan... Dawkins is very much into memes, and to me they tend to be a bit of a lame attempt to explain something that's fairly commonsense and obvious anyway. In my simplistic world everything comes down to genetics or environment so going off on the meme path and muddling environment into a book on genetics is as disappointing as the xtians and their oxymoronic intelligent design.

Join www.naturedetectives.org.uk/

There are all kinds of factsheets and activities for children of all ages.

Hi Joyce 44 and Joanniek

You are certainly not alone! I did a degree (as an extra-mature student) six years ago in geology and now work one day a week as an unpaid volunteer at the Natural History Museum in London, where we are trained to explain natural history through the handling of specimens to all ages - from 2 year olds to grandparents ...... it is the BEST fun. I agree - collecting things is the best way to learn. Science is all about looking at objects, thinking about them and comparing them with similar/slightly different things.

I am thinking of buying a microscope to keep here at home so that when our grandchildren are a bit older (the first is just one, the next still on the way) I can show them the incredible excitement of nature, before I lose my marbles.

One piece of advice from an NHM scientist - NEVER buy grandchildren a "child" microscope. They (1) don't work and (2) don't last.

You science people please have a look at my topic just started on Climate Change. I've also started a topic on energy. I am trying to convince gransnet & mumsnet that they should start a branch called climatenet. I think they may be interested if there is enough enthusiasm from people. This is about the future of our grandchildren and probably about the future of life on the plant. We owe our children and grandchildren for having messed up. Please support my plea to have climatenet: a place to discuss how we can reduce our carbon footprint - and also to put forward ideas big & small.

I'd like to put my hand up as well. Ex science teacher. Been writing a book on a scientific/medical subject, nearly there now. Planning to publish on Amazon electronically. I have really enjoyed getting back into Biology while working on this project. There is a great website called Science Daily that has short articles on the latest research findings.

Looks like gransnet scientist don't care much about Climate Change

Teach him to be sceptical. It's the most useful tool a scientist can have (and anyone else).
cc stop worrying. The planet can look after itself.

Yes, of course it can - it will just get rid of the humans if they don't look after it. Ever heard of the Gaia hypothesis?

Yes, I know about the Gaia hypothesis. I read Lovelock's book The Revenge of Gaia some years ago. Of course humans will go extinct. 99% of all living things there have ever been have gone extinct. Why should we be different? It's just a question of when. People who worry about global warming think that will cause problems that will hurry along our extinction. I understand that. However, there are new and interesting scientific facts coming to light all the time including this one from yesterday, a link to which I attach below. I include this one example out of many to illustrate why I'm not convinced that we know what is going to happen, or when, or how it will affect us, and therefore that there is no point in spending billions of dollars trying to prevent the unknown when we already have enough problems that we do know about and can do something about. During the Maunder Minimum temperatures dropped and cold is much more damaging to life than warmth.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/14/the-major-aas-solar-announcement-suns-fading-spots-signal-big-drop-in-solar-activity/

Currently, the sun is in the midst of the period designated as Cycle 24 and is ramping up toward the cycle’s period of maximum activity. However, the recent findings indicate that the activity in the next 11-year solar cycle, Cycle 25, could be greatly reduced. In fact, some scientists are questioning whether this drop in activity could lead to a second Maunder Minimum, which was a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 when the sun showed virtually no sunspots.

Baggythecrust: The current edition of New Scientist says, regarding the "prolonged lull" that: solar scientists say that this would "slightly cool the Earth, but the effect would be far too small to offset global warming".
However, any such cooling could really only partly mask the greenhouse effects for a few decades. This is what atmospheric industrial pullution did for many years. It would not make any difference to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere in the end. There are all sorts of things that affect the climate like El Nino and La Nina. Its probably true that the sun spots, or lack of, plus La Nina helped make our recent bad winter. But none of this alters the facts about CO2 causing the greenhouse effect. The amount of CO2 we end up with depends on how much of our fossil fuels we use up - and it does not make any difference using it up slowly either. You just cannot wish it away....

The scientists I know call New Scientist a comic.

Well, there you go then.
The scientist I know think the climate change deniers are in the pay of the multinationals and the petrochemical industry.

Baggy and anyone else interested: Re things that (temporarily) mask climate change, I have just come across an interesting article on the cooling affects of pollution (the old fashioned sort!) in India and China where the "industrial revolution" is still happening. This just shows how complicated it all is and that you just cannot take one example and extrapolate it to cover the whole planetary eco-system.
I have been accused (mistakenly) of posting a lot of stuff from the internet (which I haven't) but I really do think this is very interesting (and its not trying to make a point).
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-climate-sulphur-idUSTRE7634IQ20110704

I'd like to make a suggestion. Instead of hijacking several forums - all with different titles but ending up with the same old stuff - why not start one called CARBONCAREFUL and confine your hectoring to that. Then we'd know exactly what to expect if we go on to that specific one (or could choose to ignore it). I do not suggest for a moment that we ignore the issues, but we could more easily opt out of the lecturing mode to which we are subjected.