/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.6945500]

Hey /sci/ I need help.

Christmas is coming up and I have a 5 year old and an 8 year old nephew. I love my sister, but her scientific knowledge is less than adequate and I worry my nephews won't get the intellectually stimulating conversations which I had with my father that got me interested in science. As a 20 year old with a b.s. in physics I feel it my responsibility to help them get interested.

What is a good toy/game/anything that I could get them to help them get interested? No corny computer games or useless "chemistry sets" which will not further their actual knowledge.

[Anonymous No.6945570]

>>6945500
legos

[Anonymous No.6945604]

>>6945570
this, specifically those ones with the motors, gears and holes. technikes or something.

nothing teaches a kid mechanics like building a big ass Trex that can move.

[Anonymous No.6945620]

Good ideas. I was thinking about an RC car kit for one and an RC helicopter for the other nephew. Anybody have an idea where I can order good quality kits with everything they need to build it supplied by the kit? I know that if they have to buy extra equipment (soldering equipment or screw drivers) my sister won't do that probably.

[Anonymous No.6945626]

>be 7yo me
>buy plywood
>buy saw
>buy drill etc..
>use salvaged el. motor from an old toy
>make a car that goes only straight
>be frustrated noone wants me to learn how to make a wireless control mechanism
>noone cares about my thirst for knowledge
>ok, dreams trashed

>be 24 now
>dumber than ever
>3year math/phys student

the things I could learn when my brain was young, my memmory then was perfect, nowdays is pure shit

[Anonymous No.6945698]

>>6945626
I know those feels bro.

>Be 10 year old me
>Have vigorous thirst for knowledge
>Fully understand algebra and in the process of learning calculus
>All learning done on my own time
>School is a complete fucking waste of time
>School system is spiteful and refuses to let me skip grades while they cater to sports fags
>Probably could have been prodigy by age 13 if society would have pushed me and gave me the necessary resources
>Age 12 sitting in class and fellow students know how much more intelligent I am than them
>One kids hears about some prodigy on the news that's starting college at age 12
>"Hey anon I guess he's smarter than you"
>It could've been me
>

[Anonymous No.6945717]

>>6945500
The Feynman Lectures on Physics

[Anonymous No.6945722]

>>6945717
They're 5 and 8 I don't think they would have the first clue about what he is talking about nor would they be interested.

Probably need something that will spark an interest at their age, not something that can feed an interest they don't have.

[Anonymous No.6945729]

buy them a raspberry pi and show them linux from scratch
lock them in the basement until they learn how to open the door which can only be opened by a custom compiled linux kernel

[Anonymous No.6945732]

>>6945729

kekd

[Anonymous No.6945735]

>>6945698
Being a prodigy sucks ass dude, and skipping a grade is one of the worst things you can do for a kid's social development and doesn't really give them any better of an education because it's just getting them to the next level of fucking retarded elementary school bullshit sooner.

Like, I had a great time in college, smoked a ton of weed, drank a ton of beer, went to some parties, fucked a couple chicks, I guess I had a pretty shitty time in middle school but going to college when I was 13 would have completely missed out on all of that and probably still would have sucked. And for what, to get started doing research a few years sooner? You probably won't even go to as good of a university, everyone else applying has 6 years more accomplishments than you.

[Anonymous No.6945741]

>>6945698

[Anonymous No.6945749]

>>6945735
I am OP and that was my post and I see what you're saying, but what you said doesn't apply to me. I was not into that in college and that is why I still managed to graduate at 20. Sure being ahead of the game isn't for everyone, but as far as social development goes I'd say I'm still not socially developed but I really don't give a fuck. Why is society more worried about my autism rather than me making some groundbreaking discovery? Besides that, I would have enjoyed being pushed intellectually.

[Anonymous No.6945767]

>>6945500
>I worry my nephews won't get the intellectually stimulating conversations which I had with my father that got me interested in science

Why would that be so bad? Not everybody has to become a scientist.
They are your sisters children. If she has other ideas of education you should respect that.

I don't mean that you shouldn't encourage them to try science, but you should be carfull not to try to missionize them

[Anonymous No.6945768]

>>6945735
>Like, I had a great time in college, smoked a ton of weed, drank a ton of beer, went to some parties, fucked a couple chicks
all of this is useless garbage

[Anonymous No.6945773]

>>6945768
You end up with a bachelor's in physics yet nobody knows you and won't give you references

I smoke weed get friendly with profs and I get the hookups for internships because I'm not a nerd

[Anonymous No.6945778]

I had a gyroscope that I simply loved as a kid. Big tops are fun, too... rotational momentum and so on, plus they smack into each other. And my microscope, which was a cheap Sears thing but under which I saw tons of cool things. Crystal growing kit (I grew hundreds of different things... 15 years later used my knowledge of the symmetry groups in undergrad chem!), rock tumbler, gold pans... all good. I still have a big star chart that I got for my 10th birthday. And I used to have this Christmas decoration that was essentially a bunch of fibre optic cables bundled into a sphere with some lights inside. The cables bounced around crazily as the thing turned on its stand and sent beams of light everywhere, and I spent a good portion of my life learning just how the light stays inside those clear pieces of plastic. (I am still figuring out the details to this day.)

[Anonymous No.6945780]

>>6945767
It's easy for you to say when you don't have a sister who is a p bad mother

>don't be a dick it's fine if your nephew spends all his time watching cartoons or fucking with an ipad
>it's not your kid so back off
is what you are saying

[Anonymous No.6945792]

>>6945767
You're a complete fucking idiot.

[Anonymous No.6945796]

>>6945698
Be careful: I know on the basis of own experience that you will become arrogant very easily if you smarter than others. You will look back one day and you will be ashamed of how pretentious you was. You will realize that your condescending manner messed up many chances and you will regreat it.

[Anonymous No.6945810]

>>6945767

>Stop trying to impose your scientific interests on your nephews you patriarchal scum
>I think that their own MOTHER knows what's best for them
>Try encouraging your nieces to go into science for once
>The gender gap in the scientific disciplines is large enough already
>Get them some toys that will teach them to respect women instead

>15 years down the road
>One nephew majored in gender studies, the other in poli sci
>All nieces started as engineering students, but dropped out after one year because college is too hard and now spend their Saturday nights at bars
>Still expected to help nephews get respectable jobs despite their lack of useful knowledge

[Anonymous No.6945822]

>>6945780
yeah kids shouldn't act like kids they should be made to act like autistic savants regardless of their interests and what their actual parents say

[Anonymous No.6945832]

>>6945792
>You're a complete fucking idiot.
Maybe you should better try this board:
www.4chan.org/b/

>>6945780
>nephew spends all his time watching cartoons
That's exactly how I spend my youth.

>it's not your kid so back off
This. There's nothing more annoying than someone telling you how to handle your children. You're just a 20 years old bachelor, why do you think you know better than your sister how to rise up her kids?

In addition I can tell you that your nephews would not be happier if they become interested in science. I was very lonely and unhappy in my youth because nobody shared my interests.

[Anonymous No.6945833]

>>6945500
Just buy a book dude. I remember my father gave me one similar to pic related, I couldn't even understand shit, but I remember it had a comparison pic between a blue whale and a human, I got fascinated with the size of the blue whale, it was my favorite page of the book. That until I found out about dinosaurs and planets. Then I started to watch every dinosaur/space documentary I found on tv, discovery was real good at that time. This is the oldest /sci/ related experience I can remember.

Remember: Cool pictures are ESSENTIAL

[Anonymous No.6945839]

>>6945833
Any books you could recommend? Besides your picture of course.

[Anonymous No.6945865]

>>6945833
Man, i also had an older version of the big book of knowledge, shit was awesome

[Anonymous No.6945876]

>>6945865
pic related

[Anonymous No.6945879]

>>6945865
my book

[Anonymous No.6945904]

A young brain learns faster and better.
If I ever get a kid how do I give them acces to as much information and knowledge as possible? Is it just give them a computer with access to wikipedia?

[Anonymous No.6945949]

>>6945839
I don't know, sorry. I'm Brazilian so I am really not aware of what books they have there, but pic related is my book. Just look for some yourself, take one with general topics of /sci/, mine goes through engineering, biology, astronomy, phys and even some chem. Also it obviously need some cool pics, and facts. I'd say that any science book devoted to children would be compatible.

>>6945865
I know right, blue whale is fucking hot.

[Anonymous No.6945970]

>>6945879
Damn, mine don't have galaxies.

[Anonymous No.6945974]

>>6945620
be careful, the one with the car could be jealous of the one with the helicopter... But that's a good idea.

[Anonymous No.6945988]

when i was a kid, i had one of those books that showed cutaway pictures of castles and submarines and spaceships and stuff. i spent hours gazing at it

also, you can't go wrong with Lego. set 21110, the research institute, has three female scientist figures. the pieces might be a bit fiddly for a five year old tho.

[Anonymous No.6946000]

>>6945500
Legos are both fun and stimulating as fuck.

[Anonymous No.6946002]

>>6945500
Van de Graff generator

[Anonymous No.6946013]

>>6945500
teach her to be an arrogant scientist and be more superior than her peers

[Anonymous No.6946775]

>>6945988
Loved those. As a kid I would fantasize on how I would break into the castles, tear shit up and rape the females, escape and such.

[Anonymous No.6946779]

>>6945988
GODDAMN those books were the shit dude