I'm not at all that kind of parent - at least I don't think so. I just want to encourage (not force) his interest as it is an interest I share. I think that physics and other sciences open up so much understanding and awe, at least for me. You are right that strong math skills are important and...
Excellent analogy! I'll actually do just that. We have some construction work going on and a ladder is currently leaning against the house. I'm sure he'll roll his eyes at "mom" trying to be all smart... :)
Wow - thanks! I will check them out.
I remember sitting in my high school chemistry classes and thinking that I wouldn't get to do the really interesting stuff until university and I was right -- the chemistry in high school was boring by comparison. I really wanted to learn chemistry so I...
I'm a science geek and so we watch a lot of popular science shows on tv (Nova, Horizon) and I have many of the popular science books (Hawking, Kako, Greene) and magazines (Discover, SciAm, Astronomy, PopSci) so he's picked up quite a lot of physics and astronomy from these sources. When he took...
They don't do calculus until later. In fact, at his age, they don't study physics as a separate discipline. It's just one section of their "science" course and it's really basic. He does like math so that's a plus. I think what he wants is context. Why is this important to study? How is it...
Science fiction got me interested in science, enough so that I studied it in uni. I figure it's better that he is interested in popular science at his age than not. When he's reading about the LHC and the standard model, it's hard to get excited about vectors. I know there are links between the...
My 14 year old son loves reading about particle physics and astronomy but hates his physics class. He said to me, "Mom, it's all about motion and vectors. It's boring." How do I encourage him to stick out the foundational stuff when he's really interested in quantum mechanics and dark matter? Is...