About
I am a mom and a software engineer.
While I have found that in Sillicon Valley, "flex time" often just means "more time," I do appreciate that I have a job that lets me spend one morning a week doing something entirely different. It used to be that I considered waking up at 9am to be an early morning. Now, once a week I arrive at school before 8:30 to conduct science experiments with a group of first graders. Then I arrive at the office at 10:30 or 11am, which is still not late by the standards of my software engineering team. On other days the work at the office seems frenetic and it feels like we write software at a wild pace. However, on Tuesdays, after the enthusiam and energy of a group of six and seven year olds, it is surprising how subdued it feels to walk into the office.
I hope to teach these kids the thrill of investigation and discovery while they are still young and impressionable. I’m publishing this site to inspire others who work with kids to teach basic science and to pass on the shared wisdom that I’ve collected from various sources on the Internet.
Poeple who know me remark that it is amazing that I can find the extra time to do these science projects,but I find that Tuesday mornings envigorat me, leaving me feeling enthusiastic enough to tackle any problem, and that dreaming up science experiments for kids leaves me with a surplus of creative energy.
I don’t know where this will take me after first grade. You can read about my thoughts on other topics at the evolving ultrasaurus, a site that is not about dinosaurs.
Postscript
Jan 14, 2018
I went on to teach second grade science and this website includes those activities and experiments as well. My now grown-up son recreated this website so it would look better on the modern web. We’d love to hear from folks who find this useful, and would be happy to update the site with additional experiments, activities or notes about effective ways to teach science to kids.