Guess what would be delicious right now. That’s right. Candy! At least that’s what this 1960 Drive-In Movie ad tells us. This 20 second clip is a neat study on branding. While the ad itself is as cheesy as anything ever shown on the big screen, the fact that the candy seen in this almost 50-year-old ad is still around is interesting. M&Ms, Baby Ruth and even Butterfingers. Hmmmm…

26 second clip. 1960 Drive-In Movie ad.

Like many of you, I like to read a few reviews about a product before commiting to a purchase. I did this with Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm Gel Colony and was surprised to see so many bad reviews at Amazon. But for me, the lure of this ant farm was just too cool to pass up. I was thinking that most of the reviewers who gave it one star just didn’t know what they were doing, and no way would I fall into the same traps. First off, ordering live animals through the mail is always a tricky proposition. If you live in Anchorage and are trying to order their ants in December, they’re probably not going to send them. Now I can echo some of the comments that Uncle Milton’s weather requirements for sending the live ants is a bit stringent. I live in a moderate climate and ordered them in what I thought was warm enough weather. But after reading the reviews, I also went to another supplier and bought a couple more tubes for about $5 each (including shipping). This supplier had them to me in a couple of days and almost all of them arrived alive. My recommendation is to send in the certificate to Uncle Milton, wait a while and if it takes too long or you get ants in poor shape, go to AntsAlive.com and order them there. They don’t have the prettiest website in the world, but their service was great.

Another lesson learned… do read the instructions about putting the ants in the habitat. Put them in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to get them to calm down first. Even then you have about 90 seconds to get them into the ant farm before they wake up enough to start crawling all over the kitchen counter. I did this with my wife upstairs, hoping I would be done before she came down. I wasn’t and was scrambling all over the place trying to catch the rogue ants. She wasn’t real happy with my choice of locations for filling the habitat.

Another recommendation- don’t put two entire tubes into one habitat. I did this (after reading the reviews about too many ants dying). Alas, my ants did not die and I had way too many for one habitat right from the start. I ended up buying and connecting the Original Uncle Milton Ant Farm to it just to give them some breathing room. I thought this would be a neat experiment anyway, learning which substrate the ants would prefer- the gel or the standard sand. It turns out, they don’t seem to care. they dug some great tunnels in both and seemed equally at home in either. I will say that they are much cooler to look at in the gel though.

Overall, I can recommend either of the Uncle Milton Ant Farms. They’re great science kits and if your expectations aren’t way too high regarding the whole process, you probably won’t be disappointed.

Many of us have heard about the “Mitochondrial Eve,” our earliest ancestor who lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago. A Stanford University study, reported on today at CNN, has concluded that our species became precariously close to extinction about 60,000 years ago. Very interesting. Considering that we have almost 7,000,000,000 people on Earth now, that as recent as 60,000 BCE our species may have numbered at only 2,000 is remarkable.

In a nutshell, the report mentions that little is known about our ancestors between Eve’s time and the time we first started migrating out of Africa. And that this near-extinction was the result of climatological shifts and a series of severe droughts in eastern Africa between 135k and 90k years ago.

The researchers … concluded that humans separated into small populations before the Stone Age, when they came back together and began to increase in numbers and spread to other areas.

Spencer Wells of the National Geographic Society summarizes it nicely: “Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA.”

And Paleontologist Meave Leakey: “Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction?”

Check out the CNN story in it’s entirety. Really a thought-provoking read.

While the toy industry is fairly seasonal and toy recalls can dominate the media during the holiday peak season, it helps consumers to remember that recalls happen throughout the rest of the year as well. This is another instance of– if an organization is doing their job well, we rarely hear about it. For example, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission is doing their job well, unsafe toys don’t reach our stores’ shelves and there is no public outcry about an excessive number of recalls. Of course the CPSC should be commended for the greater good their public service provides.

Unfortunately, many of our politicians are claiming that the CPSC has been neglected by the current Bush administration. Last month (March 2008), the U.S. Senate took some admirable steps to correct this and voted overwhelmingly in favor of doubling the size of the CPSC’s staff and boosting their budget by almost $450 million over the next four years. CNN’s Lesa Jansen wrote an excellent piece on this legislation in March.

Other good news coming out of this bill is the agency is required to lower the limits on the acceptable amounts of lead paint in toys. The CPSC’s staff is currently about 400 strong and they will be adding an additional 500 staffers by 2013.

All this should bode well for the American consumer over the next couple of years. While it may seem to many that toys coming out of China are the biggest culprit when it comes to importing unsafe, lead-tainted toys, the reality is that there are a relatively small number of unsafe toys being imported. As the vast majority of our imported toys do indeed come from China, it is understandable that the majority of our recalled toys will be from there as well. Be aware though, that this doesn’t automatically label toys made in the U.S.A as being “safer.” The CPSC monitors the safety of all products, and again, when they do their job well, we likely never hear about it. Of course, an unsafe product harming any of our citizens is a tragedy, and it can be particularly devastating when the product is a toy and the citizen is one of our children.

The best advice for consumers may be to simply keep aware of what’s going on regarding recalls. The Consumer Product Safety Commission keeps a current list of all recalls available to anyone wanting to know. Do your research and you’ll find there are plenty of great options for purchasing safe toys. Check out Atomic Elephant Toy for their selection of safe, fun educational toys. And if you’re still trying to buy toys made somewhere other than China, their Quercetti Marble Run Roller Coasters are made in Italy and all of their DuneCraft terrariums and greenhouses are made here in the United States.

I read an article recently that addressed the question, “Is nuclear power going to make a comeback in the 21st century, and if so, will it make any real impact on global warming?” Of course these questions bring forth many other questions but I couldn’t help but take away my own answer of “not likely.” The CNN article made the relevant point of why nuclear power is back on the agenda- because climate change demands we do something. Nuclear power is practically carbon neutral (at least when compared to standard fossil fuels), and no scientist would argue that it isn’t a far cleaner source of power. With the publicity and media attention global warming has been getting, I expect alternate energy sources will only continue to get more attention over the next few decades.

In a nutshell, here’s our current process. Today’s nuclear power plants are fission reactors. This means they rely on splitting heavy atoms (like uranium) to produce gamma radiation, which in turn produces heat which is converted to steam and power, etc., etc. While this process is indeed mostly carbon neutral, it does require a lot of water. So much so that France had to turn down their power production in 2003 because of a drought. Also, another byproduct is that heated water is often returned to its source and thus can negatively impact that ecologic system as well.

An alternative being looked at today is fusion power plants. This is basically the opposite of splitting atoms, and involves using very high temperatures to fuse atoms. This process would produce more energy than fission reactors would and also give off far less waste. The major hurdle for this right now is the expense and time it would require to make commercial fusion plants viable. Scientists predict that at best, there won’t be any fusion-powered electricity until about 2045.

Like many who are looking forward to a greener future, I welcome anything that moves us toward making this a reality. After reading the article I found myself asking what I could do as an individual to help. The short answer is probably not enough. What I decided to do is write these brief thoughts in the chance that someone else might stumble upon them and ask themselves the same question. One other thing I’m vowing to do is to start teaching my children about the importance of renewable energy and anything else I can to stress upon them the importance of thinking about tomorrow’s problems today. There are lots of cool science toys and kits today that focus on teaching children with environmental science kits using green science and energy principles. This year I’m going to try to focus some of my son’s extracurricular learning on this. After all, it will be his generation that has to bear the brunt of these problems we’re just starting to understand.

The toy industry is a multi-billion dollar market and consumers often find themselves bombarded with the latest and greatest toys from the major players in the industry. While I have never had anything against toy cars or dolls, and in fact my children have plenty of both, I am always on the quest to provide something a bit more educational for them. What I am about to write on comes partly from practical experience (buying and playing with science kits and toys with my own children), and partly from my experience as a former scientist and from being in the toy industry myself for a while.

There are many questions to consider when choosing educational toys for your children. Also, we have to keep in mind that what may be a great learning toy for one child may not be as worthwhile for another. Every child is different and learns at their own capacity and through their own best mechanisms. That being said, the following are some things for parents to consider when deciding what the best toys are for their children.

Is the toy age-appropriate?

Many of us fall victim to the rationale that our child is smarter than average, and sometimes ignore the age recommendations provided by the toy’s manufacturer. Sometimes this is the right decision based on our own experience with our child, but sometimes this is wishful thinking. While the manufacturer’s age recommendation is simply a guideline, we have to realize that it is a well-researched guideline and is often fairly accurate. That being said, I would never not recommend or not buy a toy because my child was one or two years outside of the recommended age. I would simply take a closer look at it before making a decision.

Does it serve my child’s interests?

This is a question that needs to be answered on a case-by-case basis and as parents, we are most likely to be the ones who best know our children’s interests. If a child is already interested in bugs, an ant farm or insect collecting science kit is probably a valuable toy for your child.

It may be natural for us to try to encourage a new interest in our children, but we should be cautious in not trying to project our own interests too strongly. Most children will naturally be attracted to the interests of their parents but this isn’t always the case. I love catching bugs in the backyard with my son, but I don’t expect my daughter (when she’s old enough) will enjoy it as much as my son does. Maybe I’m wrong and I will certainly foster this interest if she decides to go down that path.

The best advice may be to go with your child’s interests as often as possible, but occasionally introduce toys that introduce new subjects to them and gauge their interest accordingly. A child may never know how interested they are in ecology and plant science until they get a windowsill greenhouse and grow their own plants. A child may not have ever considered chemistry as something fun until they learned how to make their own bubble gum with a chemistry kit.

Does it arouse my child’s curiosity?

Sometimes a toy will not only provide an immediate fun experience, but will start the child down a path of more advanced thinking. The same child who grew bean sprouts in the windowsill may wonder what the plant cells look like under a microscope. She may wonder how a simple seed can take water, nutrients from the soil and sunlight and turn into a much bigger plant with stalks and leaves. Next, she may wonder how a tiny acorn can grow into a huge tree over hundreds of years.

Granted, not all toys will naturally foster this type of analytical thinking, but some of the best ones do. So it’s worth it to ask yourself this question when considering an educational toy. Will buying my son a simple chemistry set lead him down a path to eventually asking how plastic is made? Or why some plastic is brittle while some bends much more easily?

Any toy that arouses this natural curiosity in a child would be valuable to their growth. A video game may or may not cause a child to wonder who created the game and what programming was involved in making it. But a solar powered physics kit will undoubtedly make the child wonder how invisible rays from the sun can make a motor run. This curiosity is the unheralded foundation of a great education.

Who makes the toy?

I mention this question as simply something to consider as the safety of toys is something we are always concerned with. Be aware that just because a manufacturer is one of the major players in the industry doesn’t mean that a particular toy is as safe as it should be. But also be aware that just because you haven’t heard of a company doesn’t mean that their toy won’t be the one that sparks your child’s interest in a subject that will serve them well for the rest of their life.

There are hundreds of quality educational toy providers that most parents have never heard of. Do a little research. If you find a toy that looks like it may be valuable to your child, search for that company’s name and products on the Internet and see how many stores are selling their product. Of course this isn’t a sure-fire way to gauge a toy’s value to a particular child, but it can give you a quick snapshot of the reputation of the company that makes the toy.

Choosing an educational toy for our children can be as easy or as cumbersome as we make it. Asking these simple questions before buying an educational toy can go a long way in weeding out the toys that provide little value and deciding on a toy that might serve them well for a long time to come.

And lastly, remember that a toy doesn’t have to be expensive or technologically advanced to be valuable. Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein never had a Sony Playstation. And they turned out okay.

About the Author

Matt O’Neal holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry as well as a master’s in physics and an MBA. He is the owner of Atomic Elephant Toy, a store offering science kits and educational toys for children of all ages.

In the interest of full disclosure, the author of this article is the owner of Atomic Elephant Toy, a store offering science kits and educational toys for children of all ages. — As parents, how many of us have been disappointed shortly after the purchase of a toy for our child that he or she just didn’t seem to get much use out of? There are many ways we can place a value on a particular toy. I’m not talking about the cost, although that typically is a factor when initially choosing a product to buy. I’m talking primarily about what value the toy adds to the child’s life. Many will contend that all play is a valuable part of the growing up process and as such, all toys are valuable. And for the most part, I agree with this theory. But I also contend that some toys provide much more value than others.

Consider this example. You buy your child the latest Hotwheels set or Barbie Doll and he or she plays with it for a few hours over the course of the first week. The lifespan of a valuable toy will last much longer than this, and in fact, your child may continue playing with these toys over the next few weeks or months. But undoubtedly, the cumulative time spent playing with a specific toy will gradually decrease over time. And with some toys this decrease is quicker than others. The best toys may last for years - either directly (the toys themselves) or indirectly (the lessons they teach).

Now compare this example with buying a construction set for your child. The construction set itself may not last much longer than the Hotwheels racetrack. But while playing with it, the child is learning a completely different skill set. He is still using his imagination, but he is also learning cognitive reasoning, deduction, spatial logic and to some extent, the basics of the scientific process. Fast-forward a few months and both toys may be in the bottom of the toy box. But the processes the child learned while building something from his imagination has lived on. In fact, he or she has probably further developed these skills through other play and the general learning process.

Another factor in determining the overall value of a toy is simply by measuring how much play the child gets out of it. A great science kit that doesn’t arouse a child’s curiosity and never gets played with will obviously have less value than a young girl’s doll that gets daily attention.

The best scenario is a toy that teaches something (either short-term or long-term) but also gets a lot of play. A live animal kit such as Uncle Milton’s Planet Frog or the classic Ant Farm will likely provide several months of enjoyment for most children. But think of all the lessons your child can learn with either of these. With the frog kit, the child receives live tadpoles and literally watches them through the biological metamorphic stages from tadpole to adult frog. This is exciting enough in itself, but is an invaluable lesson in how living organisms work. The child will also learn some lessons in responsibility as the tadpoles and frogs will require some (albeit minimal) care to see them through the process. The child can also learn a lesson in compassion and ecology if you help them scout out and find a location to release the adult frogs back to the wild.

Similarly, observing an ant farm will teach your child the value of teamwork, the results one can achieve through perseverance, and simply the entomological aspects of these amazing insects. While kits such as these are a lot of fun themselves, these lessons could help to form the foundation of a lifelong love of learning.

Most of us will agree that as parents, it is our duty to see our children through the growing up process and to help them in any way we can. While doing this, either consciously or subconsciously we are always evaluating them on their progress. And likewise, we are always evaluating what they choose to play with and what we choose to let them play with.

So the next time you’re in the market for the latest toy your child can’t live without, ask yourself one simple question. How much value is this toy going to provide toward my child’s growth? Please don’t misunderstand me and think that I’m on the bandwagon that says the Nintendo and Playstation are the bane to our children’s future. I’m not, and truly feel that in moderation these toys can provide value as well. I’m simply saying that if you can get your child excited about learning to read or about a chemistry set, you’re providing a great service to your child and that you’re helping to lay the foundation for a lifelong love of learning.

About the Author

Matt O’Neal holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry as well as a master’s in physics and an MBA. He is the owner of Atomic Elephant Toy, a store offering science kits and educational toys for children of all ages.

In the interest of disclosure, the author of this article is the owner of Atomic Elephant Science & Toy Co., a unique store offering science kits and educational toys for children of all ages. — To many young children, the lure for collecting and observing insects is as natural to them as anything they do. Maybe it’s because we’re all interested when something new or exciting or unique happens our way. A lot of adults have likely seen thousands of fire engines roaring down the street, but most of us still watch closely whenever we see one. I think this same innate attraction applies to everything we observe in our lives. Think of it - aren’t you going to spend at least a few seconds observing a ladybug that lands on your shirt sleeve? Or a butterfly flittering about in your backyard?

Fostering and encouraging this natural curiosity in a child is one of the greatest gifts we can give them. And nowhere is this easier to do than with entomology. Think about this fact. Scientists estimate that the average number of insects for each square mile of land on earth is equal to the total number of people on the entire planet. Whether you live in the mountains, the beach, the desert, a farm, or the one hundredth floor of an apartment building in New York City, insects are everywhere.

Why Insects?

As noted above, insects are everywhere and most of us have access to at least hundreds of different species. Most of us could walk to our backyard, look under a flower pot or rock or a board under our porch and find a dozen different insects in about ten minutes. Venture out to a nearby park or lake on a warm spring day and you could literally find dozens more. How many other hobbies have something you collect so ubiquitous yet also so unique?

Another reason children enjoy observing and collecting insects is simply that insects are so interesting. If you’ve ever seen an ant’s leg under a microscope you’ll understand. The ant’s leg itself is about the thickness of a human hair, yet each of his legs has hundreds of hairs as well. How could this be? What a great question for any child to ask. And what a joy it is for us as parents to watch our child’s critical thinking develop as they ask and answer these types of questions.

Searching for, capturing and observing insects is a great way to develop a child’s interest in science and nature. And with a little cultivating from us as parents, it’s a hobby that many children will never grow tired of.

Some Basic Insect Facts

Entomologists have identified over 1.5 million species of animals on Earth and of these, about 1 million are insects.

Some scientists believe that there are from 1-10 million more species to discover.

Insects have six, and only six legs. While spiders, centipedes, and the common roly poly bugs are fun to collect and observe, they are not true insects.

An insect’s body is divided into three parts: the head, thorax and abdomen.

Insects don’t have bones, but rather an exoskeleton of which the insect’s muscles attach to the inside walls. The exoskeleton is a hard, protective shell (think of a crab) which must be shed as the animal grows.

Insects are the only animals besides birds and bats that have wings. While obviously not all insects fly, most do have one, or two pairs of wings.

What do you Need?

One of the greatest advantages of insect collecting as a hobby is that it is very inexpensive and the equipment used can be very minimal. A child with a rinsed-out jelly jar and a magnifying glass has all he needs to study entomology. Even for a child who wants to take the hobby to the next level it’s still very inexpensive. Her list of equipment might now include a butterfly net, a few more jars, a mounting board and a couple of books on butterflies.

For the student who really wants to get serious in entomology, he may need nothing more than the above basic items, a journal, a digital camera, more storage boxes, some basic traps, killing jars and preserving chemicals.

Conclusion

The next time you’re thinking about what extracurricular educational activity to introduce to your child, consider insect collecting. It’s an easy hobby to get started in and one that just may spark a love of science and nature in them that lasts a lifetime.

Sources

One of the sources used was Dr. David Keith and Dr. Tiffany Heng-Moss’s insect collecting page. Both are professors of entomology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Another source was the insect page at 42explore.com

About the Author

Matt O’Neal holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry as well as a master’s in physics and an MBA. He is the owner of Atomic Elephant Toy, a store offering science kits and educational toys for children of all ages.

For these live animal kits and other science kits, visit Atomic Elephant Science & Toy Co. — Now the long and short of it about Triops. Family: Triopsidae, Order: Notostraca, Class: Branchiopoda, Subphylum: Curstacea, Phylum: Arthropoda, Kingdom: Animalia. In simpler terms, they are crustaceans. They look almost like small horseshoe crabs but with three eyes. They are sometimes called tadpole shrimp or more formally, notostracans. One of the most interesting facts about this order of animals is that their external morphology has not changed in roughly 200 million years. This means the Triops you see today are the same creatures the dinosaurs in the Triassic period observed. Some scientists believe they are actually the oldest living animal species on Earth.

Another interesting fact: Triops don’t have antennae like many crustaceans. What may look like antennae are actually their first pair of legs. These do act as sensory organs however, and have evolved to serve a similar purpose.

Every thoracic segment from the thirteenth back will have 4-6 pairs of legs. That’s right, this creature can have as many as 70 legs total. No other crustacean comes close to this.

How do you tell male from female Triops? The only exact way would be to look at their eleventh pair of legs. In the females, this pair has evolved into a round egg capsule to carry their eggs. In the males… nothing. Just a regular leg.

Having three eyes, one might think that Triops have an excellent sense of sight. This is only partially true. They don’t use their eyes to find food, but their eyes do help orient them toward or away from the light in their environment. An interesting experiment to demonstrate this would be to observe them in their tank in a normally lighted room, then turn the lights off and use a flashlight to light the bottom of the tank. The crustaceans will then reorient themselves thinking the bottom of the tank is the top.

Life Cycle

The most interesting study these creatures offer is their life cycle. In any Triop pool, there are relatively few males. In the northern hemisphere, the ratio is often less than one in 100 Triops being male. For this reason, most of the females’ eggs are unfertilized; however this makes little difference in their hatching rate.

The eggs are enclosed in a strong thick shell and can withstand some very harsh conditions. The eggs can withstand temperatures from below freezing to about 180 degrees Fahrenheit (80C). They can be eaten by a frog or fish, digested, expelled and still hatch. They can exist in a diapause state for many years, some scientists think for decades. The hardiness and longevity of these eggs have contributed to the widespread regions in which Triops can be found.

Some of the eggs will ultimately wind up in a pool with suitable conditions for hatching, and the larva will hatch about a year later. Within about two weeks, the creature will have molted about 12-14 times and will thus be an adult. The Triop will molt about 40 times before it reaches sexual maturity.

The life span of Triops in the lab (or your aquarium) and in the wild are about the same. Most will live between 50 and 90 days.

About the Author

Matt O’Neal holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry as well as a master’s in physics and an MBA. He is the owner of Atomic Elephant Toy, a store offering science kits and educational toys for children of all ages.