The Kid Should See This.
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There's just so much science, nature, music, art, technology, storytelling and assorted good stuff out there that my kids (and maybe your kids) haven't seen. It's most likely not stuff that was made for them...
But we don't underestimate kids around here.
Kid-friendly not-made-for-kids videos for all! Collected by Rion Nakaya and her three four year old co-curator.
Tip Jar: Curating this blog takes work! If you like the videos on this site, please support the science education projects that we've picked on DonorsChoose.org.
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Check out this DJ Angelo mashup sporting some serious turntablism. The kid was mesmerized!
Yabbra is one of just two koalas in the UK. He lives at the Edinburgh Zoo and we’ve watched him trot down this hall many, many times this week! A few koala facts:
Koalas and most other marsupials live in Australia and neighboring islands. The only marsupial native to North America is the Virginia opossum.
The word koala may come from an Aboriginal word meaning no drink. Although koalas do drink when necessary, they obtain most of the moisture they need from leaves.
Koalas have thick woolly fur that protects them from both heat and cold. It also acts like a raincoat. People used to hunt koalas for their fur. Now strict laws protect them from hunters, but their habitat is not protected, and it is disappearing as land is developed. More than four-fifths of original koala habitat has been destroyed. People are trying to save what is left.
Newborn koalas—called joeys—continue to develop in their mothers’ pouches… There it stays, safely tucked away, growing and developing for about seven months.
Koalas spend as many as 18 hours a day napping and resting.
Koalas smell like cough drops because of their diet of eucalyptus leaves.
Though koalas look like teddy bears and are sometimes even referred to as koala bears, they are not bears.
Fossils of 12 different extinct species of koala have been found. These extinct koalas were much larger than the ones today. They were like giant koalas!
via TheDailyWh.at.
Hello, homemade vortex canon! Make a tightly closed box with a narrow round hole at the end, hit the sides of the box to compress the air inside, sending the air out with some force. Instant vortex ring!
From the @urnscienceshow team, via ViralViralVideos.
Most people know Kew Gardens as home of the world’s largest living plant collection but are not aware that it is also the location of an internationally important botanical research and educational institution. Going beyond the gardens as we know them, Lonelyleap produced two films for 2012’s Tropical Extravaganza Festival which showcase the behind the scenes work of Kew’s scientists whilst also exploring two of the festival’s themes, Earth and Air.
The first in the series explores the importance of fungi to all plants and ultimately all life on Earth through several members of the Mycology Department committed to the conservation and exploration of fungi.
The second film in the series looks at the work of the the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership in Surrey, home to 10% of the world’s plant diversity, and how the Seed Conservation Department is helping to save wild plants and habitats for our future.
Oh, all of those green boxes! And in the second video: we especially liked seeing how the different seeds can get themselves around… not to mention all of the extremely important conservation efforts.
Found these both on Vimeo. Wonderful stuff.
“Throwing” a bowl on the pottery wheel from start to finish. Part 2 here.
Riddings Pottery, located in Derbyshire UK, is where John Rivers makes his own clay from a local coal seam, and then handmakes goblets, bowls, mugs, vases and other pieces that he hopes to have long lives of use. The co-curator was fascinated with this video, as well as the one about John making goblets.
Carly and Martin, community artists who make films, have made more videos about Riddings Pottery; this one is a good introduction.
Oh, British Pathé! You and this Dynasphere are both awesome. The kid should definitely see how crazy this vehicle is! From wikipedia:
The Dynasphere was a monowheel electric vehicle invented in 1932 by Dr. J. A. Purves from Taunton, Somerset, UK. It had 2.5 horse power and once attained a speed of 25 mph.
And there are more monowheels to be seen, via the Retronaut.
This video (which picks up at about 40 seconds) is by the fascinating Jim Le Fevre, “a BAFTA and British Animation Award winning free-lance film maker mostly working in animation” who experiments with (what he calls a) phonotrope, a camera and a record player. From Jim:
In March 2007 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London we hosted an evening of animation related events which I took as an opportunity to make some more examples of my Phonographantasmascope (which he’s since renamed a phonotrope), an extension of the Zoetrope principle.
It is all live action and works by using the shutter speed of the camera rather than the rather irritating stroboscope methods other 3D Zoetropes use.
The co-curator loved the little guys passing the cube around, as well as the red and white pins “kissing.” Really brilliant. Be sure to check out Jim’s site for more videos.
Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film, featuring one of the last movable type print shops in the UK.
via Doobybrain.
