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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To be watched large in HD, Holi was shot by the studio We Are Variable for the Hindu Holi Festival of Colors:
The main day, Holi, also known as Dhuli in Sanskrit, or Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing scented powder and perfume at each other. Bonfires are lit on the eve of the festival, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi), after which holika dahan prayers are said and praise is offered.
Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (February/March), (Phalgun Purnima), which usually falls in the later part of February or March.
This is Colossal has a quite a few videos linked up, including this one by Brian Thomson, shot in Spanish Fork, Utah.
Shot in slow motion at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, Brian Thomson documents the local Holi Festival of Colors from 2011.
Every year, Hindus greet the turn of winter into spring with a splash of color — in some areas, a geyser of color. They call their celebration the festival of Holi, and Hindus across India and throughout the world share prayer, camaraderie, special food, and a general sense of mischief as they douse each other in dyes and colored water. The large festival has roots to many Hindu legends associated with the triumph of good over evil.
via This is Colossal
When we tell stories about creativity, we tend to leave out this phase. We neglect to mention those days when we wanted to quit, when we believed that our problem was impossible. Instead, we skip straight to the breakthrough. We tell the happy ending first.
The danger of this scenario is that the act of feeling frustrated is an essential part of the creative process. Before we can find the answer — before we can even know the question — we must be immersed in disappointment, convinced that a solution is beyond our reach. We need to have wrestled with the problem and lost. Because it’s only after we stop searching that an answer may arrive.
Not sure how much the kid understood this video (via Brainpickings), but it entertained him, reminded me, and gave us the opportunity to talk about the value of mistakes, failure and persistence.
Related reading for teachers, parents and interested parties, from Science Evangelist Dr. Ainissa Ramirez’s TED Talk:
…recast science education from being about memorizing facts, “a trivial pursuit,” to being about problem-solving and thinking for oneself. We need to move away from focusing on tests to showing kids that it’s ok to learn or to take risks. “Children need to explore and to discover. This is how you innovate; you fail your way to your answer. Scientists fail all the time; we just brand it differently. We call it ‘data.’”
Love that.
One more from a música portuguesa a gostar dela própria, a project created to celebrate and archive the variety of music made in Portugal. This video was shot in Riachos, Torres Novas and is charming and super catchy. We watched it twice after watching quite a few other videos from the project.
This kind of endeavor is so great for capturing music, tradition, culture, language, history, storytelling and so many other aspects for both adults and kids. I wish there were many, many documentation projects like this.
h/t Rosa Pomar.
We love this video of the Chamarrita, a dance and music style in the Azores, nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. This one was shot on Pico Island by MPAGDP, which stands for a música portuguesa a gostar dela própria, a project created to celebrate and archive the variety of music made in Portugal. What a wonderful site! There are many videos, almost all shot outside to create an energy for the music and to show the world as a giant stage.
We watched these videos, too: Pauliteiros de Miranda, Marujinho da Palmela, and the kid’s favorite, É p’ra Amanhã (António Variações), to name just a few, but there are so so so many other excellent videos to check out…
via Rosa Pomar.
This inspirational video from NASA reminded me of part 8 of The Sagan Series, the last of Reid Gower’s Pale Blue Dot-inspired videos. This one is called The Gift of Apollo.
Part 1, The Frontier is Everywhere is also pretty breath-taking.
Why do we explore? Simply, it is part of who we are, something we’ve done throughout history. NASA’s new video, “We Are the Explorers,” looks at that tradition of reaching for things just beyond our grasp, and how it’s helping lay the foundation for our greatest journeys ahead.
It looks like NASA took Reid Gower’s good advice about how to make more inspirational videos!
Now here’s some candy-making skill! Watch this candy dragon get drawn with what appears to be melted caramel/sugar or malt (mak ngah) somewhere in China. Despite the many videos found online of this art, the caption of this video (and comments below it) have suggested that it’s sadly a skill fading from the culture…
Metropolis II, a kinetic sculpture created by Chris Burden, is currently showing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Steel beams form an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of 18 roadways, including one 6 lane freeway, and HO scale train tracks… According to Burden, “The noise, the continuous flow of the trains, and the speeding toy cars, produces in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st Century city.”
LACMA’s blog gives some detail:
- The cars are attached by a small magnet to the conveyor belt that brings them to the crest.
- The only motorization of the cars is the conveyor belt to the top.
- Once the cars cross over the crest and head downward, their entire movement is by gravity.
- They travel at a scale speed of 240 mph, plus or minus.
- The tracks they take are Teflon coated to reduce friction.
- The tracks are beveled at 7 degrees to give added torque for speed when
they come through corners and curves.- The trains are out of the box electric train sets that run on electricity.
Taken at Burden’s studio, this video is a bit shorter and perhaps provides a better understanding of the scale and constant sound that the 1,100 toy cars produce. Metropolis II is currently an ongoing installation at LACMA with showtimes on Fridays and weekends.
