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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At a Portland TEDx event, Oregonian Joe Smith demonstrates how to use a paper towel, and moreover, demonstrates how easy it is to be mindful. Everyone should see this!
via Kottke.
In.gredients is a new package-free grocery store that is opening in Austin, Texas in the Summer of 2012. Its mission as the US’s first zero-waste, package-free grocery store will support local businesses and farmers, will sell based on seasonal rhythms of farming, will avoid processed foods, will reduce transportation costs and pollution, and will encourage customers to bring their own reusable containers. Bringing back this way of shopping is a great idea for Austin and I could see it easily working in places like Brooklyn, Portland or the Bay Area, just to name a few other starter communities…
A great side effect to watching this video is starting a conversation about eating foods in season — more than just squash and pumpkins in the fall — as well as being very aware of how much packaging we use, recycle and throw away in our own home.
Related research: learn more about buying sustainable food with local guides, find sustainable food near you at the Eat Well Guide, and check out this Seasonal Food Chart at Good.is.
Google’s The Story of Send visualizes how an email journeys through their data centers to reach its final destination, all while promoting the energy efficiency of their custom-built servers and their support of clean energy along the way.
I wish they’d gone into a bit more technical detail, but it’s a nice introduction to how much more there is to email technology than what we see, and provides some inspiration in the idea that a large company can innovate its business while still committing to carbon-neutrality.
via Neatorama.
We’ve watched this video quite a few times in the last few weeks… it’s surfaced as a kiddo-favorite. Not only is it a beautiful animation (by Toronto-based Smart Bubble Society, “a not-for-profit motion graphic studio that promotes social justice, self-education and critical awareness”), but the piece tells the story of our recent history with fossil fuels, and then names some cleaner solutions (wind and solar energy, for example) to the challenges that we face on the energy and climate change fronts.
Want more solutions to reducing oil consumption? There are some here and here — many that kids can help with.
We’ve always loved the super tall wind-power turbines while speeding by on a train or in a car. Reaching tall into the sky, they are a marvel of sustainable kinetic power and so the kid often asks for videos of them…
This time-lapse video shows the assembly of three wind-power turbines within a two-day period in June 2011 at Puget Sound Energy’s Lower Snake River Wind Project-Phase I, located in Garfield County, Washington. From the ground to the tip of a vertical blade, the 2.3-megawatt turbines stand more than 430 feet tall and weigh 340 tons. The boom on the crane erecting the turbines extends 390 feet into the air. When completed in early 2012, PSE’s newest wind farm will have 149 turbines capable of generating 343 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve 100,000 households.
William Kamkwamba’s story is already out there as a book, a young readers book, a Kickstarter documentary film project, not only one but two TED Talks, and luckily for us, the six minute story in video form. A description of that story:
Enchanted by the workings of electricity as a boy, William had a goal to study science in Malawi’s top boarding schools. But in 2002, his country was stricken with a famine that left his family’s farm devastated and his parents destitute. Unable to pay the eighty-dollar-a-year tuition for his education, William was forced to drop out and help his family forage for food as thousands across the country starved and died.
Yet William refused to let go of his dreams. With nothing more than a fistful of cornmeal in his stomach, a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks, and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to bring his family a set of luxuries that only two percent of Malawians could afford and what the West considers a necessity—electricity and running water. Using scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves, William forged a crude yet operable windmill, an unlikely contraption and small miracle that eventually powered four lights, complete with homemade switches and a circuit breaker made from nails and wire. A second machine turned a water pump that could battle the drought and famine that loomed with every season.
Soon, news of William’s magetsi a mphepo—his “electric wind”—spread beyond the borders of his home, and the boy who was once called crazy became an inspiration to those around the world.
We love windmills and really love William’s drive and ingenuity. This is exactly what the kid should see.
Now this is an environmentally-friendly and resourceful improvement on a scarecrow! It seems that, without the use of harmful chemicals, this Japanese farmer came up with a simple system to keep local crows from eating the vegetable patch.How? Things are kept moving and shaking around the growing plants using that roaring little river next to the farm. Follow the strings!
via ScienceDump.
The Landfill is a three minute film by documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit and director Jessica Edwards about how our different kinds of trash can be used as harvestable resources.
The United States produces 390 billion pounds of garbage every year, and finding places to dispose of it is a serious environmental and economic challenge. But what if we could change the way we think about garbage, from something to be disposed of to something to be harvested? THE LANDFILL profiles a small county landfill in Upstate New York, which is using a system of composting, recycling, and methane capture technology to operate sustainably while producing electricity for 400 homes in their area. By focusing on the people and ideas behind this innovative waste-to-energy initiative, THE LANDFILL shows the beauty and potential of the stuff we throw away.
Sustainability FTW! This is exactly the kind of problem solving that kids should see. For more information, visit focusforwardfilms.com/films/11/the-landfill
Thanks, @cosentino.
Kids and adults should see this: a green roof in Brooklyn.
“Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000 square foot plot that sells produce to New Yorkers and local restaurants. The soil also helps regulate the temperature of the building below.”
From Science Friday.
