The site, based on this series of books, is targeted toward tween girls:

What would it be like to build the first robot that could interact with people? Or to study human remains in search of criminal evidence? In Women’s Adventures in Science, readers will learn about the trailblazing women who are leaders in a variety of scientific fields, from robotics to forensics.

The site looks like a lot of fun and I hope that it inspires more young girls to embrace science.

[Via Science-Based Parenting]

Nine percent of the children answered yes. Only 15 percent of these children said the voices caused them serious suffering, and 19 percent said the voices interfered with their thinking. Boys and girls were equally likely to report hearing voices, but girls were more likely to report suffering and anxiety due to the voices.

I don’t quite know what to make of this information. This seems like a lot of kids. I’m a bit skeptical that there weren’t some children answering in the affirmative just for attention, or perhaps seeking approval. After all, we’ve seen many examples of the power of suggestion over people.

However, even if the numbers are reliable, experts say not to panic if your child hears voices. They conclude that most children suffering from auditory vocal hallucinations will not have any long-term effects from the condition. One of the study’s authors, Agna A. Bartels-Velthuis of University Medical Center Groningen in The Netherlands, said, “In most cases the voices will just disappear. I would advise them to reassure their child and to watch him or her closely.”

Perhaps these hallucinations account for some of the children who are attributed with “special gifts” such as psychic abilities? Many kids claim to have imaginary friends; but, perhaps, to some children, these friends are not really imaginary. Rather, they are voices inside their heads. It’s interesting research.

The team plans on following up in a few years to study how the auditory hallucinations evolve and what effect, if any, they have on the child’s behavior.

Photo

In addition to the winner’s art appearing on Google.com on May 27, 2010, they’ll also receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop computer and a $25,000 technology grant for their school.

Not too shabby.

The theme this year is “If I Could Do Anything, I Would…” and doodles must be submitted by March 31, 2010. It’s great that Google celebrates creativity in kids. If you’ve got a young designer or doodler at home, this could be a fun project.

(The picture is of my son’s leg after getting his vaccinations)

Andrew Wakefield kicked off the anti vaccination movement with his paper published in 1998 that claimed to show a link between Autism and vaccines. His  findings  have been proven false over and over again. It was also found that he most likely faked his data.

Last week  the UK’s General Medical Council found that Andrew Wakefield acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” when doing his research. And now The Lancet (who published the paper) has issued a full retraction.

This is very good news and I hope that this will help put parents concerns about vaccinating their children to rest.

In other news, Bill Gates has committed $10 Billion (yes Billion!)  to develop and deliver vaccines to children in the developing world. “We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”

I get a daily email from the American Council on Science and Health called “Health Facts and Fears”. In that news letter Dr Gilbert Ross is quoted as saying of Bill Gates, “We must give credit to him for taking a very effective, targeted, lifesaving approach to charitable giving as opposed to activists, who prefer to wage irrational attacks on substances that have no nexus with human health.”

I’m a Mac girl but this makes me want to buy a PC!

I danced with several girls who had their PhD’s, Masters etc and it’s our obligation to share this duality with the public in an effort to help young girls feel comfortable following all of their dreams (and to help them understand how important education is and frankly how much fun science can be).

I couldn’t agree more.

Many people are shocked when sexy women are also smart. In fact, the woman in the article said she almost didn’t get hired at a science job because of the NFL cheerleader line on her resume.

It’s a pervasive stereotype in our country. Admit it–you laughed at the idea of Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough. (Well, her character’s name of “Dr. Christmas Jones” didn’t help.) So it’s nice to see some non-Hollywood examples of real brains and beauty.

[Via BlagHag]

It’s a girl reading a book and it’s pretty awesome. The sticker is only $4, and you can buy it at CafePress.

If you go, put some comments on the pro side. I understand that this site wants to present a balanced argument, but is it balanced if one side is simply wrong about their facts?

We also faced having to switch pediatricians lately due to an insurance change, so I explained the situation to our new pediatrician, a grandfatherly gentleman who was nice enough to sit with us and talk about our son for a length of time defying the normal HMO visit. “I wouldn’t worry about that shot immediately,” he said, “unless your son is planning to get a tattoo soon.”

Among parents who question the standard vaccination schedule, the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth is a frequently discussed topic. I see it pop up often on Mommy chat boards. Most parents don’t really see the urgency of innoculating a newborn against a disease that is primarily transmitted through sexual contact or injection.

Joseph Albietz explains the rationale behind the US HepB vaccination schedule in a November post on Science Based Medicine. This is a concise article that clarifies the public health strategy behind the decision to vaccinate infants at birth. I read the post with great interest, but it was only my recent investigation into my own son’s HepB records that reminded to post the article here today.

To sum it up, vaccinating only a high risk population was a strategy that was tried in the US and then abandoned as not effective enough. Given that the HepB vaccine is incredibly safe, the morbidity and mortality of HepB is substantial, and that the number of cases of HepB has been dramatically reduced using the current strategy–”from 10.7/100,000 in 1983 to 2.1 per 100,000 in 2004. (25,916 total cases down to 6212 cases)”–it makes sense to vaccinate against this disease at birth. There is also the issue that although children make up a small portion of those infected, they tend to become lifelong carriers more often than infected adults.

One of the questions many parents ask (and the question Albietz is responding to in this post) is about the US vaccination strategy verses other countries, specificially those in Northern Europe. Those countries have such a low incidence of the disease that a prevention strategy like that of the US is not cost effective.

Very interesting reading. I hope you will click over and enjoy the entire post.

Why does a glow-in-the-dark Frisbee glow green? Why does a spark from a light socket look blue? Two different questions, but one intertwined answer.

I like that the answers are written so that both adults and kids can understand the concepts. It’s a great series. If you’ve missed any of the other questions, here are some of my favorites:

• Why is Poop Brown?
• What Do Blind People See?
• Omnivore Dinosaur

I collected anecdotal evidence to support my theory when, as a grad student, I tried to teach elementary education majors some rudimentary physics labs. The class, which was a light version of Physics 101, designed just for elementary education majors, was required for the degree. Many of the students would put the class off until their final semester, and viewed it as a major obstacle to graduating. They had poor attitudes, because the subject was “so difficult”, and besides, “when would they ever use it”? They came into the class convinced that the subject, and the necessary math, was too hard, and they couldn’t do, and they’d never use it as a teacher. Let me rephrase that: they thought that physics, the basic science behind everything in the universe, was not only impossible, it was unnecessary, to learn. These people now teach our children.

Now I have some research to back me up in what I have always found fairly obvious. Sian L. Beilock, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago, headed a study which suggests that a teacher’s own anxiety about math can influence students, and even cause them to have math anxiety as well. Worse, there seems to be a gender bias, which causes young girls with female teachers who have math anxiety to buy into the stereotype that girls aren’t as good at math as boys, and to be more likely to develop math anxiety themselves than their male classmates. It gets worse:

Girls who grow up believing females lack math skills wind up avoiding harder math classes, Hyde noted.

”It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology,” she said.

Holy cow, do you see what’s going on here? Young girls develop math anxiety, then grow up to be elementary education majors, then pass on that same math anxiety to other young girls, who then avoid studying science and engineering. This is a vicious cycle!

What can we do? One idea might be to recognize that this cycle doesn’t necessarily exist in all countries. Asian students have outperformed Americans in math, which could, in part be due to the way they are taught. In some Chinese elementary schools, students are taught math by specialized math teachers. That makes sense to have math taught by teachers who specialize in, and are therefore good at, it. But in the current American elementary school model, all subjects are taught by a single teacher, with the occasional exception of art, music, and/or phys ed.

Another option would be for American elementary schools to stress math more, and to spend more time on it, sooner. My Little Skeptic Boy loves math, and is pretty good at it (for a 6-year-old) but his math papers from Kindergarten contain no real math. Lots of pattern recognition, and sorting, and groups, but apparently they are saving the actual math of 1 +1 = 2 until they are older and “can handle it”. My opinion is that math isn’t hard, it is just new. Just like learning a foreign language, it can seem an insurmountable task at first, but over time, with enough exposure and practice, it can become second-nature. If our kids were exposed to math early, and repeatedly, it would become familiar and comfortable.

Since changing the American education model is a big task, probably our best option, as parents, is to work on math at home. Helping with homework is key. Reviewing homework, to make sure your child understands what they are studying, is a must. But, beyond that, let’s make math part of everyday life, instead of just that one subject we dread at school. Here’s how:

• Watch your language. Don’t talk about how bad you are at math, or how impossible math is. Never say, “Your math homework is too hard for your old Mom.” Kids might think, “Gosh, if my folks can’t do it, I’ve got no hope!” Instead, you might say, “I’m not sure how to do that problem since it has been so long since I was in your grade, but I’m sure I could do it back then, and I can probably look it up on the internet to remind myself now.” If it is truly beyond you, approach it from the angle that it is new to you, and you and your child need to seek help from a tutor or teacher who is already familiar with that subject.
• Show kids that math is everywhere. Handsome Skeptic Husband explains to our kids what baseball batting averages mean, he tells them how soon we will be somewhere based on how fast we are driving, and if we will be there in 15 minutes, he asks them to figure out what time it will be when we get there. When at the grocery store, he asks Little Skeptic Girl to tell him which is the better buy: a 12-pack of 12-ounce cola, or an 8-pack of 16-ounce cola if they are the same price. At dinner, we ask Little Skeptic Boy how many rolls we can each have if there are four of us, and eight rolls.  We point out math in everyday life.
• Make math a multimedia experience. There’s a lot more music, videos, and books about math than you might at first realize. In the music category, you can’t beat  They Might Be Giants’ Here Come the 123s, but there are many other options for songs about numbers, counting, addition, etc., to be found at Songs for Teaching. Educational videos about math are abundant, as well, and I love the classic Schoolhouse Rock videos. Two of my favorite kids’ books are Sir Cumference and One Hundred Hungry Ants, but middle-school kids should all read Math Doesn’t Suck, and Kiss My Math by TV’s Danica McKellar.
• Make a game of it. Play games with your kids and let them play games by themselves that either use math, or teach math-related skills. Kids can play Sudoku and Leapster Jedi Math by themselves. You can play Set and Mastermind with them.
• Get advice for more. Go to The Math Mom website, to get ideas for how to “present math to your kids as candy”.

This new study helps explain why there might be more math anxiety among girls than there ought to be, but maybe we can help repair the damage at home.

More ideas on what we can do? Leave them in the comments!