Showing posts with label space travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label space travel. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Seven Cool Kid Vids about Space Travel
Simon's post on fathering in the age of YouTube hit close to home.
Liko and I spend a lot of time researching space and spaceships on YouTube. Unlike Simon, I don't feel much guilt about this--I really do think our YouTube watching is educational. But like all the best education, it's also fun. Take this video:
Stirring, isn't it? For Hunakkah this year, we got Liko a scale model of the Saturn V. The cool thing about the model is that it breaks into all the stages, until only the command module remains for splash-down on our rug. So on lazy Sunday mornings, as we watch this video we'll act out every stage of the Saturn V's journey to the moon, and back.
I'll use each part of the journey to explore some different scientific fact or idea: orbits, gravity, rocketry, planetary formation, water on the moon, and so on. I'm no expert on this stuff, and so we'll often take side-trips on YouTube or Wikipedia to learn more. However, in the course of our quest for knowledge, we have taken some wrong turns:
"Daddy, what's a condom?"
Anyway, here are six more great YouTube videos about space exploration:
1. Best overall video about the Space Shuttle:
2. The International Space Station as seen from the outside:
'
3. And the ISS from the inside:
Liko actually gets bored with this after the first five minutes, but he does find those first five minutes fascinating.
Liko and I spend a lot of time researching space and spaceships on YouTube. Unlike Simon, I don't feel much guilt about this--I really do think our YouTube watching is educational. But like all the best education, it's also fun. Take this video:
Stirring, isn't it? For Hunakkah this year, we got Liko a scale model of the Saturn V. The cool thing about the model is that it breaks into all the stages, until only the command module remains for splash-down on our rug. So on lazy Sunday mornings, as we watch this video we'll act out every stage of the Saturn V's journey to the moon, and back.
I'll use each part of the journey to explore some different scientific fact or idea: orbits, gravity, rocketry, planetary formation, water on the moon, and so on. I'm no expert on this stuff, and so we'll often take side-trips on YouTube or Wikipedia to learn more. However, in the course of our quest for knowledge, we have taken some wrong turns:
"Daddy, what's a condom?"
Anyway, here are six more great YouTube videos about space exploration:
1. Best overall video about the Space Shuttle:
2. The International Space Station as seen from the outside:
'
3. And the ISS from the inside:
Liko actually gets bored with this after the first five minutes, but he does find those first five minutes fascinating.
The Space Voyagers Adventure Fleet also offers an International Space Station kit, which enables you and your kid to closely follow the tour and explore the solar panels and the functions of the different modules. Bonus: the kit includes a small Soyuz for docking!
4. Best video about Mars exploration:
Fun activity: use boxes and paper and kitchen appliances to build your own Mars rover. (Interested in Mars? This vid about Mars colonization is cyptofascist fun.)
5. Spookiest space video:
For an explanation of what it is you're hearing, see this NASA page. When Liko heard this, he said, "It sounds like music. Daddy, is there an orchestra inside of Jupiter?"
6. Best Soyuz video (so far)
Recently, we've been learning about the Russian space program. I haven't yet found a definitive Soyuz video, but it's always entertaining to watch these cannonballs crash into the earth:
Those cosmonauts are brave as hell.
4. Best video about Mars exploration:
Fun activity: use boxes and paper and kitchen appliances to build your own Mars rover. (Interested in Mars? This vid about Mars colonization is cyptofascist fun.)
5. Spookiest space video:
For an explanation of what it is you're hearing, see this NASA page. When Liko heard this, he said, "It sounds like music. Daddy, is there an orchestra inside of Jupiter?"
6. Best Soyuz video (so far)
Recently, we've been learning about the Russian space program. I haven't yet found a definitive Soyuz video, but it's always entertaining to watch these cannonballs crash into the earth:
Those cosmonauts are brave as hell.
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