When HN users recommended it
2 HN users recommended this between 2016 and 2019, in 2 comments.
20072026
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
2 HN users recommended this between 2016 and 2019, in 2 comments.
Each tall tick is one HN user's first recommendation. A short tick is the same user again. Click a tick to jump to the comment.
Interesting toy to get introduced to Arduino programming: https://www.amazon.com/Thames-Kosmos-Workshop-Android-Compat... using a video game to teach programming. A bit pricey, though at $135.
On the STEM size I would suggest the following:
* A microscope never gets old, I bought this one (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NOU54O) and was surprised by its quality at a very low price. Never buy these from ToysRUs or similar store, those are junk. To jumpstart the fun, I suggest you also buy a set of prepared slides, e.g. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055DZ3EK
* An adequate spectroscope (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B84DGDA) can be bought for under $10! I bought this for my 9 year old and he had a lots of fun with it.
* My son also loved the Zome kit (https://www.amazon.com/Zometool-Creator-1-Construction-Kit/d...). We had funs discussing how to build a 4-D cube!
* Walkie Talkies: I would have killed for these when I was a kid. I bought this pair (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GH7TKVK) but in this age of iPads and the like didn't really entice my son much. He likes to take them with him when we hike, though.
* Make your own soma set: Using this supercheap set of cubes (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007F0UQR0) and a glue gun.
psa: you can get this thing, which isn't the most precise ever, but lets you see this spectral information about lights for cheap: https://www.amazon.com/EISCO-Premium-Quantitative-Spectrosco... - I got one and WHEW CFLs' band lines are really obvious. Also, I feel kind of tickled that I saw the band gap on LED lights before seeing a description of what it is in the source for the spectrum plots in this article (the source being https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_LED.png ).
I'm a bit miffed it seems so hard to find lights that don't have this problem, though. maybe we can improve it by getting the word out that these cheap little diffraction devices can give you a pretty good approximate reading of the smoothness of the spectrum of a light source. Hmm, I just realized I have yet to take this to home depot...
I'm really curious about those MIT incandescent bulbs. If they worked well and haven't been brought to market, it's possible that contacting the people involved in creating them could have good results in making them happen. Perhaps they could be convinced to prioritize it if a case can be made that it can have a significant positive impact on the world?