[OLPC library] Scratch cartoons for physics and health education - New universal language?

Tue Jan 29 17:38:17 EST 2008

Take a look at scratch.mit.edu it is for kids to create and share cartoons.
Many of the pictures can be taken from the web.
I cannibalized a German cartoon about bees and flowers targeted to 1st graders to build RNAi, Fusion, and Power Grid cartoons.
I am not an artist.
Just a Dad with kids who want to cannibalize the Scratch cartoons and learn science in the process.
What we need is cartoons for developing nations kids. They need a graphic approach to concepts.
In Jamaica, WI as a Peace Crops volunteer I helped build water treatment plants, methane digestors, etc.

But the biggest problem was HIV/AIDS. I did my thesis on mapping genomes (Human and HIV) at Los Alamos.
My room mates were all physicists.
How to discuss the disease with young children? Through RNA the messaging system for biology.
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/51835

But Physics is my son's passion. 
Where to find basic physics cartoons that motivate kids? Make them? He wanted fusion reactors?
So I made them:http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/34906 <http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/34906> 
Cartoons are the universal language. Look at Saturday morning (Pokeman, Simpsons, etc.)
The kids of today are open to manipulating objects on the web (Runescape, etc).
So lets give them an interactive learning env. Lets make learning cartoons for kids. 
OLPC could run Scratch, Alice, etc.
We just need armies of adults to build the cartoons. Kids will clone the good ones.

Henry Brown
henry.brown at state.nm.us
cell 795-3680
office 505 827-2509

________________________________

From: Edward Cherlin [mailto:echerlin at gmail.com]
Sent: Tue 1/29/2008 3:13 PM
To: Brown, Henry, DoIT
Cc: arjunsarwal at gmail.com; library at lists.laptop.org
Subject: Re: [OLPC library] OLPC+Polywell Fusion power+EMS/SCADA = Off grid power for rural areas = Better healthcare

On Jan 29, 2008 7:48 AM, Brown, Henry, DoIT <Henry.Brown at state.nm.us> wrote:

> My point is not to use the OLPC to run an actual fusion reactor.
> Rather to create EMS/SCADA simulations for kids that discuss its use.

I missed that in your previous message.

> Few US kids ever get any training in Nuclear Physics or electric power.
> Most research is classified.

Not the parts that matter the most for energy generation.

> Yet their futures may be determined by this technology.
> I had students on Navajo reservation in US and Peace Corps who still can't
> take a physics class.
> Many Navajos live in nuclear tailings:
> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-navajo22nov22,0,7024230.story?page=1
> But they have interest in it. That is why I created simple cartoons for kids
> to be introduced to it.
> OLPC should be used to expose students to complex ideas.

Absolutely.

> http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/34906
> http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/77493
>
> http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/RangerRick/11273
>
> With your knowledge could you create a nuclear cartoon for kids?

Not by myself, but I would be delighted to work with others on it. Do
we have an artist? An actual physicist?

Much of the popular understanding of quantum mechanics and nuclear
physics is wrong. Like the idea that we can'

> Henry Brown
> henry.brown at state.nm.us
> cell 795-3680
> office 505 827-2509
>
>  ________________________________
>  From: Edward Cherlin [mailto:echerlin at gmail.com]
> Sent: Mon 1/28/2008 10:27 PM
> To: Brown, Henry, DoIT
> Cc: arjunsarwal at gmail.com; library at lists.laptop.org
> Subject: Re: [OLPC library] OLPC+Polywell Fusion power+EMS/SCADA = Off grid
> power for rural areas = Better healthcare
>
>
>
>
>
> See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell
>
> On Jan 28, 2008 9:59 AM, Brown, Henry, DoIT <Henry.Brown at state.nm.us> wrote:
>
> > OLPC + Fusion/electric power + EMS/SCADA = Off grid power for rural areas
> >
> > Could OLPC be used to monitor (EMS/SCADA) polywell fusion/electric power
> > generator for off-grid power?
>
> The suggestion is absurd. Why try to save a few hundred or even a few
> thousand dollars on the computers, particularly when electric power to
> run the plant's control system will not be a problem at all? Tiny
> keyboards and tiny screens cannot meet industry operational safety and
> ergonomic standards.
>
> > Small fusion reactor may allow off-grid  electricity - Polywell Fusion
> > reactor
>
> The suggestion is also completely irrelevant. Bussard, the inventor,
> says, "...it will take 4-6 years and ca. 100-200 M$ to build the
> full-scale plant and demonstrate it." Assuming full funding, which
> does not appear likely. This demonstration plant is intended to show
> net power generation, but not to show power generation at a
> commercially viable level. It would then take 5-10 years more to
> design and build production plants, if all went well.
>
> Physicists are not at all in agreement about whether this type of
> reactor can achieve net power. "Controversies exist over whether the
> ions and electrons will thermalise and whether bremsstrahlung [braking
> radiation] losses will emit more energy in an unrecoverable form than
> can be produced by the fusion reaction."
>
> It should be noted that, contrary to widespread popular supposition,
> fusion power is not 100% clean and green, even though it is nowhere
> near as bad as sulfur and mercury from coal or radioactive waste from
> fission. Proposed fuels are toxic. Neutrons from the reactions will
> create radioactivity in the walls of the reactor. There will be
> short-lived radioactive waste products from the reactions themselves.
>
> "Please check your facts before posting nonsense to Usenet."--Beable
> van Polasm, alt.religion.kibology
> --
> Edward Cherlin
> End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
> http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
> "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay
>
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--
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay

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