"And Sir Isaac Newton Lived Happily Ever After"

[dr_pretentious]

Dan's set of famous scientist finger puppets has seen a lot of use lately, with the result that Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Isaac Newton have become the major figures in the Grand Guignol of my kids' daily entertainment. Conrad finds it especially hilarious when Isaac Newton boasts of his accomplishments to an audience of admiring beanie babies. (I had to crib my description of Newton's CV from Neil DeGrasse Tyson's charming summary.) Gareth demanded that I give a performance for Dan this evening: "Now say the part about, 'And then I turned 26!'" The sentence that titles this blog post is entirely Gareth's invention. He likes to tack it onto the end of the discovery of gravity.

Conrad discovered verb tenses just last week. He narrates what he's doing a lot, so we got to listen to his thought process as he chased a helium balloon around the living room: "Get boon, get boon, get boon. Got boon!" He was so surprised at what he'd said, he let go of the balloon string to concentrate on repeating himself. I understand calculus about as well as he does, but I know a developmental leap when I see one.

Comments

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Like Carl Jung, Ada Lovelace has the problem of not being odd-looking enough to become instantly iconic. It looks like some folks are trying to work around the problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Initiative). If I weren't craft-impaired, I'd definitely try making a finger puppet based on that graphic.

But there's no need to worry about lasting effects of tokenism in this case. Because of the big curly white wig-like hair of the Isaac Newton puppet--very 17th century--Gareth is often confused about Newton's gender. I've tried reminding him that he knows several men with long hair, and lots of women with short hair, but it doesn't seem to help. So we get sentences like, "And then he sat under a apple tree, and a apple fell on her head," with pronoun errors he just doesn't make unless he's genuinely confused about the content of what he's saying. He's four years old, precocious or not, and the only cure for four is time.

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

I was thinking there might some good additions to the famous scientist finger puppet collection. Since you live practically in his backyard Thomas Edison comes to mind (with his shakey ethics he could be a great part time villain). Charles Darwin since he could also lecture to the Beanie Baby Academy. For gender balance perhaps Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson or Barbara McClintock. Or you could pick your own favorites.

http://www.famousscientists.org/10-famous-women-scientists/

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/03/10-women-scientists-famous-famous/


Also I am not craft impaired. I definitely think a Beanie Baby couch could be made easily with a glue gun, fabric and cardboard. I'm just not sure where to get the tiny Persian rug.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

There's a company that makes mousepads based on classic oriental carpet designs. This one (http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM5934959607P?prdNo=1&blockNo=1&blockType=G1) actually has Freud as its product name, because it's as close as miniaturization would allow to the rug on Freud's couch.

Jane Goodall is certainly iconic enough for translation into puppetry. The other scientists in those top ten lists just aren't instantly recognizable that way. I mean, the people at famousscientists.org swapped Rosalind Franklin's photo with Barbara McClintock's, and it's their own list. We all know why Rachel Carson was significant, but do we all know what she looked like?

Emilie du Chatelet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émilie_du_Châtelet)'s face isn't quite familiar enough to do the job alone, but her fabulous 18th century fashion sense (http://www.google.com/search?q=emilie+du+chatelet&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvnsb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=GN-lT5qJI4n7ggfnmOWoAQ&ved=0CHcQsAQ&biw=1382&bih=677) might carry the day as well for her as the wig does for Isaac Newton. (If only du Chatelet had lived happily ever after.)

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

We have an oriental carpet mousepad in a different design but they are a little expensive for just a toy or joke.

I think the argument could be made that some of these women scientists ought to be more recognizable and might be if they got their own finger puppets or other publicity. Jane Goodall ought to be with a Beanie Baby gorilla (or several). Probably others could have some kind of accessory added to give people a clue to why they are famous. I should probably stop this discussion now so I'm not tempted to try and make my own finger puppets.

But this thread did lead to some actual education for the kids. There was a demonstration of dropped bath toys--a rubber duck full of water fell at the same speed as one full of just air. Then David sang about it (see lyrics above).