From the category archives:

Kid Questions

Kid Question: Does water go straight to your bottom?

August 22, 2011 General science

“I mean bladder? I mean when you drink it does it go straight through you?” I was pretty happy to hear big girl ask this, because it was one that confused me for years. I had quite a logical but completely wrong image in my head, I suspect most kids do. From an early age, [...]

Kid Question: Why is Grass Green?

January 24, 2011 Earth and Beyond

One of the classics with different levels of answers. Chlorophyll Firstly grass is green because plants use light from the sun to make food. This is called photosynthesis and uses a chemical called chlorophyll that looks green. It stores light from the sun and transfers the energy into chemical reactions that eventually produce sugar. Photosynthesis [...]

The Water Cycle By a 5 Year Old

October 25, 2010 Activities

Hat tip to Marita, Ash and Carly for this, when I asked Twitter yesterday what I should write about they suggested mud, photos for iHappy and the water cycle. And it just so happens that I was thinking it’s a long time since I’ve put a video up, and I have a just turned 5 [...]

Kid Question: Why are Daddies Bigger Than Mummies?

September 28, 2010 Kid Questions

In general, human men are bigger than women. They tend to have stronger muscles for the same size and different patterns of body hair. There are different levels of answers for this. Growth Patterns The simplest answer is that boys and girls have different growth patterns. If you have a look at the WHO growth [...]

Kid Question: Why do things rot?

June 4, 2010 Kid Questions

This question was apparently inspired by a YouTube video, I don’t know if it was this one or not but it’s lovely in a macabre way. In fact if you search for ‘rotting fruit’ or similar on YouTube you come up with all sorts of interesting time lapse photography. Put aside the learned squeamishness of [...]

Kid Questions: How Does Blood Get in You?

March 19, 2010 Kid Questions

Blood is made of two different things called cells and plasma. The plasma is like water, and that’s where it comes from. When you drink the water goes into your tummy and through your gut. There are blood vessels (the tubes that blood runs in) very close and touching your gut, and the water gets [...]

Kid Questions – How Do Plants Grow, and Why Do Weeds Grow?

March 12, 2010 Kid Questions

Plants are actually very similar to animals – they do a lot of the same things but stay still, and they need a lot of the same things like water, nutrients and energy. They just get them in slightly different ways. Plants get their energy from the sun, they collect it through their leaves. They [...]

Kid Questions – Where does the sun hide at night?

January 30, 2010 Activities

This is a great question because it’s so easy to demonstrate, all you need is a ball and a light, preferably a lamp or torch. Firstly it helps if they have an idea that the earth is a sphere. If they’ve travelled a bit it’s great, you can show them on the ball where they’ve [...]

Kid Questions: Where do starfish come from?

December 3, 2009 Kid Questions

I’ve had a great time checking this one out, I’m always a biologist at heart. And starfish are really fascinating! General: Starfish are echinoderms (e-KY-no-derms) like sea urchins. There are a lot of different types, like there are different types of mammals. They all have a central body with their mouth and gut in it, [...]

Kid Questions: Why does it look blue under our skin?

November 26, 2009 General science

Actually the question wasn’t anywhere near as coherent as that, it was more along the lines of “Mummy! Your boobs are blue!” So here’s a very simple explanation of blood circulation. Have you seen blood when you cut yourself? It looks red and it runs a bit like water. It has a very special job [...]