STEM PARENTING
Raising a Child on Physics and Other Sciences
Teaching your child that the rules of physics cannot be broken is a lifetime gift they’ll always cherish.
“La materia no se crea ni se destruye, solo se transforma,” my dad said to me as he showed me how the carburetor in a car transformed gasoline to a mist that would then combust in the cylinder chamber. Matter is not created nor destroyed, only transformed. That was his answer to my question about what happened to the gasoline when it was combusted. “La energía en las moléculas de gasolina es liberada cuando hace combustión, causando una explosión que mueve los pistones.” The energy in the molecules of gasoline is released when it combusts, causing the explosion that moves the pistons.
That would be one of many lessons in physics my dad taught me. He was not an “educated” man. He finished “open high school” as an adult after dealing with a learning disability caused by a traumatic brain injury. His father saw potential in his children, so he made sure to supply them with books about all sorts of topics. Two of my uncles became radio and television technicians. Dad became a car mechanic.
I have a little bit of Dad’s way of learning things. We both love puzzles. We both can visualize a complex…
