The Photometer

Summertime recalls many fond memories of our years in Texas. I was not working in the summer and we were able to spend a lot of time with our young children.  The summer days would get hot in Texas, so we had routines to keep out of the heat with our active children. We had to get outside, though, or our house would have been a wreck from their boundless energy. On a typical day we would get up early and go for a bike ride to a nearby park. We tried to get out before it would get too hot, but we stayed on roads that did not have heavy traffic.

In the afternoons we would go to the local pool, where they recently added a splash park. The park was fun and a welcome relief from the heat when it got over 100 degrees. The facility itself had three different pools that each of our boys spent some time in. The large indoor pool was great for swimming laps, playing water basketball, and for diving into the pool. The small kiddy pool was not used for very long on any days we used it, especially by Joshua, for reasons I will soon explain. Being shallow, it often had toddlers and young children exploring its depths and squealing in delight as they played with the waterfall. When the pool was not busy we enjoyed crawling around pretending to be some type of pool alligator. Or we would launch ourselves from the edge of the small pool to play tag or to dive after the colorful diving sticks that we brought along. By far, however, it was the large outdoor pool where we spent most of our time.

In this large pool we played, each day, a favorite game, learned how to swim, explored underwater, and often just made up new games. When the children each turned about 3 they all really enjoyed jumping from the edge of the pool to Jami and I. Joshua, I noted, seemed to cherish this activity the most.  In fact, if it weren’t for a quirky response to the Sun that Joshua had, I don’t think our outstretched arms could have kept up with him. (To support this I site an instance on the 4^th of July, where Joshua as a toddler jumped so much while Arnold Marquez was holding him that Arnold’s arms gave out!) Fortunately for us, Joshua had a specific set of conditions in which he was able to jump. And if those conditions persisted, Joshua was unstoppable.  

Joshua could detect how much light the Sun was producing. He seemed to have a built in photometer, sensing how much thermal energy was present based on how bright the light was. When the Sun was bright and full, Joshua quickly perched himself on the edge of the pool, ready to gaily jump into the water. Should a stray cloud appear to cover the Sun, Joshua clenched his long arms around his chest, clenched his teeth and sprouted goose bumps. With great reluctance, but impressive speed, he would get out of the pool to wrap himself in his oversized towel, looking very much like a disgruntled mummy with plush terry-clothe wrapping. (This behavior explains why Joshua was not inclined to spend much time in the small pool. It had too much shade.)

But, once the cloud moved on, Joshua would cast aside his towel and once again throw his strong, lithe body into the pool.  To Joshua, this was what summer was all about.

A Toy's Tumble... and Back Up Again

Rubber bands are surprisingly strong. When you try and drop something that is attached to a rubber band, it doesn’t fall very far.

Last spring we did an experiment where we attached a toy to a chain of rubber bands. Then we dropped the toy off the kitchen counter. We also recorded the distance that the toy dropped. At the end we used an equation (y = mx + b) to help us figure out how many rubber bands we would need to add to drop the toy down an 18 foot stairwell so that the toy would fall down but bounce up just before it hit the ground.

At the beginning of the experiment we had just 1 rubber band attached to the toy. We held onto the end of the rubber band while we dropped the toy off of our kitchen counter. We recorded the distance that the toy dropped and then added more and more rubber bands until the toy almost hit the kitchen floor, being sure to record the distance each time. From this data we were able to create a graph on our calculator.

The equation y = mx + b describes a linear relationship. In this equation each letter means something. “Y” is the distance dropped by the toy, "m" is the rate that the toy dropped per rubber band, "x" is the number of rubber bands we used, and "b" is a constant that adds distance that comes from the toy’s length and weight.

When we used 2 rubber bands, for instance, the toy dropped about 26 cm.  6 rubber bands nearly tripled that distance to allow the toy to drop to 90 cm. The rubber bans, then, added an average of about 14.5 cm to the  distance to allow the toy to drop to 90 cm. The rubber d istance that the toy dropped. This pattern is considered  linear because when you graph the data it makes a line.  I bet you did not know that rubber bands could involve  math? From this math I was able to safely drop the toy be used by scientists to determine how far away an  down the stairwell. Next time I will describe how a linear relationship can  earthquake is.

--Jonathan Taylor

Joshua Chamberlain: Growing In Passion

Joshua is a delight. He is eager to join any venture that he feels will be fun. He jumps in always with a smile, much laughter, and with energy that is contagious to all who are around. His boundless passion motivates him and encourages others. 

Joshua has passion for many things, especially those things that require him to act kinesthetically. He is stronger and quicker than one might think for his small size. He can also throw a ball further and harder than I was able to at his age. And he can often be tireless when chasing his brothers on a field, all while keeping that grin of his and an eager laugh. 

He is adept with most any object that is thrown in sports, a trait he uses to his advantage when he plays dodge ball. He was given a mountain bike for Christmas. With the characteristic persistence that I’ve seen him use in sports, he has ridden his new bike endlessly around our street to practice changing gears, mastering bursts of speed and pulling tight turns. 

Passion is also what motivated him as a toddler to jump to Jami and I in the water, swim to the side, climb out, and repeat this sequence over and over again while squealing with laughter at all the fun he was having. And this passion fueled him one cold afternoon when we took him snow tubing last month. Though the conditions were colder than any he had ever felt, Joshua kept trudging along so he could experience the repeated thrill of sliding downhill.

Passion is powerful. It can cause us to become more disciplined as we pursue those things that interest us. When we experience success our drive serves to cause us to excel still more. If our efforts continue to yield fruit a cycle is produced where the motivation becomes intrinsic and the continued pursuit is personally rewarding. I am glad to see that Joshua is passionate. Nothing great in life is accomplished without passion.

Our First Fall

We arrived in California in the fall. These are some cool things we did in the mountains at that time. The mountains of California were so cold that I had to wear a hat, a coat, and gloves. And where I went it was so high my ears popped. The mountains had thick, soft snow on them. I had hot cocoa on the mountain, which tasted really good.

I also made snowballs. Two were perfectly spherical. I threw them into a lake and they shattered like glass.  Later my brothers and I ambushed my dad with many more snowballs. Jonathan made an especially hard snowball that he nailed my dad with.

California has been cold so far so I have to wear pants and a long sleeve shirt every day. When we go biking we have to wear coats because the air is cold when we go fast. In the morning and at night it’s really cold. But the afternoons are usually nice. There was nice weather when we went to my Uncle James’ house for Thanksgiving. We played soccer out in a field with my cousin Trey. It was cloudy but the weather was just right to play in.

The fall colors in California are very pretty. The three prettiest colors are yellow, red, and orange. Some trees have really intense colors but others have milder ones. The leaves come in a bunch of different shapes like hearts, stars, and pointy clubs. The shapes and colors are like a burst of fireworks.

--Jacob Ryan

Mr. Details

I had never been one for details when I was growing up. Wearing a purple plaid shirt with socks that had green stripes was a reasonable ensemble to me. And if my hair wasn’t combed, well, that was just a minor detail that I overlooked. Running a household of six kids made it difficult for my mom to always catch such non-conventional fashion from exiting the house.  She did try, though.

Our first child had the same tendencies that I did, which I now realize came more from both of us being absent-minded. This was not an unusual trait for children growing up nor is it unusual now. Being a public school teacher I found that many of my students had leanings this way, especially the boys. My oldest son still struggles with this from time to time as it pertains to his hair. Fortunately he has outgrown the clashing socks stage.

This tendency to overlook little but key details that Jonathan had made sense to me. Due to genetics I expected to see certain physical and behavioral traits in my children that I had when I was a child. That is why I married a woman whose genetics I anticipated would mitigate certain deficiencies that I had. Genetics, indeed, is a wonderful thing. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that our second son, Jacob, was a detail guy from the beginning. He was so meticulous and industrious as a baby that I am certain that if he had the ability to move about the room and manipulate objects with his chubby fingers once he was born; he would have organized our building blocks and teething toys by shape, color, and the date of manufacture. Jacob, we realized, was a detail guy.

I should have first noticed this when he had the amazing ability to spot a ball (one of his first words) any ball, wherever it would be. Now that we had two boys, there was no shortage of sports balls for Jacob to spot and play with in our small home. He would point them out to us at stores and on when he saw them from the car. One time we were in a very cluttered basement of a friend of ours. There were piles of things that had gathered there over the years. As soon as I stepped into the room with Jacob in my arms he exclaimed, “Ball!” and pointed at a stack of clothes and old toys. It took me a few seconds, but I did find the small red ball that he noticed as soon as we had entered the room.

At first we just thought he was just good at spotting things. It turned out that he would be much more particular about the things he noticed. Take socks and shoes for instance. As a toddler he noticed that socks had seams. He insisted that the seams be lined up right on the outer edge of each foot. He was also very particular about his shoelaces. They must never touch the ground once they were tied. Oh, and pant cuffs! They had to fall at just the right height on his ankle when he stood on his short little legs. We were beginning to wonder if our son was really a drill sergeant preparing for a review rather than the cherubic toddler that we beheld in front of us!

For a time the details of his young life, the ones that he felt that he had some sort of control over, were very important to Jacob. Take his love of LEGO, for instance. Jacob still loves to play with LEGO bricks. As a young child his creations were realistic and showed attention to symmetry and color. Once finished he would proudly present his creations to us, delighting us with each design and with his descriptions about how he arranged the LEGO bricks. He was very deliberate and specific about where he put the individual pieces.

I was pretty good at building LEGO planes and houses as a kid, but I never put near the thought into them that Jacob did. Based on how good he was at noticing things and how much effort he put into organizing his toys and life, I decided to run a little experiment. I switched out some of the small pieces on some of his LEGO inventions to see if he would notice. Not only did he promptly notice, my experiment drove him nuts! He would mutter, “That’s not right.” as he quickly put the pieces back into the original places that he had intended.  For Jacob the details did matter and still very much do to this day.

Being able to pay attention to the details is a great asset. Jacob has used this trait to build numerous forts in our home out of furniture, blankets and sleeping bags. (Complete with functioning doors, rooms, and reading lights.) His room is lined with Lego cars and airplanes that testify of his drive.  Each new device evidences his desire to build even more sophisticated contraptions. We are also pleased to see him use this trait in his schoolwork, where he consistently turns in quality work, including a fairly comprehensive little book he wrote and illustrated on sharks.