About This Blog
Big World Little Professors is a science blog for kids that explains how everyday commonplace things we take for granted can be wonderful and interesting.
As a Dad and an Uncle I'm used to hearing the question "why?". Why is, of course, a good question for kids to ask. The first time around. After multiple repetitions my answer often ends up being reduced to "just because!". This blog is an attempt to expand a bit more on what I mean by just because.
Big World Little Professors is full of original content, beautiful photos and colourful graphics that may inspire you and your children to explore the world around you and learn more about it. For younger children a spoken word audio widget accompanies most posts so the content can be heard as well as read.
Why I Created This Blog
The blog is primarily written with my nephews, my neice and my children in mind - only some of whom are old enough to actually be able to read right now. My hope is that the younger ones will have a lot of useful stuff to catch up on when they are older.
Of course a blog on the internet is in no way as personal as hand-written correspondence from a doting uncle or father but it is a lot more immediate, media-rich and durable. An added benefit is that other people outside the small circle of my intended target readership can also join in if they wish. Welcome, by the way, if that is you.
A few months before I created the blog I had a conversation with an adult who lives in the 21st century and holds down a responsible job about why antibiotic medicine was not appropriate for a viral infection. It was obvious they had totally missed or forgotten more than a lesson or two of basic biology at school and didn't know the difference between a bacteria and a virus. I mention this as an example of one of my fears not to demonstrate how knowledgeable I am - my point is the gains our species has made in the past 200 years in science, medicine and englightened culture are not necessarily permanent. Knowledge must be copied and passed on in the minds of young people for it to survive. Advancement requires the shoulders of giants to stand upon. Unless we teach children to be curious about the world and give oxygen to the flame of their intellect that fire can be snuffed out.
Learning is itself under threat in many parts of the world by totalitarian regimes who seek to impost strict thought systems on individuals to effect unchallenged power. The way of resisting those systems is to encourage our children to be open to discovery of new facts that can be supported with evidence.
We need to teach them how to think, not what to think.
Content and Style
Like anyone who writes a blog, the content of Big World Little Professors is totally dictated by my own preferences and biases. I'm trying to pick themes to explore that I am interested in; that my niece, nephews and children are interested in; and I think are worthwhile igniting in the imaginations of little professors.
One of my decisions when starting out was that I would be writing my own content rather than re-posting other peoples. Where possible I am using photographs, audio and graphics that I have created myself too.
It should go without saying, but these days I have to say it clearly, that if you want to use any of the media I have created on this blog you will have to ask my permission first and then we'll negotiate licensing terms.
The blog is aimed at all children, with the centre of that demographic at around seven or eight years old, but is not intentionally written in a kid-friendly or exclamation-riddled style. Young minds can run and catch up quickly and don't need to be patronised with dumbed down content. That said, my own personal writing style for this blog will necessarily take some time to evolve. Until then I may not always get the balance right all of the time, so apologies in advance. To be inclusive of little professors who can't yet read alone my aim is to provide a spoken-word audio track for every post as an alternative to reading it.
Embarking upon this blog I am already acutely aware of how much I don't know about the things around me. I hope this blog encourages you to discover new things too.
