Creation of the universe, evolution of simple life forms, and other simple questions

[AllisonR]

DS and DD are asking questions I can not answer. We have a short science book about the big bang, and so now DS is asking how it happened. I explained I did not know, I don't understand myself how something could explode out of nothing....

He is also asking if there was nothing in the water, then how could there be amoebas, then how did they turn into other animals.... I LOVE science, but I have no education in it and am at a loss for words. He gets the whole primates into humans thing, but I can't explain the rest with words.

As DS is very visual (like his momma), I'd like to find some non-verbal resources: a youtube movie, video, or at least drawing... I have a picture in my head of the empty sea, then single celled organisms forming, then bigger, then fish, then some of them coming on land.... like a short cartoon or movie. Any ideas, links...? Help!

[deminc]

Don't worry, you don't need to know the answer to the Big Bang. Nobody really knows. The best place to start is to explain to the kids what a scientific theory is - your best guess of what had happened based on all the other information you and others have observed or found out.

Explain that scientific knowledge is an ongoing process, people are constantly discovering new things and reshaping/refining their ideas and what we know today is the culmination of the work of many.

So the big bang is a theory, and etc etc are the reasons why scientists think that (calculations that the universe is still expanding), and you can tell your child about the ongoing CERN project which hopes to contribute to our understanding of the universe. http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/lhc/lhc-en.html

sorry kids calling, will get back later if I can.

[LynnS6]

This book looks good:

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story. It has pretty simple explanations and drawings to match. I just looked at the preview of it and if you click on Surprise me! the last pages that come up are kind of a summary of it. I don't know if you can get this in Denmark (and not break the bank), but maybe your library has something like this in either English or Danish?

[LauraLoo]

Here's a very good site == on the right side are resources for teachers K-12.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

Lots of stuff on PBS Teachers, too:

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/search/r...tion&x=38&y=15

Bill Nye the Science guy has a video on Evolution (we borrowed one from the library)
http://www.educationalvideos.com/edu...ll-nye-part-1/


ETA: There's also 3 books in this series that we have (Born with a Bang, From Lava to Life, Mammals Who Morph) -- I thought they were pretty good for an introduction. You could always see if your library has them:

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Bang-Univ...3175697&sr=8-1

[AllisonR]

Thanks so much Lynn and Laura! I ordered "Our family tree" and the Born with a Bang series. Fortunately (unfortunately for my budget), I also ordered the Life book by Eric Madden, and a few Scholastic First Discovery books, and two books for myself!

Laura - thanks for the links as well - http://evolution.berkeley.edu/ - I could get lost in there for hours with all the cool projects they have.

[erratum]

Not for your daughter, but as an armchair scientist I loved A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It's a layman's account of, well, science. all of it. and it's fascinating. It may help you explain some of the larger concepts or at least help convey the enormity of how ridiculously little we as humans know about the world.

[Kayaking Mama]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

This book looks good:

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story. It has pretty simple explanations and drawings to match. I just looked at the preview of it and if you click on Surprise me! the last pages that come up are kind of a summary of it. I don't know if you can get this in Denmark (and not break the bank), but maybe your library has something like this in either English or Danish?

We have this book and like it quite a lot. Also Steve Jenkins has a book about evolution/origin of the earth; I think it's called Life on Earth which has a lot of good info about natural selection etc.