Science Magazines? (1 Viewer)

[Peter Apruzzese]

My son is approaching the age of 7 (and I'm nearing 40, dammit!) and I was hoping to get opinions on some appropriate science magazines. I'm the resident skeptic around the house and what I'm looking for are some suggestions as to a couple of general science magazines to read. My son is insatiably curious (and too darn smart, if you ask me) and I'm starting to run out of answers ! I've been thinking about Scientific American, Discovery, The Skeptical Inquirer, National Geographic and the like. Are there any good space magazines anymore? I used to read Space World when I was in grade school.
(Mods - if you feel this is a poll, feel free to move it, but I'm hoping to generate more discussion than just polling. Thanks.)
EDIT - Hey, it's my 1000th post!

 

[Jack Briggs]

Congrats on the milestone, Peter my man!

All the magazines you list are good. Space World folded eons ago, but you might check out England's Spaceflight magazine, published by the British Interplanetary Society.

There's also the quarterly known as Skeptic.

Also consider Sky & Telescope and, to a lesser extent, Astronomy magazine.

Good luck on steering your youngin' right!

 

[Julie K]

Good topic! I was going to suggest one in another thread, might as well do it here.
Science News (www.sciencenews.org) publishes a weekly magazine. It is brief and is designed to be able to be read in an hour. It usually has one 'long' feature on a topic, followed by updates in all areas of science. It's a wonderful overview of what's happening in all fields.

 

[BrianW]

Astronomy Magazine is one of my absolute favorites. Kids' Discover magazine is geared more for his age group, as are Ranger Rick (about animals) and Science Made Simple.
If you allow your son to use the Internet, you might try this site:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
It's a real hoot for curious minds of any age, and one of my favorite sites for kids - though it's not billed as such.
I hope this helps.

 

[Ted Lee]

although i've never subscribed, i often enoy flipping through "popular science"...

 

[Julie K]

I should also mention that Science News sells (or used to sell) a monthly "Science Things" geared for kids. Each month is some activity or project designed to teach kids about some aspect of science in a fun way.

 

[DaveF]

I grew up reading World, a children's magazine published by National Geographic. I loved it! It's been 20-some years, so I've no idea what it's like, but it was an excellent general-science and world-events 'zine for kids. It's also got home-science experiments, puzzles, and pop-culture articles (I still remember the fold-out poster in the making-off Empire Strikes Back article), and other neat things.
My cousins got Ranger Rick, and that was also pretty good.
"Scientific American" You're joking, right? Perhaps your seven-year old is a genius, but SA is written at the college-graduate level, or so it seemed to me. Way beyond a child.
"Science News" is a nice summary magazine, but it's written at a high-school or undergraduate level. it could easily be too much for a kid.
National Geographic might be to high-level in the text, but the photographs and illustrations certainly make up for it. And you could enjoy reading it, as well.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Thanks for the suggestions, folks. These seem to be a good start - looks like a trip to Barnes & Noble on the way home tonight.
Dave: Scientific American will be for me, I've got to stay ahead of my son!

 

[Jack Briggs]

And, Peter, your son must learn early that an appreciation of good science fiction will enhance his desire to learn more science. To that end, I recommend a certain film: 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think it's a good movie.

 

[Mark Dubbelboer]

I picked up a copy of Sky & Telescope a month ago. i had no idea what they were talking about. i've got a very basic physics background (couple years of university) but this magazine had my head spinning.

One of my new years resolutions was to stop reading non-intelligent magazines and i've found that discovery has been my fave so far. plus my friends that see it always flip thru it and find something interesting.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

We're starting slow with science fiction. He reads Jules Verne and HG Wells from time to time (along with "Harry Potter", the "Narnia" books by CS Lewis and many others) and he really enjoyed Harryhausen's film version of First Men in the Moon (as well as the other Harryhausen films). Soon, it'll be time to show him The Time Machine and Journey to the Center of the Earth. He knows about 2001 - he's seen my poster archive - and I've shown him selected highlights of the space scenes on the DVD. He was intrigued by the anti-gravity scenes and wanted to know how they were filmed (if nothing else, that proves he's my son). I'm hoping that by the time he's 10 or 11 that 2001 has a theatrical reissue again. But that's also the reason I'm building the home theatre in the basement - I just ordered front projector and am beginning the construction in a week or two - so he can see this stuff large!

 

[SteveGon]

Archaeology magazine publishes Dig, which is geared towards getting kids interested in archaeology.

 

[DaveF]

Dave: Scientific American will be for me, I've got to stay ahead of my son

(breathes sigh of relief) I'm glad to hear that
But it's good to have those sorts of magazine lying around. I read Newsweek, Clive Cussler novels, and other random things because my dad read them when I was growing up.
I also second "The Chronicles of Narnia"; I've read the series about four times; most recently just a couple years ago.
Other books I loved:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
"Little House" series; the Laura Ingalls Wilder books were a lot of fun.
"Tom Swift"; a friend had these action/adventure books in his basement. They are old, outdated, and probably still a lot of fun.

 

[Scott Hayes]

Oh man, I forgot about Tom Swift. I loved those books as a kid. I used to have the whole collection. Great book for kids. Gets the imagination going.

 

[Brian Harnish]

Ummm...how could Harry Potter or The Chronicles Of Narnia be Science Fiction? Aren't they of the fantasy genre?

 

[Nigel McN]

The Fortean Times! http://www.forteantimes.com/ I fell in love with this through my highschool library which got a couple of compendiums. It is really great, maybe just a little too old for a 7 year old but check it out for yourself at least. First appearences with this magazine can be deceiving.

 

[RobR]

Be careful there! If you get him magazines such as Scientific American, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, or National Geographic at such a young age, you might actually drive him away from science since they might be over his head and too boring.

I really suggest starting with starting with very-easy-to-read magazines with a small amount of science such as Popular Mechanics then moving up as he gets older.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Rob, that was actually my plan. After all, he IS only seven. But I also wanted some suggestions for reading for myself as I used to love science in school and have gotten far away from it in recent years. I figure I'll get a few for each of us.

Brian, agreed, they are strictly fantasy. But he's shown an interest in science fiction as well and I think there is a natural progression from those fantasy tales to science fiction.

 

[Butch C]

Whatever happened to OMNI?

 

[Scott Leopold]

National Geogaphic World is great for kids; National Geographic is great for the whole family. I've got over 30 years worth of NG, plus the CD-ROM edition. Scientific American is my science magazine of choice, followed by Popular Science. Discovery used to be a decent science magazine, but I discontinued my subscription after Disney bought it and it became more fluff than anything. The hard science stories were seldom more than a page long, while the fluff articles were 10 pages and longer. It might be appropriate for a kid, but I think there'd be plenty of better choices out there.

OMNI folded because it turned its attention more toward UFO's and the like, than real science. Its UFO report, which used to be a small 2-4 page center insert, grew to the point where it was nearly the entire magazine. I cancelled my subscription after an issue that had UFO's as the cover story, nearly every secondary story, and the UFO report larger than the rest of the magazine. Instead of a legitimate science magazine (which it had been at one point), it became Bob Guccione's forum for stating his UFO beliefs. I was grateful to see it fold.