What Is Trivia?
In my town one of the annual fund raising nights is a trivia night. In the dictionary trivia is defined as unimportant matters. Each of us accumulates a store of trivia as we go about our lives. Is it all unimportant?
One of the things I include in “The City Water Project” is trivia about water. I don’t find all of it unimportant.
Unsafe water kills 200 children an hour around the world.
About 80% of illness in the developing countries is related to water.
In the U.S. 36 states expect water shortages in the near future.
No scientific study supports drinking 8 glasses of water a day. In fact, drinking too much water can kill you as surely as not drinking enough.
As much as 50% of municipal water is lost through leaky pipes.
A leaky faucet dropping one drop per second wastes 3000 gallons of water in a year.
There is a store of interesting, but what might be considered unimportant details as well.
The first municipal water system was in Paisley, Scotland in 1832. The U.S. now has over 161,000 public water systems.
Chlorine was first used to disinfect drinking water in 1908.
A gallon of water weighs 8.33 pounds. It expands 9% when it freezes.
Why do we find trivia fascinating? I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s because we are curious and these are curious facts. We accumulate trivia to occupy ourselves, to have something interesting to say talking to other people. Perhaps trivia is a way to mask our uneasiness talking to other people in a social setting.
Why do I include trivia in a science book? Perhaps it started as a way to fill out pages where the puzzles or investigations ended part way down the page. Then I found trivia could be a way to encourage children to think about the subject and its implications to their world.
And that is the purpose of my little science book for 9 to 14 year olds. Yes, the range is large as most of the investigations, activities and puzzles are adaptable for a range of ages. No, it isn’t tied to any artificial educational standards except mine.
What is my purpose? To give children facts both by doing and by reading about a subject and encouraging them to think about, adapt and use those facts. Science doesn’t live in a text book. It lives in the real world.
And, like it or not, our world depends on science more now than ever.
One of the things I include in “The City Water Project” is trivia about water. I don’t find all of it unimportant.
Unsafe water kills 200 children an hour around the world.
About 80% of illness in the developing countries is related to water.
In the U.S. 36 states expect water shortages in the near future.
No scientific study supports drinking 8 glasses of water a day. In fact, drinking too much water can kill you as surely as not drinking enough.
As much as 50% of municipal water is lost through leaky pipes.
A leaky faucet dropping one drop per second wastes 3000 gallons of water in a year.
There is a store of interesting, but what might be considered unimportant details as well.
The first municipal water system was in Paisley, Scotland in 1832. The U.S. now has over 161,000 public water systems.
Chlorine was first used to disinfect drinking water in 1908.
A gallon of water weighs 8.33 pounds. It expands 9% when it freezes.
Why do we find trivia fascinating? I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s because we are curious and these are curious facts. We accumulate trivia to occupy ourselves, to have something interesting to say talking to other people. Perhaps trivia is a way to mask our uneasiness talking to other people in a social setting.
Why do I include trivia in a science book? Perhaps it started as a way to fill out pages where the puzzles or investigations ended part way down the page. Then I found trivia could be a way to encourage children to think about the subject and its implications to their world.
And that is the purpose of my little science book for 9 to 14 year olds. Yes, the range is large as most of the investigations, activities and puzzles are adaptable for a range of ages. No, it isn’t tied to any artificial educational standards except mine.
What is my purpose? To give children facts both by doing and by reading about a subject and encouraging them to think about, adapt and use those facts. Science doesn’t live in a text book. It lives in the real world.
And, like it or not, our world depends on science more now than ever.
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