Curt Gabrielson - More Tinkering: How Kids in the Tropics Learn by Making Stuff

Curt Gabrielson

Foreword by Brian Schmidt, Nobel Laureate for Physics

Copyright 2018 Curt Gabrielson. All rights reserved.

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October 2018: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2018-10-15 First Release

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This book is dedicated to the immortal spirit of Paul Doherty (19482017), who encouraged me to explore scientifically to the ends of the earth, and to always, always pass it on.

T hanks 106 to those who made this book better: Stephen Thompson, the jolly Irish geologist who taught me about Timors fascinating rocks. Julie Yu for sundry lucid chemistry clarifications. Karen Kalumuk for similar biological explanations. Bill Maney for checking my math and physics. David Keith for climate pointers. Roger Stewart for patiently guiding it down the road to publication. Elizabeth Welch, copy editor extraordinaire. Scout Festa, the supernatural proofreader.

The SESIM crew here in Dili, Timor-Leste: Luis, Vero, Mimi, Caetano, Bernardino, Angela, Olandino, Julio, and many other inspirational Timorese teachers. All my colleagues at the Timor-Leste National Commission for UNESCO, under the Timor-Leste Ministry of Education.

Frances Gabrielson for giving input, albeit far outside her considerable realm of expertise. My partner Pam for ever-cogent editing, as well as pulling more weight in the household as I played with this stuff.

My fabulous tropical models, friends of my kids:

Acede

Elis

Maria

Nova

Tania

Wiltor

And of course my own kids!

Paulo Ramelau

Zoraya Alicia

T imor-Leste is one of the worlds youngest democracies. Having emerged out of years of conflict, it is a nation poor when measured in GDP, but rich in human resources. My fellow Nobel Prize winner, the remarkable Jos Ramos-Horta, invited me to Timor-Leste in 2013, when I got my first taste of the country.

As part of that visit, I met Curt Gabrielson for the first time. He translated my talk about cosmology to a few hundred teachers, who were assembled from across the country to learn about teaching science. His translation, in Tetun, connected humanitys understanding of the universe to many of the nations science teachers. Some had felt this feat would not be possible in Tetun, but it was done to great effect, as we were able to see from the reactions of the teachers.