Tumblehome Talks

Most readers of this blog know that a year and a half ago I joined with three friends to start Tumblehome Learning, a company that seeks to inspire kids about science and engineering through adventure stories, mysteries, and associated activity kits and games.  And what a ride it's been.

Right now, Tumblehome Learning is preparing for our first visit to the New York Toy Fair in February.  There we'll display our first five books, four kits full of related science experiments, and two Mixing in Math products for math games at home.  We'll also showcase a brand-new product, Dr. Tan's Supergrams, which combines an ancient Chinese puzzle, Tangrams, with a cutting-edge new technology, Augmented Reality.  Supergrams will be the first demonstration of our concept of transmedia--in this case, motivating kids to work on a puzzle in the real world in order to unlock a 3D image online.

(If you want to learn more about Dr. Tan's Supergrams, please visit our Kickstarter project.  Maybe you can even help us reach our fundraising goal.

Tumblehome's flagship product series is the Galactic Academy of Science, or G.A.S., series.  These combine short books (they average less than 25,000 words and are written for kids ages 8-13) with kits of hands-on science activities.  In each book, a pair of middle school students prepping for a science fair stumble across a scientific mystery. A teenager from the future appears and challenges them to travel back in time and interview scientists and engineers of the past.  These encounters give the kids the tools they need to solve the mystery and ace the science fair.

Two GAS books are available now, and the third will be available by mid-February.  They are:

The Desperate Case of the Diamond Chip
The Furious Case of the Fraudulent Fossil,
The Vicious Case of the Viral Vaccine

Coming soon will be:

The Horrible Case of the Hackensack Hacker
The Baffling Case of the Battered Brain, and
The Curious Case of the Climate Caper.

I could go on about Tumblehome Learning, but what I really wanted to do was to tell you that as I'm growing busier with the company, I have less time for personal blogging.  Instead, I'm contribution ideas and some wording to Tumblehome Learning's own blog, Tumblehome Talks.  If you're a parent interested in science education, quick updates on education policy, and general parenting tips, Tumblehome Talks is a good blog to follow.