Helium Party Balloons

Maybe it’s a California thing, but it seems like most schools around here are doing Leprechaun Trap projects at the Kindergarten and First Grade level. The idea is this: each kid builds a trap and leaves it at school the day before Saint Patrick’s day. On the morning of Saint Patrick’s day the kids come in and all the traps have been “sprung” but the Leprechaun has escaped, leaving behind only some chocolate coins, some “gold” (colored stones) and some green glitter. It’s good fun for the kids and they get to, perhaps, learn a little science or mechanical engineering along the way.

So here’s our unscientific survey of the best Leprechaun traps out there!

Irja wins major geek points for incorporating a slinky into the trap she made with her son Gabriel. I’m not sure what the slinky actually does. I think perhaps it vacuums the Leprechaun up into the shoe?

Adam made a low-tech trap with his son Ben, but he has the best youtube video showing it off. Bonus points for using batteries as weights.

Steve Spangler has a great science blog, making him a true GeekDad, and talks about his PVC-based trap there. Also don’t miss a great green-water trick where he made all the water faucets in the house dispense green water using fizzy tablets.

Kevin incorporated slime and a radiometer into  his trap, and his budget ballooned to over $100 as the project grew and grew. What good GeekDad project *doesn’t* go over budget?

Finally, we end with a truly geeky trap solution from 2nd-grade students Caffrey Fielding and Abby Kelly using Lego Mindstorms NXT, behold the power of Lego!

I found surprisingly few Leprechaun Traps out there that incorporate technology. If you’ve got your own geeky leprechaun trap project that you’ve done with the kids, link it in the comments.

Maybe it’s a California thing, but it seems like most schools around here are doing Leprechaun Trap projects at the Kindergarten and First Grade level. The idea is this: each kid builds a trap and leaves it at school the day before Saint Patrick’s day. On the morning of Saint Patrick’s day the kids come in and all the traps have been “sprung” but the Leprechaun has escaped, leaving behind only some chocolate coins, some “gold” (colored stones) and some green glitter. It’s good fun for the kids and they get to, perhaps, learn a little science or mechanical engineering along the way.

So here’s our unscientific survey of the best Leprechaun traps out there!

Irja wins major geek points for incorporating a slinky into the trap she made with her son Gabriel. I’m not sure what the slinky actually does. I think perhaps it vacuums the Leprechaun up into the shoe?

Adam made a low-tech trap with his son Ben, but he has the best youtube video showing it off. Bonus points for using batteries as weights.

Steve Spangler has a great science blog, making him a true GeekDad, and talks about his PVC-based trap there. Also don’t miss a great green-water trick where he made all the water faucets in the house dispense green water using fizzy tablets.

Kevin incorporated slime and a radiometer into  his trap, and his budget ballooned to over $100 as the project grew and grew. What good GeekDad project *doesn’t* go over budget?

Finally, we end with a truly geeky trap solution from 2nd-grade students Caffrey Fielding and Abby Kelly using Lego Mindstorms NXT, behold the power of Lego!

I found surprisingly few Leprechaun Traps out there that incorporate technology. If you’ve got your own geeky leprechaun trap project that you’ve done with the kids, link it in the comments.

This past weekend some of the GeekDad team made the trek up to Boston to speak at, and troll, PAX East. We had an excellent panel, talking about Geek Parenting, board games and taking some great Q&A. The room was packed, we had many follow-up conversations with fans, parents and random geeks afterward. It was a fantastic time and a great experience. However, for one GeekDad (yours truly) the conversation didn’t end with PAX East. On Monday, I was live on the The Pulse Network on Fitarella TV, a fitness and healthy living program airing every Monday live at 1pm EST.

The conversation ranged from my awesome Gunnar glasses (and how “geek chic” I appeared to be) to a wide range of health topics. Before we got into the stack of paper in front of us, we continued the theme from our panel at PAX East, with a little twist. I spoke a bit about geek parenting in regards to gaming and exercise. How do we get kids to get off the couch and stay healthy, while still encouraging their gaming habit. For that matter, what place the fitness oriented games have in that transition. It was a fun conversation, we kept it light and I made plenty of jokes. The video is right around an hour, so you don’t have to watch the whole thing in one sitting, but check it out.

You can check out Fitarella on Twitter and The Pulse Network on Twitter