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Tom R

Tom writes research-backed STEM content that explores what kids actually learn from robotics and math. He covers cognitive development studies, surprising math facts, and more. His approach blends scientific evidence with practical insights.

When the computer makes things up

Ask any AI chatbot for the source of a famous quote and a meaningful share of the time you'll get a confident, complete, invented citation. A book that doesn't exist. A real historian on a topic they've never written about. The verification habit isn't new, just newly urgent.

Why children trust AI more than adults do

Every confidently wrong AI answer is a small free lesson, if you slow down long enough to take it.

What Shapes a Child's Brain? Mostly, Things That Happen at Home

What Shapes a Child's Brain? Mostly, Things That Happen at Home

A 2024 review identified six factors that shape brain development between ages two and eleven. Five of them are decided at home, not at school. Sleep, nutrition, movement, music, a nurturing environment. The interesting things parents focus on sit on top of conditions that are usually invisible.

How Long Would It Take to Count to a Billion?

How Long Would It Take to Count to a Billion?

In December 2025, Favour Ogechi Ani finished counting to 1,070,000 out loud. It took seventy days. At her pace, counting to a billion would take more than a century. The gap between those two words is the gap most adults cannot feel.

Math Facts That'll Make You Say "Wait, What?" #13

Every triangle you have ever drawn adds up to 180 degrees, exactly, no exceptions. A stop sign has eight sides because someone chose that on purpose in 1923. And a square is, technically, a rectangle. Shapes are quietly doing more work than they let on.

When Teenagers Stop Studying Maths, a Key Brain Chemical Drops

Oxford scanned 87 teenagers. The ones who'd stopped maths had measurably less of a specific brain chemical. A second experiment confirmed it wasn't there before they stopped. The study is about 16-year-olds. Its relevance sits with parents of six-year-olds.

cognitive development kids

The Cognitive Skill That Predicts Everything, and the Activities That Build It

187 five- and six-year-olds. Ten weeks with a palm-sized floor robot, twice a week. Afterwards, they outperformed the control group on clinical tests of working memory and inhibition, tests with nothing to do with robotics. The mechanism wasn't the robot.