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Wild Wednesdays: Brent's Backyard Bug Adventures!
- EI Editor Posted On Aug 1, 2012
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhDv-vtnKc]Hi and welcome to Backyard Bug Adventure! My name is Brent Geppert and I manage the toys and games for Educational Insights. Out of all the toys and games we do, the ones I love the most are the ones about bugs, and that is why we are doing the backyard bug adventure in my backyard!So bugs are amazing and what’s incredible is we’re surrounded by them. Some of the coolest bugs are in your own backyard or even your favorite park! So today, we’re going to try to find some baby ladybugs. They are kind of hard to find because they don’t look like adult ladybugs. So lets go try to find some in my apple tree!We finally found a baby ladybug. He’s right here. Let’s see if we can get him to crawl on my hand… very gentle with him. There he is. Be very gentle when you’re handling bugs. There he is! A baby ladybug. Now it doesn’t look anything like an adult ladybug, but when it gets older, he or she will develop their spots and become a ladybug. Let go put him in our GeoSafari Bug Viewer!So now I have the baby ladybug with an adult ladybug in the GeoSafari Jr. Bug Viewer. We get a great view of them. There’s the baby ladybug crawling around trying to look for some aphids probably. Actually, those little black spots that you see next to the adult ladybug are actually old aphids because ladybugs love to eat aphids.So thanks for joining me on the backyard bug adventure! I’m going to put our friends back on the apple tree, and until next time, see you later, have a great time, get out there and find some cool bugs! Buh-byeLike us and Let us know on Facebook what other backyard bugs you’d like to learn more about and we’ll choose one respondent to win a GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Bug Net™!
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Summer Learning Adventure: Searching for Brown Widow Spiders What are the characteristics of a Brown Widow spider? Find out in this exciting segment of Backyard Bug Adventures. In this clip, Brent makes a daring exploration in his backyard to find Brown Widows, the cousins of Black Widows.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR1ATlf2Hf8
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Summer Learning Adventure: Searching for Brown Widow Spiders What are the characteristics of a Brown Widow spider? Find out in this exciting segment of Backyard Bug Adventures. In this clip, Brent makes a daring exploration in his backyard to find Brown Widows, the cousins of Black Widows.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR1ATlf2Hf8
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Posted on Jan 18, 2013
Get to Know Us! Featuring Product Manager, Brent Geppert
How long have you worked at Educational Insights?I've worked here for 2 years.How do you like it?I hate it. [Laughs]. No, I’m just joking. It’s wonderful. Incredible. It’s a dream job in many ways. I get to make toys, make games, and play games with the kids. It’s awesome. I love it.What drew you to working here?I was attracted to being able to develop something that would enrich kids. Its fun, but there’s also enrichment and educational value. There’s something about just building toys and games that are educational and all that that’s exciting to me.I have a little background in this but I am not, by trade, a product manager. I’ve done marketing and whole slew of different types of things. So, this is a very new thing for me. I don’t come from a huge background of developing toys and games, but I had a lot of experience as a kid.When I was a teenager I had my own skateboard company. I’ve always had a creative flair. My dad was an incredible craftsman and woodworker. He could make anything out of anything! He would make suits of armor out of cardboard, he would do spaceships and swords, and I just watched him!So what was amazing was that when I got this job, it all just came out and I was able to do just all this... All these great things.I’m an artist too, I can paint, I can do so many things, and it all just came together in this job.So you invented the EI Puppets. Tell me about that.I love puppets, I grew up watching the Muppets and with my boys... I’ll put a sock on my hand, and boom, instant puppet! Anything can be a puppet! A dinner roll can be a puppet. A pillow. Anything. That’s what I would do with my kids… have fun little puppet shows. All kids love puppets.Somehow I realized, hey, puppets are great. How about come up with a new kind of puppet? Something that kids could use…something that’s easy. Something that’s fun, that’s imaginative.What was your favorite toy growing up?It was called Fisher Techniques. It was this building set from Germany. We played with Fisher Techniques for hours and hours. All the different combinations of pieces. They’re very durable. Once you put something together, you were able to play with it.What’s your favorite toy here?Well I am partial to the puppets, but I love play foam! It never gets old.What was your most unconventional inspiration?Well, I came up with the talking bug net. So, I love bugs. I am always looking at bugs. If I see a bug, I’ll stop and I’ll look at it. I’ll try to pick it up as long as it doesn’t have a stinger.My sixth grade teacher had a praying mantis in the room, and it was just the coolest looking thing. We went away on a weekend and the mantis layed an eggsack and it had hatched, and there were baby praying mantises all over the room! So that was really cool to me!So a couple years ago, I bought my own praying mantis at a gardening supply store. I got one, hatched it myself, and I just watched them! So that was where I thought it would be cool to have an electronic praying mantis!There are more bugs on the planet than humans by far. They’ve been here forever, and they probably will be until the Earth blows up! You know, roaches have been here since dinosaurs and they’ll stay here.Bugs are fascinating to me, so I took that inspiration from my excitement from bugs and made the talking bug net.What’s your favorite animal?I think most animals are really fascinating. But I think I’m fascinated by… well here’s another inspiration. You know the fish puppets? The deep sea angler?Deep sea creatures are really fascinating to me. For one, they’re weird, and for 2 they’re just unbelievable that they can survive at the depths of the ocean. So, I’d say deep sea angler if I had to pick one.What’s a day in the life of Brent outside of work?Well I’m a father on two very active young boys who are constantly moving and wanting to interact with me whether it’s playing a video game, basketball, or wrestling.How old are your boys?6 and 8. So, I do a lot of that. [laughs] I also love surfing, and I brew beer!List of Favorites: Favorite color?BlueFavorite season?SummerFavorite team?LakersFavorite movie?I’m a world war history enthusiast…Saving Private Ryan (Drama) and Forest Gump (feel good)Favorite food?Carne Asada Burritos!
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Get to Know Us! Featuring Product Manager, Brent Geppert
How long have you worked at Educational Insights?I've worked here for 2 years.How do you like it?I hate it. [Laughs]. No, I’m just joking. It’s wonderful. Incredible. It’s a dream job in many ways. I get to make toys, make games, and play games with the kids. It’s awesome. I love it.What drew you to working here?I was attracted to being able to develop something that would enrich kids. Its fun, but there’s also enrichment and educational value. There’s something about just building toys and games that are educational and all that that’s exciting to me.I have a little background in this but I am not, by trade, a product manager. I’ve done marketing and whole slew of different types of things. So, this is a very new thing for me. I don’t come from a huge background of developing toys and games, but I had a lot of experience as a kid.When I was a teenager I had my own skateboard company. I’ve always had a creative flair. My dad was an incredible craftsman and woodworker. He could make anything out of anything! He would make suits of armor out of cardboard, he would do spaceships and swords, and I just watched him!So what was amazing was that when I got this job, it all just came out and I was able to do just all this... All these great things.I’m an artist too, I can paint, I can do so many things, and it all just came together in this job.So you invented the EI Puppets. Tell me about that.I love puppets, I grew up watching the Muppets and with my boys... I’ll put a sock on my hand, and boom, instant puppet! Anything can be a puppet! A dinner roll can be a puppet. A pillow. Anything. That’s what I would do with my kids… have fun little puppet shows. All kids love puppets.Somehow I realized, hey, puppets are great. How about come up with a new kind of puppet? Something that kids could use…something that’s easy. Something that’s fun, that’s imaginative.What was your favorite toy growing up?It was called Fisher Techniques. It was this building set from Germany. We played with Fisher Techniques for hours and hours. All the different combinations of pieces. They’re very durable. Once you put something together, you were able to play with it.What’s your favorite toy here?Well I am partial to the puppets, but I love play foam! It never gets old.What was your most unconventional inspiration?Well, I came up with the talking bug net. So, I love bugs. I am always looking at bugs. If I see a bug, I’ll stop and I’ll look at it. I’ll try to pick it up as long as it doesn’t have a stinger.My sixth grade teacher had a praying mantis in the room, and it was just the coolest looking thing. We went away on a weekend and the mantis layed an eggsack and it had hatched, and there were baby praying mantises all over the room! So that was really cool to me!So a couple years ago, I bought my own praying mantis at a gardening supply store. I got one, hatched it myself, and I just watched them! So that was where I thought it would be cool to have an electronic praying mantis!There are more bugs on the planet than humans by far. They’ve been here forever, and they probably will be until the Earth blows up! You know, roaches have been here since dinosaurs and they’ll stay here.Bugs are fascinating to me, so I took that inspiration from my excitement from bugs and made the talking bug net.What’s your favorite animal?I think most animals are really fascinating. But I think I’m fascinated by… well here’s another inspiration. You know the fish puppets? The deep sea angler?Deep sea creatures are really fascinating to me. For one, they’re weird, and for 2 they’re just unbelievable that they can survive at the depths of the ocean. So, I’d say deep sea angler if I had to pick one.What’s a day in the life of Brent outside of work?Well I’m a father on two very active young boys who are constantly moving and wanting to interact with me whether it’s playing a video game, basketball, or wrestling.How old are your boys?6 and 8. So, I do a lot of that. [laughs] I also love surfing, and I brew beer!List of Favorites: Favorite color?BlueFavorite season?SummerFavorite team?LakersFavorite movie?I’m a world war history enthusiast…Saving Private Ryan (Drama) and Forest Gump (feel good)Favorite food?Carne Asada Burritos! READ MORE
Posted on Aug 22, 2012
Brent’s Backyard Bug Adventures: Brown Widows [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_p0LO7Bl58&feature=youtu.be]Hello and welcome back to Backyard Bug Adventures! Brent Geppert here. I am the toys and games manager at Educational Insights. Okay so tonight we’re going to go on a bug adventure. We’re going to look for the elusive, the amazing, Brown Widow. Not the Black Widow—the Brown Widow Spider. Let’s go check ‘em out. I’ve got tons of them in my Backyard!So you might be wondering, why are we going to be looking for the Brown Widows? What about the Black Widows? Well, pretty much all of the Black Widows have been replaced by Brown Widows, basically a cousin of the Black Widow. They are similar to the Black Widow, but as you can see—here, we found one—they are a little bit different.They have the red hourglass, as you can see, on the bottom of the abdomen. Actually, their bite is not as venomous as the Black Widow, but we still want to keep our distance as much as possible.We’ve got a nice Brown Widow here. Check her out! You can see the red hourglass. You see how her legs are striped? That’s the telltale sign of a Brown Widow. Earlier I said that we should keep our distance, but you know what, I can’t help myself. I have to try to at least capture one for our bug viewer! I don’t recommend doing this at home for any kids that are watching. If you’re really careful, these are not too difficult to catch.Here is our Brown Widow Spider. Beautiful example, look at that perfect view of the hourglass abdomen and striped legs.Alright, well thanks for joining me on Backyard Bug Adventures. Hopefully you had a good time watching us explore my backyard for Brown Widows. Believe me, there’s all kinds of great spiders and other kinds of bugs that come out at night. So hopefully, you can have your very own nighttime bug adventure as well. So let’s return our lady-friend back to her home and we will see you next time! Take Care.
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Brent’s Backyard Bug Adventures: Brown Widows [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_p0LO7Bl58&feature=youtu.be]Hello and welcome back to Backyard Bug Adventures! Brent Geppert here. I am the toys and games manager at Educational Insights. Okay so tonight we’re going to go on a bug adventure. We’re going to look for the elusive, the amazing, Brown Widow. Not the Black Widow—the Brown Widow Spider. Let’s go check ‘em out. I’ve got tons of them in my Backyard!So you might be wondering, why are we going to be looking for the Brown Widows? What about the Black Widows? Well, pretty much all of the Black Widows have been replaced by Brown Widows, basically a cousin of the Black Widow. They are similar to the Black Widow, but as you can see—here, we found one—they are a little bit different.They have the red hourglass, as you can see, on the bottom of the abdomen. Actually, their bite is not as venomous as the Black Widow, but we still want to keep our distance as much as possible.We’ve got a nice Brown Widow here. Check her out! You can see the red hourglass. You see how her legs are striped? That’s the telltale sign of a Brown Widow. Earlier I said that we should keep our distance, but you know what, I can’t help myself. I have to try to at least capture one for our bug viewer! I don’t recommend doing this at home for any kids that are watching. If you’re really careful, these are not too difficult to catch.Here is our Brown Widow Spider. Beautiful example, look at that perfect view of the hourglass abdomen and striped legs.Alright, well thanks for joining me on Backyard Bug Adventures. Hopefully you had a good time watching us explore my backyard for Brown Widows. Believe me, there’s all kinds of great spiders and other kinds of bugs that come out at night. So hopefully, you can have your very own nighttime bug adventure as well. So let’s return our lady-friend back to her home and we will see you next time! Take Care.
READ MORE
