Science Mom
Jul. 28th, 2008 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralen"MOoooooom, it was velocity that cracked the egg!" said Jet as he greeted me after Vacation Bible School. "It didn't crack at all in all those egg races, until it hit the column."
"Mmm..." I say. "I imagine the column would have done quite a good job a cracking it."
"It's just a little crack," said Jet, as crumbs of egg shell fell to the floor.
Yeah, I know. Science in a church... actually they started doing it last summer as part of the program and since John and I are pretty good at doing the "rigorous science" part of it, and John's great with the kids, they got us to do the full week of experiments with the kids. The only problem was that they grew the number of kids from about 30 to the 43 we got today. Luckily, it was in three batches of about 15, and we didn't think we actually had enough materials for all the kids, but somehow three and a half dozen eggs (exactly 42 by my count) managed to give 43 kids one egg each. I'm not even going to ask.
But every kid got an egg. And they all put it in water with food coloring and got nearly no color at all, and then they all put it in vinegar with food coloring and got color! And fizzing... and shells breaking down and... it was kind of funny and fun
They also poked pencils through bags filled with water, and the pencils held the water in the bag. The bags only squirted everyone when the kids grabbed them and SQUEEZED! Ahem. Not in the plan, but well.. expected.
It's fun getting them to guess what they think is going to happen, try to do the hypothesis before the actual actions and observe what actually happens. Rigor. And questions! And seeing how weird and wonderful reality can actually be.
It was crazy. Last year, we had at most 12 in each group, with 15 the three adults were just scrambling every minute we had them. Amusingly enough the Kindergarteners were much better at following directions and doing what we asked then the 3-5th graders. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
But we survived and had a room that reeked of vinegar by the end of it, "The Smell of Science" everyone started saying. This should be amusing. We have the rest of the week of this. Wish us luck. *laughs*
"Mmm..." I say. "I imagine the column would have done quite a good job a cracking it."
"It's just a little crack," said Jet, as crumbs of egg shell fell to the floor.
Yeah, I know. Science in a church... actually they started doing it last summer as part of the program and since John and I are pretty good at doing the "rigorous science" part of it, and John's great with the kids, they got us to do the full week of experiments with the kids. The only problem was that they grew the number of kids from about 30 to the 43 we got today. Luckily, it was in three batches of about 15, and we didn't think we actually had enough materials for all the kids, but somehow three and a half dozen eggs (exactly 42 by my count) managed to give 43 kids one egg each. I'm not even going to ask.
But every kid got an egg. And they all put it in water with food coloring and got nearly no color at all, and then they all put it in vinegar with food coloring and got color! And fizzing... and shells breaking down and... it was kind of funny and fun
They also poked pencils through bags filled with water, and the pencils held the water in the bag. The bags only squirted everyone when the kids grabbed them and SQUEEZED! Ahem. Not in the plan, but well.. expected.
It's fun getting them to guess what they think is going to happen, try to do the hypothesis before the actual actions and observe what actually happens. Rigor. And questions! And seeing how weird and wonderful reality can actually be.
It was crazy. Last year, we had at most 12 in each group, with 15 the three adults were just scrambling every minute we had them. Amusingly enough the Kindergarteners were much better at following directions and doing what we asked then the 3-5th graders. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
But we survived and had a room that reeked of vinegar by the end of it, "The Smell of Science" everyone started saying. This should be amusing. We have the rest of the week of this. Wish us luck. *laughs*
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The knowledge of wet and dry
Date: 2008-07-29 07:55 am (UTC)And unexpected results are a good thing in science! You got a bonus answer to the question "Will kids squeeze a bag of water with a hole in it to see if water sprays out over everyone?" Now we know!
Re: The knowledge of wet and dry
Date: 2008-07-29 05:36 pm (UTC)Yeesh, I had to take a time out for myself and Jet looked at me, wideeyed. "Mom, YOU had to take a time out???!?"
Good for him to know adults need 'em too.
Re: The knowledge of wet and dry
Date: 2008-07-30 12:42 am (UTC)I'm glad everything went so well! Coolness!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 10:20 am (UTC)I imagine you'll have some other stories by the end of the week.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:37 pm (UTC)I imagine I will. *grin*
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 03:15 pm (UTC)It sounds like lots of fun. My kids would have loved doing that.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 05:37 pm (UTC)Yeah, all the kids seemed to love it, so I'm happy.
Four More Days. Whew.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 08:11 pm (UTC)And OF COURSE children squeeze the bags to see if anything comes out. It's what they do. If something can get messy, they'll make sure it will.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-06 03:21 am (UTC)