Never boring: She blinded me with science!

Luckily, we've got eye protection for that!

I love to hear, "This is fun!," spoken with breathy amazement, while children are learning. In Lower Elementary, it happens most often with science. This is the age when children are captivated by so many "Why?" questions. Science helps them learn methods for investigating those great questions!

Here's a taste of some of the science that's been happening in Room 15.
This Jello box experiment helps children think about the relationship between force and mass. It's also great for introducing variables.

First, children use a balance to find the mass of an empty Jello box and an identical (same flavor and everything) full Jello box. Not only do scientists observe. They measure.

Next, the children assemble a ramp with books and a ruler (with a groove that works quite nicely to keep the ball on track).

A golf ball is released to roll down the ramp and hit a box, and then the children measure how far the box was pushed. They perform at least three trials with the empty box and then the full box.

This year, we took our discussion of variables a step further and considered how we might alter the original experiment by changing the variable. The children had great suggestions: try two different balls (a ping-pong ball & the golf ball), change the height of the ramp, or change the surface on which we do the experiment. Since we'd been talking about friction, we decided to see how far a box would slide on a smooth surface compared to a bumpy surface.

Children are usually convinced that a heavy object falls faster than its lighter counterpart. Prior to the next experiment, many children hypothesize (based on prior knowledge, no doubt) that a crumpled paper will fall faster than a flat piece of paper. They conclude that this is because the crumpled paper has more mass than the flat paper. Hmm. Not necessarily so.

It's fun to experiment with misconceptions:
Two identical pieces of paper.
(Many children need measurement proof that, although we crumpled one paper, the two papers still have the same mass. I always ask, "Does your mass change when you ball yourself up?")

Same size, same shape, same mass.

One crumpled. One flat.

Will they fall at the same rate?

Hmm. What mysterious force is slowing down the flat paper?

"Does the air have friction?" asked one inquisitive first grader as he pondered during dismissal that day.

Science materials can be simple. With only a few ingredients, this fun experiment pushes young minds to combine what we've learned about force and matter:

* balloons