I was one of those children. I did not enjoy science when I was younger. It wasn't fun for me. I hated science fairs and I hated being forced into participating in those science fairs. In high school, I dreaded science classes. They were very difficult for me. To use that word from above, science was boring!
That is until I took my Oceanography and Astronomy class. It was a fun and engaging class! Woohoo for Science!
It didn't stop there! In college, I took a Physical Science class and we did some awesome experiments! Again, I LOVED it!
I certainly don't want Science to be boring for my firsties!
Enter Pinterest and my fantabulous co-teacher!
While on Pinterest a few weeks ago, I found the COOLEST science experiments related to Valentines Day. One of them was a Love Lamp. I emailed it to my co-teacher, Jonathan, asking him if he wanted to do this with my kiddos.
[Jonathan LOVES science! He is so enthusiastic about it that once a week, he does a Science lesson whole group. The kids eat it up and are retaining so much!]
Jonathan's response?
"I'm about to make that love lamp RIGHT NOW IT'S SO COOL!" [Note: I took a word out between right and now as it's not appropriate for my blog but it definitely made me laugh in the original email!]
So guess what we did the day before Valentine's Day? That's right! Love Lamp day!
As Jonathan was introducing the lesson, I was prepping one of the items the students would need. As I turned around, I see this....
Jonathan somehow, magically, tied in this lesson with our rock unit. (Magma, Lava, Volcanoes, etc...)
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| Jonathan got 5 cylinders from the Dollar Store. He made the initial marking on 1 cylinder and I marked up the other 4 cylinders. |
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| Jonathan put club soda in plastic cups to give to each of the five groups. Yes, he measured it out and talked about the importance of measuring things! Yes, we're working on measurement in math! |
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| I gave each group a cup with some red glitter and purple, silver, and white sequins! |
1. Pour in the oil up to the first line. (2 groups had vegetable oil, 2 groups had baby oil, and 1 group had corn oil.)
2. Pour in the club soda up to the second line.
3. Pour in the glitter / sequins.
4. I put in 10 drops of red food coloring!
Jonathan then came around and put in the secret ingredient. (We didn't tell them what it was but it was an alka seltzer tablet!) First he put in half a tablet for each one. Then he put in a full tablet.
Here's the break down by groups.
Group 1 - Vegetable Oil
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| Before the secret ingredient! |
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| With the secret ingredient! |
Group 2: Also vegetable oil
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| I was trying not to get food coloring on me OR on the floor! |
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| I know, he's crazy! (But he LOVES Science!) |
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| Crazy Jonathan again! |
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| Jonathan put an LED light behind the cylinder! It was so cool! |
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| The girl in this picture, I am so proud of her! She made a serious connection when she brought up force (How the liquid, glitter, and sequins were being forced up,) and gravity (gravity was bringing everything back down.) Yes, Jonathan and I were BEAMING!!!! |
I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we ALL had!
After everything was cleaned up and put away, the students completed a writing assignment where they wrote down what they did and what they observed. I'll have to post some of those later as they are still at school!
Here are some reflections from Jonathan:
"I love the look a
child gets when they discover something for the first time. At this age
they still hunger for knowledge. They all do, some just don't know it.
Once they start making those connections it sets off a knowledge chain
reaction! This lesson started off as a fun activity for the kids to do
for Valentines day. Once I started thinking about format of the lesson I
started making some connections myself, and I saw how I could tie the
lava lamps into the rock/sand/soil lessons we had been going over this
week (lava is melted rock!).
I also saw an opportunity for the kids to collaborate in teams
to actually conduct the experiment themselves. I had each student add an
ingredient to the glass beaker, with Mr. Rivera adding in the final
(Superscientific/Magical/Secret) ingredient (the Alka-Seltzer). As I
gave each of the students their job and title ie. Scientist-1 and
Scientist-2, I measured out portion sizes for each of the ingredients to
be added. I made markings on each of the cylinders and explained that
they were for measurement purposes; I only provided reference lines they
still had to measure out the liquids into the container. My scientists
were so careful in their measurements! They took pride in their
lava-lamp experiment, asking many poignant questions.
I didn't start to dig geology (HA!) until I went to college.
There I had a professor who helped me develop a sense of awe of the epic
nature of geological process. My favorite part of science is that the
more you learn about it, the more of your child-like sense of wonder
comes back to you. My hope is to get my students interested in science
as early as possible, so that eventually their sense of wonder never
really goes away, it just turns into a sense of awe."
The experiences that Jonathan and I have had, challenged us to help students develop their love of science early on.
I'm pretty sure that was accomplished on Friday.
I'm also pretty sure that none of the students in my class will think that science is boring. :-)
Stacey
Stacey
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