Location: McCormick Elementary School
Date: Saturday, January 10, 2015; 10:00 am-12:30 pm
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| It wasn't quite like this |
There is a charming movie that I
have vague recollection of seeing as a kid.
It was named “If It's Tuesday,
This Must Be Belgium”. I was
reminded of that, not because I found myself in a similar situation but because
if it was January, it must be time for me to be at McCormick! Wilson asked if I required a pickup and I
said no since I had to run errands. I
took an ‘Uber’ and promptly left my
sunglasses case in there. Some
volunteers were waiting outside the doors in freezing cold, but at the wrong entrance. Once we
found the right one, we went inside and in to the cafeteria where Maureen was
waiting with some other volunteers.
She told us the agenda for today
and the main theme was “States Of Matter”,
which included an experiment with “ooze”. The kids came in and I was at a table with 4
boys and a girl. After their names, I asked them their favorite subject. While
one of the boys said that it was Math, the other two said “video games”. Well would I
really be surprised if one day that is indeed a subject being taught in school? Maureen had a Math worksheet for the kids and
it was an “Addition/Multiplication”
quiz, where there were 2 ways of getting to the right answer, either by
counting or by multiplying. The boys
were smart and got down to it immediately.
One of the younger boys was struggling a bit and I was encouraging him
to get to the right answers. Since many
finished this activity early, the next worksheet was a ‘Word search’ puzzle, with all of the words related to scientific
terms. To make it fun, I would pick a
word and ask the boys to go find it.
Once again, I spent more time with the younger boy and would often guide
him to the right place by directing his pencil towards the right column or row.
Maureen had finished taking
attendance and so everyone had to keep their worksheets away. Maureen is a good disciplinarian and insisted that when she said “Young
scientist”, everyone dropped whatever they had in their hands, clapped and
looked attentive. It was time for volunteer
introductions and Maureen asked the kids what was it that they wanted to know about
us. One girl said where we came from and
what our favorite food was. We started
with two volunteer girls and one girl said that her favorite food was “tacos” and the little girl asked “what type of tacos”. Then the other volunteer said “pizza” and this time it was “what kind of pizza”. Boy she was being nosy! I said that my favorite food was “sandwich” and the question came, “what kind of sandwich”. I said that I would probably eat anything
between two pieces of bread. “What about broccoli”, a boy on my table
asked? Sigh, these guys were going to be
a handful.
There was some chirping going on
and Maureen was laying down the law. She
said that the next person to speak would be sent to the corner and as soon as
one boy opened his mouth, she dispatched him to a corner, despite all of his
pleadings. This certainly got everyone’s
attention. She then wanted the kids to
correct each other’s Math worksheet and the boys on my table did that. After that we got down to the main task of
today which was discussing the states of matter. Maureen led it off by asking everyone what
the examples of the 3 states of matter were – she skipped plasma for now– and
people gave examples. One boy at my
table named gasoline as a gas, and Maureen admitted that it was a misleading
word. Someone even named fart as a gas!
Next, Maureen made the kids act out as “solid, liquid and gas”, where 4 kids were asked to volunteer for
each state. For “solid” the kids had to stand still and close together. Then for “liquid”
they were standing slightly apart, but allowed to move a bit. There was one mischievous boy in my group -
there always is - and he volunteered for this group. When for “gas”
he saw that the kids were told to run about as free molecules, he said, “I should have waited”. It did make me laugh out loud. Then we did the worksheets where the kids had
to allocate the various objects to the different states of matter and also fill in the blanks. Next, was another one which
was slightly more difficult and the boys were having trouble distinguishing
between “evaporation, condensation and
boiling”. I had shown an example of “cold sweat” on a cold bottle to give an
example of condensation.
The boys were getting impatient for the hands-on activity
and thankfully it was time to make “ooze”. Each table got a bowl and jar of water along
with a measuring cylinder. Maureen
explained what we were making and she told everyone how the substance was a
liquid until you put pressure on it and then it would become a solid. She called it the “Non Newtonian Fluid”. Oh
dear, Rheology again. I allocated tasks
to everyone, like measuring cornstarch and water, mixing etc. As we measured the cornstarch, one volunteer
came and added food coloring - blue by choice - and then the mischievous boy
was in charge of adding water and the nice girl on our bench was stirring. I advocated adding water slowly and then
breaking down the clumps which were in the bowl. Plus others were using hands to mix, and I was not letting our kids do it. So while we were doing it the painstaking
way, the others had already finished. We finally got it together and then it was
time to play, where the kids were taking it in their palms, rolling it as balls
and then it would melt away. One boy on
my table didn’t have enough “ooze”,
but the little girl gave him some.
Maureen asked everyone to put it in ‘Ziploc’ bags and write their names on it. Then the kids were told to clean their work
area and only then were they allowed to go for a bathroom break. While they were gone, the volunteers cleaned
the utensils and put everything back in the cupboards. The kids came back and then it was time for a
treat, which was a giant tub of popcorn of different types. One volunteer was
going to each kid and I was walking behind with cups. Once again I saw the little girl at my table offer
the other boy popcorn. Hmm, looks like
we have something here. Once everyone
had popcorn, Maureen did a recap of the experiment and asked what the technical
term for “ooze”: was. The prize was the remaining popcorn and the
box. I asked if the volunteers could
participate, though I do not like popcorn!
Of course no one remembered it, so I asked if anyone knew another
example of the “Non Newtonian Fluid”. One boy in my table did know that it was
ketchup and he took home the prize.
Now the kids were ready to leave but before that the nice
little girl offered me popcorn, which I politely declined. Maureen made the kids clean up and they did
so before leaving. The volunteers then
put the tables away and Maureen did a round of reflection. Some volunteers gave feedback but it was more
on what they had heard from kids. I left
with Wilson, hoping that it would not be another January till I come back.
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