How Much is Enough?

Today was SCIENCE DAY. We were going to race some cars and make some informal guesses about which cars would go the farthest: ones with big wheels or little, big cars or small, heavy ones or light. I had a mother's helper for my morning class so I set her up with a ramp, a table full of various vehicles and a few brief instructions. "If possible after the kid's have experimented a bit, try and see if you can get the kid's to make some guesses as to which car will go the farthest ie the one with big wheels or the one with small wheels, the little car  or the big one etc." Throughout the morning I heard her asking the kid's these types of questions but was unable to hear their responses.

In the afternoon class since I was on my own and still a bit tired from my recent surgery, I was far less diligent in asking the kids questions. The activity was completely kid driven with one exception.  Periodically I would raise the ramp and insist that they pick up the cars piled up at the bottom of the ramp and put them back on the table.

I observed several things. They had absolutely no interest in how far their vehicle went. Once it hit the rug, they stopped watching it. For them the journey was over, time to launch another vehicle even if the previous one was still moving across the rug.  So the inevitable  pile up at the base of the ramp wasn't upsetting since they didn't care how far their car went.  And the majority didn't care if their vehicle went down the ramp slow, fast, or got stuck in the middle. In fact they seemed as intrigued with the "stuck in the middle variety" as they launched them over and over again, expecting that this time it would make it to the bottom.

So how much is enough? Was it enough to just let them play with the ramp and vehicles? Does this qualify as "science"? Or was there value in asking them leading questions, encouraging them maybe to be a bit more observant, a bit more analytical, nudging them towards an experiment type situation. I don't have definitive answers but I was still able to make some helpful conclusions.

I grossly underestimated how much time the children would need to "play" with the ramp and vehicles before they would be open to experimenting with the different types of vehicles, comparing distance traveled etc. Not just a trail run or two but days of exposure were needed. I seriously doubt that the morning class, despite all the questions asked, learned anything more than the afternoon one. They just weren't ready to focus in that way, still too busy exploring the materials.

So next year if I want to encourage something closer to an experiment, I first need to allow lots and lots and lots and lots of kid driven exploration first. I knew that they needed to be able to explore the materials first on their own. I just didn't realize that this could mean days not just minutes depending on what was being explore. Then when we do the experiments, I need to limit the features for comparison to two, no more than three and should probably choose a couple of the more obvious ones. And maybe the experiments somehow need to reflect their interest, getting down the ramp, and not how far it goes after that.

I want to do more "science" with my kids but it doesn't come naturally to me. Most days I am not even sure what that means. Today I was reminded that true science doesn't fit into a convenient fifteen minute time slot.  Each week a lesson or experiment to be unpacked on Tuesday and put away on Thursday.  I hope that through all my ups and downs of learning how to do science with my kids that somehow I manage to encourage their inquiring minds and instill in them, even though still young, a love of learning and finding out how things work.