10.03.2014
Written By: Ralm Ricarte
Hola e-readers!
Today was our first ever lesson with our KIPP North Star Academy students. We started with a quick introduction of SFA. We then asked the students to define what science is and what a scientist looks like. Most of the students pictured scientists as old Caucasian men (like Einstein) who sit in labs all day. In contrast to their expectations, we showed the students examples of scientists who do not fit that stereotype. Next, we discussed the importance of the scientific method and how it is essential for solving the world’s current and future challenges. To illustrate how the scientific method structures the thought process, we guided the students through three demos that exhibit fascinating phenomena:
1) Discrepant balloons: If two different size balloons are connected by a valve, the air will flow from the small balloon to the large balloon.
2) Balloon in liquid nitrogen: An inflated balloon will crumple when submerged in liquid nitrogen.
3) Bernoulli’s Ball: A hair dryer causes a ping pong ball to levitate in mid-air, even when the air stream is directed at an angle.
For each demo, we asked the students to hypothesize what would happen, showed them the unexpected result, and assured them that it’s okay to be wrong. Finally, we guided the students through a Cloud in a Bottle experiment. We gave each group of students water, rubbing alcohol, cocoa powder, and food coloring and asked them to figure out which ingredient causes the cloud to form. By going through many trials, they learned that both water and a nucleating agent (e.g., rubbing alcohol or the cocoa powder) were needed to form a cloud; food coloring had no effect. We thought this was a great start to the year. The experiments were simple, but thought-provoking. Most importantly, the students had tons of fun!
Till next time,
Ralm Ricarte