I love volunteering at my kids' school, especially when I get to actually work with the kids. Today I helped with 4th Grade science. The students were making "boats" out of paper cups. They had to measure how tall their boat was, fill it with water, then measure the water with a syringe and beaker to determine the capacity of their boats. Over the course of this 40 minute project I saw:
* one girl spend the ENTIRE time thinking of a name for her boat (and trying to persuade others to use her ideas to name THEIR boats)
* one group argue over who got to make the 6.5 centimeter boat (only one in each group could do each size and, apparently, 6.5 cm was the coveted size)
* one boy completely lose it because it was 'too hard.'
* one little guy wander around the room for 30 minutes looking for his misplaced pencil.
* one boy giving a very LONG explanation about the merit of the name SS Everest over the name SS Titanic.
* one girl quietly playing with the water, syringe, and cup without a clue about what she was supposed to be doing!
And, the take-home lesson:
Some children are definitely MORE likely to become scientists than others.
3 comments:
And how was YOUR little scientist doing? I guess sometimes a teacher's good intentions are lost in the chaos of their classroom! Bummer!
I love teaching preschool just for that reason...it is so fun to watch each child as they learn in their own little way. I am never surprised by the crazy things that kids do!
Volunteering is so much fun! They are lucky to have you. I had a similar experience with the kids in the math centers I helped with last week. Math: not everyone's strength!
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