Today we went to 2 new schools. Both of them were great. At the first one, the kids were all on break at the same time. I brought Wooly Willy (the picture of a face with iron shavings in a plastic case and a magnet to move them around) and the kids loved it. When the crowd started forming, I got out the big guns. A few of them knew what a battery was. None of them knew what a magnet was. We hooked up a light to the battery, the hand generator, and the capacitor. I explained to them what was happening and their eyes lit up. I could tell they recognized what was happening. A few minutes later, when I was helping the kids behind me, I turned around and saw some kids charging the capacitor and using it to light up the bulb! It was really cool to see them doing it on their own.
At the second school, I was told that 5th grade was learning science when we arrived but when I went to the classroom, they weren't so I wandered to the next classroom (6th grade) where the kids were just sitting there. I asked them where their teacher was and they said that she didn't come today so I stayed and taught them about magnetism and motors while Taylor was interviewing the headmaster. It was so cool to see them begin to understand. These kids all knew what everything was when I pulled it out of the bag. They knew the theory pretty well, but had never seen it in real life. They were pretty excited to see how it all worked. They didn't know what a magnet was (even after I showed them) so I explained polarity and then passed around 2 magnets together so they could feel the attraction and repulsion. Then I taught them a new word: field trip. We took a field trip out to the dirt so I could set up the motor (the supports need to be stuck into something, so dirt works perfectly). I got it going, then took it apart, then gave each piece to a different kid and told them to do it. They all worked together to make a motor. It took them a few tries, but they got it going and they were so proud of themselves!
This is such a cool job! The kids love it and I know that most of them probably will not have the chance to do a hands-on lab with anything besides cooking, farming, and bundling firewood.
Sorry, no pics from today. My batteries died...funny considering the work I'm doing here. I'll get some from Taylor from previous days. Today was definitely the best though.
That is SO cool! What an awesome feeling when you see the kids understand something you're trying to teach them. I think that's great that you're not just letting them watch but letting them figure it out on their own too. Kids need time to figure things out and use their imaginations in order to really learn and I just think that's great that you're there helping them with that. What a cool job!!!
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