I think the process where children are encouraged to ask questions and think is critical in laying a strong foundation in S.T.E.M.
The process of finding the answer via scientific method (hypothesize, designing experiments, recording results) shouldn't be too rigid or complicated at this point.
We were singing Whales' Sneezes from YAMAHA when he asked, "Mama, if whales sneeze...then only can get waves?"
I explained that it is the wind created by the sneezes that forms waves and the stronger the wind, the bigger the waves.
So, his question was, does a sneeze make waves?
It would be difficult to make him sneeze on demand.
I thought of using pepper but that would just make me look bad as a mom.
So I explained that the whale's sneeze represents a very strong wind.
High velocity wind, which we shall recreated using a piece of straw.
I hypothesize that "We can make waves with the straw.
He agreed and we experimented.
We concluded that wind can create waves.
To learn more, we watched a Youtube video on wave formation and surfing
To be less Tiger Mom-like, he was allowed to have fun cutting wavy lines
To cap it off, we read some facts on whales and he played with his talking pen.
Easy peasy but so much learning.
I love spontaneous lessons!
Next, we will learn how vibrations can create waves too with our tuning forks :)
No comments:
Post a Comment