'I'm a scientist' workshops........

Wow!
Catchup with my BLOG time!

It's been ages since I blogged..............and a lot has happened, especially  since I joined SPELLBINDERS and since I was approached to run more I'm a scientist workshops for parents and children.

So, this catch-up post has a couple of pictures from my last science class, held last week, Thursday, January 28th, two hours of working/interacting with 18 Homeschool families.

And, with all humility,  it went really well. The kids (most not yet 5!) were so great to work alongside:

I began, as always, with a little story...............

....which seemed to catch their attention......

and ended it by showing them the spider exoskeleton I keep in a pocket museum.......

As I told my story, the parents had chance to glance through a piece I'd written for them I passed around at the beginning :

  ‘I’m a scientist’  workshop

Hey, parents, take a quick read through this at the

‘I’m a scientist’ workshop:

• Give your young scientist your time, and
• Start by ensuring the resources required for the science activities are at hand.
• Help (but, careful, don’t be overbearing!) your young scientist actively engage in the fun but challenging science activities. Does s/he need help with the scissors? Using sticky tape? Measuring?
• Appreciate that most young scientists have a need to ask questions about what they see – as talking, it seems, aids understanding.
• Know that your science discussion with your young scientist will usually raise new and interesting problems, so that one inquiry leads to another.
• Encourage him/her – when it’s appropriate – to act, think, talk, read, draw and, yes, write like a scientist.

• Know that when your young scientist uses his/her own efforts to discover something, the flash of insight seems to give special satisfaction.

 And, why don’t you

CAPTURE a Young Scientist MOMENT – forever!

You can, and probably will, of course, use your smartphone to capture your young scientist’s special moments……… videoing, photographing, recording the action.

Or, you might try this!!

I came up with this idea many years ago.

After a wonderful but windy afternoon walk around the woodland near school, my children began to talk about what they’d seen. Dianne said how much she enjoyed the walk in the long grass around the trees. “Everything was beautiful, Mr. Paull…………….everything smelled dead good. Did you hear the wind, though? It was making a howling noise and it made the leaves on the trees shake.”

Then she added, wistfully, “Pity we can’t bring back the smells and the sounds of nature. How could we do that, Mr. Paull?”

That made me think. Mmmmmmmmm…………….Then I had an idea. If you half fill a plastic bottle with water and then turn the bottle upside down, the water rushes out. For a split second, there’s nothing in the bottle. Then the air rushes in and fills the bottle. The air carries everything ……….doesn’t it? ☺

The next time we went for a nature walk, I took a bottle half filled with water. When we reached the tall grass and trees, I turned the bottle upside down and let the water gush out. As soon as the last drop ran out of the bottle, air rushed in, filling the vacuum. I immediately pushed in the cork.

“Look,” I said, “we have captured the sounds and the smells of nature………forever.”

Dianne was particularly excited when I stuck a label on the bottle:

June 8 th, 1966.

This bottle holds the smells and sounds

of the flowers and the trees around our school.

And that started something.

Every time things were really humming in the classroom, I filled a small bottle with all of the energy, sound, wit and wisdom of my children, labeled it, and displayed it on a shelf. My students loved the process and would often tell me, “Hey, Mr. Paull, you just HAVE to capture what’s going on on my table!!”

Why don’t you try it – go on, capture one of those special ‘I’m a scientist’ moments in a bottle!!

HOW? It’s easy. At a critical ‘Oooh, aaah’ moment, take the top off a tiny bottle. Blow across the top. The fast-moving air sucks out the air inside the bottle. When you stop blowing, the air, and the atmosphere of excited learning, rushes in.

Think about what you’ve done!

You have captured the time - and the I’m a scientist workshop moment, the joy of your young scientist……forever!

John Paull

I then began by showing the kids my tiny boomerang (what I call a flipperang), gave out some card, and, hey, we were off and away!

Two hours later, having made flipperangs, blimps, papercopters, strockets, and much more, we finished by holding a strocket flying competition.

I'm looking forward to my next session..................