Yeah, Science!!

I love science and have always liked learning about science. I don't however remember loving science in school all the time. My district instituted a new science program last year (The Science Companion from the University of Chicago) and I hear my students say things like, "Yeah! Science!" all the time. The awesome part of this particular program is the amount of hands on science the students get to do.




Today, my students learned about mixtures - creating them and separating them. They had popcorn kernels, popped popcorn, and steel nuggets. They had to discover how to sort or separate their mixtures. The students in this picture were using a magnet to separate the steel nuggets. Other students blew off the popped popcorn. Our room was noisy, the good kind of noisy, with kids excitedly discussing and sharing ideas. We had popcorn, water, and steel nuggets all over. The kids had a blast, and they learned some very important science - both content and process. When it was all over, a few dustpans and rinses of containers and we were ready for math.

As Captain Sullenberger said the other night (when quoting a Soviet scientist), "The purpose of science is to provide humankind a more complete and accurate understanding of reality." In other words, Science rocks! It is fun and AND important! Be like a kid and say "Yeah! Science!!"