Science is Cool!

My students were hiding their noses behind any piece of cloth available and making dramatic fanning motions when I realized I probably should have refrigerated the cabbage juice. It must be STEM theme week at R.L Stevens!

Ms. Gold and her tutoring students

 Let me back up. I was demonstrating how red cabbage juice changes color according to whether the chemical it’s put in is an acid or a base. The table outside was set with various substances, and the students had learned where to place them on the pH scale according to the color they turned when we added the cabbage juice. A typical vinegar and baking soda reaction was suddenly a lot more interesting, though by day three, the cabbage juice had gone decidedly off. In spite of this, the students really got into the active experimentation part of the lesson, and unleashed their inner scientists.

The last lesson of the week involved Diet Coke and Mentos, (with a strong nutrition-related disclaimer) but before we got to the explosive fun, first we had to figure out why the reaction happened in the first place. My fourth grade group had used a K’nex set and rubber bands to learn about ways that potential energy can be stored (and released – quickly!), and my third graders had had endless fun learning about the phenomenon of lift and making and testing different types of paper airplanes. Each time I gave my kids a challenge or scientific problem to solve, they responded with boundless enthusiasm, ingenuity, and solutions that I hadn’t thought of.

 My students love STEM theme weeks. I can practically guarantee that every time I pick up my first group of third graders from class, I get the question “Are we doing science today?” During our first STEM theme week, they’d played a dry version of Marco Polo in order to learn about echolocation, and expanded that knowledge to learn about other special adaptations of plants and animals. I’ve discovered the trick to making Science, Technology, Engineering and Math irresistible subjects to students: make the scientific challenges so fun to solve that they don’t even realize they’re excelling at a subject so many people find complex. This play-to-learn approach is perfect for the After School environment, and by the time theme weeks are done, students who before had little to no confidence in their math and science skills are whooping, cheering, and saying that “Science is cool!”

by Sarah Gold, CalSERVES AmeriCorps Member at RL Stevens