Well, making conductive and insulating dough with 24 kiddos turned out to be a bit more involved than I planned. Thankfully, we had several projects that needed completing, in addition to their knitting, so the ones not making dough were involved in their Civil War Diary, or pictorial timeline of Indiana History, while I led small groups through dough making for almost two hours.
At that point, I was beginning to think that Squishy Circuits weren't the best idea after all. Yes, I could have made all the dough myself, but I have this annoying stubbornness about them having to have their hand in each part of the experiment.
Anyway, after lunch and spelling tests (that I intended to be pre-lunch), I gave instructions on proper care of the battery pack and lights and turned them loose. The responses to sticking lights in dough and having them work made all the tedious dough making worthwhile. They were astounded at themselves. I passed around buzzers and motors and mostly enjoyed watching them create one thing after another and throughly enjoying their science/electricity experience- good times! Thanks Michael, that one is a winner.
I bet the day will come that they tell their own children/grandchildren about the time they made Squishy Circuits in class!
ReplyDeleteYou sound like an awesome teacher. I still remember 4th grade and we didn't do anything like that. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't remember every doing much of anything at school that didn't involve a text book, but I do remember disliking it immensely. That's why I feel such a need to do it differently I guess.
ReplyDeleteThanks!