Sunday, January 23, 2011

Retaining Information and Exploring

Science Sunday

 

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It probably comes as no surprise that one of Selena’s favorite shows is Sid the Science Kid. One show concerning elasticity is one that I am looking forward to doing an experiment on when we can get enough different type of balls to explore with. However Selena beat me to this today. As we were walking the puppy we came to some of our neighbor’s house who happened to be outside. We stopped and was visiting. After Selena had fun wrapping their truck up with string, and playing with a painted stick (this young couple is so good and always encourages curious play with the children) Selena found a couple of balls. She ran to the couple and asked, “What is your hypothesis, which ball has more elasticity?” She then proceeded to teach them all about elasticity, having them feel each ball, showing how the balls regained their shape when pushed in, yet, one didn’t push in very easy. She then took the balls to the sidewalk where she gave them a good bounce. She then turned around and told the couple, “See both balls have elasticity, but some balls don’t, and those balls don’t bounce.”

Of course the couple was grinning from ear to ear over the lesson they just received from a 4 year old. I was proud of the fact that Selena had retained so much information about elasticity and found it so easy to demonstrate and explain. We will still at some point do an extension on elasticity and do some comparisons between items with no elasticity and those that have various degrees of elasticity.

All the while I just love these moments when Selena is able to demonstrate in such a well orchestrated example the information she is retaining, with no prompting from anyone. To see her explore the world and making so much fun out of it while all the time trying to teach us or someone else what she has learned. I truly believe it is these type learning experiences that will last a life time. Not the fact she learned it off Sid the Science Kid, but that she has the ability to take the information that we present to her and not only retain it, but demonstrate it through play and exploration. 

I am linking this up at Adventures in Mommydum.

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5 comments:

  1. That's a good example of why it's so important to fill TV time with worthwhile shows. They really do retain what they're watching.

    There's a good elasticity experiment that has to do with plastic wrap, and explaning why older skin wrinkles, when younger skin does not - but I'd have to Google it, to find the info.

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  2. This is an awesome example of retaining and sharing information. How nice it is that she had such a receptive audience. She would make a great teacher one day :)

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  3. I think Sid the Science Kid is one of the best shows out there in terms of educational value -- I wish there were more like it!

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  4. My kids have gotten from shows that you should all have a credit card. I wasn't so thrilled with that lesson and it had me rethinking letting them watch shows with commercials.

    Maybe I'll try Sid again. I just had a hard time with that first episode.

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  5. How great that she retained the information and was able to present it so well!!! I bet they were impressed!

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