To Build a Fire (my apologies to Jack London)

Denver loved playing with Non-Newtonian fluid
a.k.a. cornstarch and water.

Teaching looks easy-- just give the student an assignment and adequate direction and learning should happen, right?  Uh . . . Maybe.

This week-- both at the Montessori School and at home-- we explored Non-Newtonian fluid (It's nothing fancy!  Just cornstarch and water).  It behaves like a liquid until you apply pressure.  Press on it, and it becomes a solid; let go, and it becomes a pancake batter type liquid.  

My writing students at the Montessori School will research answers to scientific questions and create a marketing idea for Non-Newtonian fluid, complete with a commercial script which they may act out and record if they wish.  Hey, it's writing class!

The boys at home and students at school loved playing with it.  At the request of one student, we even had a food coloring option for those who wanted to play with color.  We discussed (and later watched) a YouTube video with a small swimming pool filled with it.  People ran and danced and bicycled across it.  But if they stood still-- Down they went!

So for my boys at home, this led to an interesting question:
What happens when you take a Non-Newtonian liquid into space?
Spencer and Denver discussed the possibilities for several minutes while I looked it up on Google.  Guess what?  We found our answer.  We watched YouTube in amazement as an astronaut demonstrated the effects.  

All of this fun mess led me to recognize (again!) that some of the best learning happens while you're laughing and asking questions. My challenge is to be present and paying attention for those sparks of curiosity that need nurturing. 


Supporting a child's learning is like building a hot fire in our woodstove-- I give it the kindling I think it needs and then pay attention and get ready to try again. Sometimes you need more air. Sometimes you need more seasoned wood.  

We can't really control learning; we can only provide the most supportive environment and keep trying.  If we're lucky, sparks of curiosity light us up as well.

Background science lesson for the Curious: Isaac Newton noted that there were three basic forms of matter: solids, liquids, and gases.  He noted that they changed form when temperatures rose and fell.  Think about water-- it can be a solid, liquid, or gas-- depending on the temperature.  Cornstarch and water breaks this rule.