Captivate to Motivate! Mad Scientist Friday

The brain learns by pattern, but seeks novelty! The brain likes to be stimulated. It is our job as teachers to "Captivate" our young learners...to have them sitting on the edge of their seats begging for more! When we have achieved that, the children are "Motivated" to learn! While science is a subject that most littles find interesting, it is still essential to build that level of excitement that will guarantee us success. This blog post explores part of our Fun Friday Celebrations--Mad Scientist Friday, and how we get it started.

At the beginning of the year, we place a box in the office that contains all of the essential items to become a mad scientist. We ask one of the office workers to deliver the box to our room. It is then that we start building excitement by asking questions like, "Who did the box come from? What is a lab? What do you think might be in here?"

When the kids just can't stand it any longer, open the box! Talk about the things that are in the box by asking, "What is this? What are they for? Who would use them? Why have they been sent to us?"

At this time, notice that each lab coat has a child's name. We made the lab coats with large tshirts. Use spray adhesive (it was messy) to attach the ribbon. Then, use hot glue to attach the buttons.

Each tshirt has a name tag. Megan took pictures of the kids with this "bad" comb-over wig. I purchased it from a party store to wear on Day 100. (My teaching partner dresses up like a 100 year old lady and I dress up like a 100 year old man!) We took the photos the day before and made a name badge for each child.  It amazes me that they don't make the connection!

To say they were excited, would be an understatement!  The box also contained goggled and surgical gloves that I picked up at the Dollar Tree and Dollar General.

To celebrate the fact that we are now scientist, we had a special "scientist snack."  I found these plates at a party store. They had a little bit of a lip around the edge. It made them look like Petrie dishes. We mixed green jello and lined up  the dishes on cookie sheets. We tried to pour the jello into the dishes and then move the tray to the refrigerator, but that was a disaster.  We finally figured out to put the tray in the fridge and pour the jello with the tray already inside. The trays stacked on each other by turning every other one landscape or portrait. We added the candy worms before the jello could set.

We found these popsicle molds at the Dollar Tree. We cut the "tubes" out. They were easy to cut with scissors.

Each "test tube" was filled with Test Tube Juice.

The following week our first Mad Scientist Friday tub arrives.  Inside the tub are all of the supplies need to conduct a science experiment.  While these experiments teach some scientific concept, the real reason we are doing them is to teach our kids the scientific process. What do real scientist do? What tools do they use? What is the scientific process?

This was our gummy bear experiment. You can read more about that in this blog post.

Weekly Science Box Blog Post