Monday, March 30, 2009

Guess What? It's Science! : The Breakthrough

Since Lola's science teacher relocated to Chicago last November due to her husband's job transfer, Lola has been very negative about going to science class since the arrival of a new teacher. Just when she was beginning to have fun with the labs and learning cool new earth stuff, she lost a teacher she truly liked and in the process has been subjected to an array of substitutes, then finally a permanent teacher that is not well-liked by the children. Almost every day Lola comes home with a new story about how this new teacher spends the entire period yelling at the rowdy kids, or which of her classmates were sent off to In-School Suspension. Lately it seems their class has a quiz about twice per week and Chapter tests are given about every two weeks. Is this learning?? It's more like 'faster than the speed of light'. She had decided most definitely that she now HATES science.

To help salvage what love of science that had been acquired from her former teacher, when we see things in nature, at home or on TV I explain how they work and then I say "Guess what? It's science!" Usually she rolls her eyes, but I still do it anyway.

Last night when she was getting ready for bed she was doing a little experiment with a light near her bed and said "Look at this, Mom. It's science!! Isn't this cool?" Then she was quiet for a moment and said "You know, I guess I really do like science - - I just don't like the new teacher."

This morning when driving to work I drove through fog coming off the river and it was so dense and mysterious as it rose up from the water, over the bridge and up to the trees! Absolutely breathtaking! And guess what? It was science!

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