Science Experiments

Annie came home from school today and told me "I want to be a scientist when I grow up." I told her that was a fabulous idea (and then told her that Daddy was a bit of a scientist as well as Auntie Erin - she was very impressed). She said she wants to be a scientist so she can work with the "tubie thingies." I don't know where she got that idea, it's not like we have test tubes all over the place here, but I'm so glad that her mind works that way.

Every day she comes home on green (which has been EVERY day so far - I'm so stinkin' proud of my little girl) she gets a little treat. A good 1/2 hour on the Wii, a computer game, a scoop of ice cream after dinner . . . something that reinforces her good behavior. Today she asked if for her treat she could do a science experiment. I asked her what she was thinking. She said, "I want to see if butter and cheese will melt outside!" I asked her how she would set up the experiment and she told me how she would put a piece of cheese and a piece of butter on little plates and set them out in the sun and then observe them every 15 minutes. I had her write up her hypothesis (she knew what it was!!) and draw "before" pictures and then we put the butter and the cheese out in the hot Phoenix sun.

After 15 minutes, this is what it looked like. She wrote more stuff in her lab notes and then drew more pictures.

We set the timer for another 15 minutes and I let her take more pictures.

She was so excited about this "treat" of a project. She had so much fun and I really do think she learned something about the scientific process. Her planning needs a bit of work and her process isn't college-level yet, but I think it's a great effort for a 2nd grader.

I figure a big smile and a little bit of learning was worth one of the precious Mickey Mouse shaped cheeses and about 1/4 of a stick of butter. I love these kinds of Mommy moments - it makes me happy to be the mother of such a nerd!