Old and young

We tried a different organizational approach where we had two science sessions, each with fewer children, instead of one session with the whole class. This felt like a big improvement. The younger group really had a dramatically different style of giving and receiving messages (messages including speaking, moving, acting. drawing) and it was nice to be able to use the right style with each group and not have anyone left out in the cold. Thanks to Amber and Deborah for their support, occupying the other half of the class.
The older ones got into an avid discussion on the flight of birds. I diagrammed the wing countour that is used both by birds and jet aircraft to take advantage of the Bernoulli effect. If you hear them telling you that the wing position of the vulture is a V for vulture, now you know where it comes from.
Whales continue to be a hot topic.
I brought in some library books, two on mammals in general and two on armadillos. These will be in the classroom for a few weeks. I can see we'll need whale books.

The younger ones were all over the mammal books like ants on a candy bar. We walked on our wrists the way anteaters walk. There was more about birds. I showed them how real chemists sniff noxious agents (such as vinegar).

Keep putting questions in the question box!

I'll be travelling next week. This means I cannot make it to Primavera for Wednesday science on the 20th. I hope I don't go into withdrawal.