Dr. Free-Ride: What science have you been learning in school lately?
Younger offspring: We’ve been learning what animals are nocturnal and what animals are diurnal.
Dr. Free-Ride: What other science have you learned this year?
Younger offspring: Oh, lots of different things.
Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, if there were a new kid in your class who hadn’t had science before, how would you explain what science is? How would you be able to tell it apart from reading or math or writing your letters?
Younger offspring: Science is something you learn from parent helpers.
Dr. Free-Ride: Huh?
Younger offspring: Because [Dr. Free-Ride’s better half] teaches it to our class!
Dr. Free-Ride: Oh.
Dr. Free-Ride: (To elder offspring) What about you? How would you describe science to a kid who was new in your class and hadn’t had any science before?
Elder offspring: Science can deal with almost any part of the world: planets and stars, plants and animals, weather, germs, machines … We’ve been talking about rocks and minerals lately and how different kids of rocks are formed.
Dr. Free-Ride: That’s neat. You know, you deal with lots of different parts of the world in your reading lessons, too. How is science different?
Elder offspring: Hmm. Well, in science we try to understand how things work, not just how things are.
Dr. Free-Ride: So you learn how to explain things?
Elder offspring: Yeah. We have to explain things in our reading comprehension homework, too. Like why a character was sad, or why someone took a trip.
Dr. Free-Ride: You know, some science is about human behavior — why people act the way they do, why certain situations might make them feel certain ways.
Elder offspring: Really? Cool.
Younger offspring: In School of Rock they did the rock band as a science fair project.
Elder offspring: They said it was a science fair project, but it wasn’t really. They were skipping their real science lessons.
Dr. Free-Ride: Were any of the things they did instead at all like science?
Younger offspring: Security.
Dr. Free-Ride: Huh?
Younger offspring: They used computers and cameras to see who was coming to the classroom.
Dr. Free-Ride: I guess figuring out how to set up a surveilance system counts as using science for problem solving.
Elder offspring: Also, sound-proofing the room.
Dr. Free-Ride: There’s science in making the sounds, too — figuring out where to put your finger on a guitar or bass string to get a particular note has to do with physics.
Younger offspring: What about drums?
Elder offspring: The rhythms and beats are math.
Younger offspring: And the dry ice in the stage show?
Dr. Free-Ride: That’s chemistry! A solid to gas phase change.
Elder offspring: Also, there’s the song with the dancing test-tube. [Don’t click the link if you are epileptic! It flashes!]
Dr. Free-Ride: I don’t think that song really tells as much about what science is as you kids do.
“The rhythms and beats are math.”
Astute sprog you got there.
The dancing test tubes don’t constitute science in my book, kids.
Is your better-half on the school system payroll yet? How else can the “science program” the schools system purports to have in K in its reports to the state BOE be ITS PROGRAM?
In your youth, when your K-12 system tried to meet its state mandate for G & T program with “enrichment” from an exclusively parent volunteer provided program, some of the parents (including yours) banded together to challenge that school board plan. We got some relief on the G & T program (won one battle), but the war continued.
What the parents did get out of this action was from each other: a lot more information about what was possible within the school system structure than any of us would have had without that group. Once you learn that another child has received a certain accommodation, and you can tailor your request for something similar for your child with the certain knowledge (and specific facts) that it has been done before, you usually GST the accommodation for your child.
But wouldn’t if be great if the education provided in a GOOD school district, was actually as good for each child as it was in its reports to the state, and the hype of the local realtors.
Your better-half is to be commended. If he can bend the curriculum enough, the kids might actually come away with some concept of science, and one K teacher might learn some too, and so be better at it next year. Here, here and “atta-boy”.
“Well, in science we try to understand how things work, not just how things are.”
Couldn’t have asked for a better encapsulation of science than this. You’ve been coaching this one, I can tell.