The Free-Ride offspring just kicked off a new school year. The start of school in these parts means a long list of supplies to find — stuff you’d expect, like crayons, pencils, binders and binder paper, scissors, and glue sticks, plus stuff for general classroom use like tissues, had sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, paper towel, and copier paper. The tighter the school’s budget, the more items get added to the “voluntary donations” list. (And we’ve heard tell that the donations aren’t always voluntary. If you don’t get crayons, your kid goes through the school year without crayons. This makes some of those color-by-numbers arithmetic assignments pretty hard to do.)
Anyway, one consequence of the abysmal state budget for the Free-Ride offspring’s school is that there are no longer designated science teachers (there used to be two). Now, each classroom teacher has to figure out how to work through the grade level science curriculum his or her self.
You figure some of those science lessons will require materials that didn’t appear on the school supplies lists that went out right before the start of school.
Today, the sprogs offer the school supplies list that they imagine they would request if they were teaching science this year:
- Notebook
- Folder with pockets
- Safety glasses
- Rubber gloves
- Magnets
- Pulleys
- Levers
- Insulated wire
- Small light bulbs (2)
- Batteries (D, pack of 4)
- Beaker
- Erlenmeyer flask
- Ruler
- Thermometer (one that measures outdoor temperature, not your temperature)
- Potting soil
- Flower pot (small)
- Bean seeds
- Diet Coke (2 liter bottle)
- Mentos
- Baking soda
- Vinegar
- Clay
- Snake food (pellets and mice)
- Silkworm food (mulberry leaves)
- A selection of rocks (geodes are the most important)
- Head lamp
- Shovel
- Rock hammer
- Pick
- Brush
I know the items on this list are meant to cover many different activities (at least one of which, I’m told, is dinosaur hunting). But maybe there’s an educational way to use them all for the same activity.
We’ll see whether the actual school budget allows for any hands-on science this year, or if the requests for science supplies from the classroom teachers look anything like this list.
As the saying goes:
Knowing both their parents and all their grandparents, they don’t surprise me a bit.
At least that was what Grampete used to say.
I’ll bet they will surprise their teachers, however, especially the ones with less scientific curiosity than the Sprogs have. Have fun at their parent-teacher conferences.
They forgot lasers. Science* is always much cooler with lasers.
Also a magnifying glass, and probably at least one microscope.
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* Or, at least, science-flavored things.
The sprogs could be on to something here with their science materials list.
Rather than sitting around and bemoaning the demise of science literacy and general civilization as we know it;
perhaps some sort of scientific care packages could be devised. Something curriculum specific for each grade level?
My guess is that there are many teachers out there, who do indeed have less scientific curiosity than the sprogs do.
Is there any way to target a few needy classrooms with prompts?
….ummm….you have some sort of system for, ah, making sure your house isn’t about to be destroyed in an experiment, right?
There are reasons why the sprog list includes such things as vinegar and baking soda but not other much cooler stuff like lasers.
Might I suggest to your teachers http://topscience.org/? How about a care package for each grade level with an appropriate book and the basic materials to do it? (many of which the sprogs mention) This is very affordable, very accessible science. Even non-science people can read the teacher notes and answer most questions.
I checked out some of the chemistry and earth science topics at the source mentioned by Heddi Craft and I think that they are quite good! Some might need a little additional supplementing beyond what they provide or suggest can be easily located.
But this means that a concept which I had vaguely thought of is already available and easily accessible. One by one, the topic books can be purchased in the $10 range. But they have bulk rates as well as “deep discounts” for school districts.
Any other suggestions?
“….ummm….you have some sort of system for, ah, making sure your house isn’t about to be destroyed in an experiment, right? “
DM’s parenting advice: no meth labs in the basement, kids!
Surely, there must be a good way to combine mentos and insulated wire…