Young Explorers Chemistry and Physics: Lesson 1

Our Co-op class have five children ages 7-11.  Sound familiar?  Gen, who is 11, is also very bright and capable.  Fortunately, I have experienced this situation in my Human Anatomy class.  Gen finished the Mystery Powders and Density measures quickly and accurately.  Gen is going to be the teacher’s assistant.  Yesterday, when the four boys were working on measures, correct use of a scale, density by displacement, use of calipers, and measuring volume with angraduated cylinder, Gen created a density column and Rainbow Density columns (Steve Spangler has one in a straw!).  We had a few issues creating the salt water density column.  Gen followed the Instructable directions and the column was too muddy.  I did a little research and the consensus agrees with Jeanne Fulbright: drop the fluids down the middle not down the sides to creat distinct layers.  My husband, Rob, is leading the class; we have lengthy discussions between classes, especially in the car after a lesson.  (We’re about 30 minutes from the library.).  Gen is going to repeat this lab and instruct the boys using the Rainbow Salt column and just demonstrate the density column using syrup, oil, dish detergent, etc..  Rob is concerned about the boys making a huge mess.  The kids are going to repeat the penny boat experiment and create a data table for a magnet Try-it.  If time permits, all of them will do the Lava lamp, too.  The class structure is modified, too.  All of the kids will read over the chapters.  Gen is the only student pursuing it as a complete class.  The boys will learn the vocabulary, do some reading, and participate in all of the labs in class.  Gen is going to do a lot of lab prepping and assisting to keep her engaged.  I’m going to take time to show Gen how to create a concept map and a digital blog.  I’ll help her with nomenclature, balancing equations, etc.  Rob and I plan to select topics from the Chemistry chapters and dive into Physics.