The power of being wrong

In the middle of a class conversation about shadows, we pulled out a stick for a few students to model their point. As a side note, one student pointed out, "See how the stick has multiple shadows? It will have multiple shadows out in the sun, too."

We decided to go immediately outside to test this theory.

 Unanimously the class decided that there was only a single shadow. This was puzzling to some since almost everyone had reported seeing multiple shadows at some point in their lives.

Some of the children looking VERY closely to see if there are multiple shadows.

"Ha! You were wrong!!"
"Wait a second. If he had never made a hypothesis about what he thought would happen, we never would have come to test it. Thank goodness he did because we all learned something."
"Yeah, now we realize that multiple light sources determine how many shadows."

I'm trying to bring this moment back to the class over and over again to remind them of the power of mistakes. I try to use it to help create a safe place for children to take risks and for those risks to be valued.