The children have been designing and running experiments of their own based on questions that arose during our class experiment (which is far from over, by the way). They made careful plans and helped each other think critically about what might need to be changed to help their experiment be more valid. Ideas about treating all of the perti dishes in one experiment the same, wiping the swab for the same amount of time on each dish, deciding a standard procedure for various phases of the experiment all came up during our discussions. Mostly I love the that children are helping to bring these ideas to light rather than following directions their teacher gave them because their teacher said so. They are thinking carefully about how to make their experiments as valid as possible because THEY care.
Questions being tested included
Is dirt germy?
Are we more germy at different times of day?
Does hand sanitizing work?
How clean are tap water, rain water, creek water and condensation?
Does the length of time of hand washing influence the results?
Like you, I love that this is clearly the work of the children -- each photo shows how deeply engaged they are in their experiments. They are the protagonists of this learning, the scientists in search of answers. I can't wait to hear the results; I am especially curious to learn whether dirt is actually germy. No, really, I am.
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