The Liberation of a Scientist

At the end of our science investigation, we took the time to think about what we had learned about being a scientist. The children were asked, "How do scientists learn new things and know they are true?" They responded by building collages. They all captured interesting nuances about the workings of scientists. The collages explored a variety of ideas.

• The more you know the more you wonder.
• Scientists depend on collaboration and communication to make their experiments as reliable as possible.
• Scientists repeat their experiments many time in order to be sure they are right.
• If everyone adds their little bits of knowledge together it creates a much more solid body of knowledge.
• Working in an intentional and organized way helps you to see your results and trust them.

Here is a peek at the class' visit to one collage and the conversation that accompanied the visit. It was such a beautiful way to look at learning. Learning is liberation!

Working with other materials ends up producing such rich conversations between the class as we try to understand the thoughts represented by the creator and add connections and idea of our own.

Sophia: This one is… there is this scientist, here he is [points underneath the purple feathers to a clear glass rock resting underneath] and he has heard these rumors on the street and he is trying to figure out what to do with them … if he should test them or not. So it is like he is in a cage.  [She drops the purple feathers to trap the stone.]

Teacher: Sort of trapped by not knowing?

Sophia: Yeah, but then he finds a way to test is and then he has some freedom. [The trail of blue glass leading out of the cage.]

Jude: So this is the rumor?

Sophia: No, this is the rumor [points to the ring of glass tiles surrounding the scientist rock].

Stella: So what happens at the end when he solves it? What happens to the rumor?

Sophia: It goes away for HIM because he tested it.

Lila: Now he knows that it is either true or not true.

Mallory: So it went away.

Teacher: [Pointing to the crystals at the end surrounded by white feathers] So over here this represents all of the freedom he feels because he is no longer trapped by not knowing?

Lila: I have an idea for next time. Maybe on these stones leading out, you could make them darker and then lead into lighter.

Teacher: Lila, do you mean that at first his knowledge is dark and he doesn’t really know but with each step he starts to understand better so it gets lighter?

Lila: Yes.

Dylan: I think it should be lighter and then darker because  your mind is first clear and then you get all these things in your head.

Teacher: Like the more you figure out the more you wonder? That is interesting. I can see it both ways. I can see that at first you are confused but then the more you experiment the more clear it becomes.  Maybe we need to think of a way to represent both of them happening at the same time. You get more clear with one question but you get more confused with other questions and ideas connected to it.

Mallory: Maybe it does different things to different people.