"How do rivers start, anyway?

On our first trip back into the forest, the children found the creek empty-- totally bone dry. What a mystery! They were so perplexed. On our walk back to was chatting with Sydney who let all of her curiosity spill out in questions like, "Why is the creek dry? Will it fill back up? How would it fill up again?" All of her questions about the creek led her to ask an even bigger question,

"How DO river start, anyway?"

We brought her questions to the group and we've been wondering ever since. We're working together to answer that question.

After a few interesting conversations, the children developed hypotheses and then planned and built models to test their ideas.

All along the way, we are listening to them gathering information about how they understand topic. What do they know? What misconceptions exist? We use all of these experience to help us identify what to do next. The way we plan our next steps forward is to consider what concrete experiences we can put in front of them in order to allow them to face their misconceptions head on and refine their schema.

Wind Makes Water Current from Andrea Pierotti on Vimeo.


The one big idea that was missing from most models was that creeks flow down hill. Even groups that included and incline did so intuitively rather than seeing the connection to the flow of the water. Recognizing this crucial missing pieces helped us plan experiences. We've spent days playing with water on the playground to observe "How does water behave?" We've taken trips back to observe our creek to find clues that would help us understand rivers.

All along the way through a project these interactions help us to snake our way through to new understandings. We listen and we make plans to answer their questions, not with our mouths but though life. We answer their questions with questions pointed directly towards their misconceptions.