Today we traveled to the Newton Public Library for another learning festival, and it could not have gone better. The students were all excited to learn and fun to talk to, the workers at the library were helpful, and the ice-cream cake we were given as dessert for lunch was amazing. Afterwards, we met Evan's family and friends who treated us to a fantastic dinner at their restaurant in Wichita. With five learning festivals out of the way, we’re pretty much pros at teaching by now, so I thought I’d use this blog to share with you some of the important lessons I’ve learned so far.
1.) Don’t forget paper towels
Erin and I are doing a workshop on chemistry, and one of our activities is making slime, and if you think that sounds incredibly messy, you’d be correct. Most recipes for slime involve mixing glue, water, and borax in a bowl, but we thought bowls would lead to spills, so we figured we’d have the kids mix their slime inside of sandwich bags that way there would be absolutely no way the slime could possibly escape onto the table. As it turns out, that’s not quite how it works. No matter how tightly we zip the sandwich bags shut, the slime always finds a way to explode out of the bags and onto clothes and carpets. Our solution: paper towels. Erin and I have come to accept that spills are inevitable, and the best we can do is have paper towels ready before the room looks like Jackson Pollock’s latest masterpiece.
2.) The students will always know more about slime than you
This one came as a bit of a surprise to me. So, apparently slime is a really big deal right now. If you look on YouTube, there is an entire section devoted to making all kinds of slime. They’ve got magnetic slime, glass slime, sticky slime, fluffy slime, edible slime, glow-in-the-dark slime, unicorn slime, sand slime, glitter slime, and color-changing slime. The list goes on. Naturally, many of our students are quite familiar with slime and can recognize that Erin and I are mere amateurs. If I had a paper towel for every time I was reminded the slime is too hard or we should add lotion or shaving cream, the room might actually be clean for once.
3.) Kids love fire
Ok, this one’s pretty obvious. One of our demonstrations is the whoosh bottle, which is just a five-gallon plastic water bottle filled with alcohol vapor. When we drop a match inside, a column of flame erupts from the bottle and lights up the eyes of every student. No matter how many complaints we get about our slime, the whoosh bottle never fails to capture the students' interest. Some of the other Spokes members initially voiced concerns about the whoosh bottle because it involves fire and, well, an empty five-gallon bottle isn’t exactly the most space efficient thing to pack in a car, but I think the whoosh bottle has proven its worth by now.
4.) Teaching is exhausting.
Don’t get me wrong here. I love teaching, and there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing someone else get as excited as I am about science, but after every learning festival, I could definitely use a nap. Between biking 100 miles in one day and teaching for four and a half hours, I never would have guessed that the latter would leave me more exhausted. I now have a new respect for all the teachers I’ve had throughout my years in school who put up with me spilling stuff on the ground and complaining about something as insignificant as the composition of slime. This trip has made me realize just how much we need caring people to become teachers and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.
