Dr. Mommy, PhD: Doing Science with Preschoolers

Today, I had the unique opportunity to bring together the two biggest spheres of my life - motherhood and science.  At my son’s preschool, as part of the October curriculum focusing on “community helpers”, I was invited to come talk about being a scientist and to do some science demonstrations with a group of very enthusiastic three and four year olds.  I jumped at the chance.  In fact, I had been preparing for this moment since the day my son was born.  I just couldn’t wait for that seemingly far-off day when I would strut into my kid’s classroom, beakers and Bunsen burners in hand, ready to cultivate the next generation of young scientists.  And I imagined how my son would beam when all the other kids told him how cool his Mom was…okay, okay, so I know I’m not as cool as say, a firefighter or a police officer.  But I thought to myself, “Hey! I have a vanity lab coat buried in a closet somewhere (that’s never been in a lab, of course!).  And I can go buy a pair of safety glasses at Home Depot and have my husband bring home some nitrile gloves.  That’ll look cool, right?”  Right??  I tried on the ensemble for my son and he just rolled his eyes, laughed, and then said, “Mommy, you look like a Doctor but you’re not a real doctor!”  Dear reader, I disowned him.

Not that kind of Dr.

Anyway, for my visit, I came in the aforementioned uniform, which, as predicted, earned many excited squeals and shouts.  My own son may not be impressed but the other kids certainly were, which probably just serves to underline how very far we are now from the medical and science hub that is Boston.  I sat on a teeny, tiny chair that I worried was going to collapse under my weight at any moment, and looked down at a group of eager, adorable, budding scientists ripe for the teaching, sitting in a semi-circle at my feet.  I started by asking the group if anyone could tell me what a scientist does.  Here is a small sampling of the answers:

“A scientist wears glasses and looks at things that nobody cares about, and says ‘Hmmmm, interesting’!” (Alarmingly close to the truth)

“They mix up the chemicals and make them go ‘Boom!!’” (We usually try to avoid the ‘Boom!’)

“They eat ice cream!!” (Well, this scientist sure does.  Lots and lots of it)

So, with that out of the way, I went on to explain that scientists ask questions about the world around us, and that we do it in a very special way.  We talked about the scientific method and practiced saying “hypothesis”, which of course was hilarious since even adults have a hard time saying that word.  We made a hypothesis about what would happen if you put water in the freezer (“You get ice! Duh!”- I may have underestimated these kids).  And we talked about making a prediction about what would happen if you put milk into the freezer, based on what happened to the water (“Milkshakes!!”- I may have overestimated these kids).  With our fresh knowledge of the scientific method, we set out to do a couple of experiments.

Whole milk, food coloring and dish soap.  Eyedropper not necessary, just made the kids feel more like scientists.

I brought out a casserole tin and poured a quart of whole milk to cover the bottom of the pan (you have to use whole milk for this experiment, the more fat the better).  I pointed out that milk has a lot of healthy fat in it, the kind that makes their brains grow bigger and smarter.  I asked for a volunteer to help me add some food coloring to the milk and we made a hypothesis about what we thought would happen when we added the coloring.  Nearly everyone thought the dye would change the color of the milk.  Then we squirted the dye in and watched in amazement as the drops pooled on the surface of the milk, separate from each other, the rest of the milk remaining white.  

 

We got a little overzealous with the purple dye.

Next, I brought out a bottle of dish soap and asked if anyone helps their Mommies and Daddies do the dishes; I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that nearly all of them do!  There were many shouts and cheers about how helpful they were at home.  As a side-note, none of their parents were present for this demonstration.  The teacher rolled her eyes in her teacher-ly way.  My son looked around ready to chime in in the affirmative as well, then made eye contact with me and decided against it.   
We discussed what soap does, that its job is to break down “grease”, which is just another word for fat, and that’s how it cleans the dishes.  We made a hypothesis about what would happen when we added a little dish soap to the milk.  Most guessed that we would make bubbles.  Using an eyedropper, my volunteer dripped dish soap into the pan, and voila!  The food coloring instantly dispersed and swirled into the milk in a beautiful array of colors.  The kids were amazed.  Some asked if they could drink it.  I objected.  That’s going a touch too far for science, even in my book.  So we talked about how before we added the soap, the fat in the milk was holding the dye together, and that when the soap broke down the fat, the dye was able to mix into the milk.

Adding the soap...

Lovely!

Experiment number two was a classic baking soda and vinegar experiment, except I added some drops of food coloring on top of the baking soda to make it more colorful.  I spread some baking soda out onto a tray and asked if anyone knew what baking soda was used for.  Many clearly stated it was “for baking” and I didn’t need to ask if anyone liked cake or cookies, this information was freely volunteered.  It took a minute to calm everyone down when they realized I was not going to be doing a cooking demonstration.  Ah, the sharp sting of disappointment.  When they all caught a whiff of the vinegar, a heated discussion broke out as to the merits of pickles (Eight “yaes”, eleven “ewwwwww! Nays”).  I was pleased they were so savvy in the ways of ingredients.  

 

I strongly recommend doing this experiment on a disposable tray.  Trust me on this one.

This time I got two volunteers to come up and help me out.  The first kid got to use an eyedropper to dribble some vinegar onto the baking soda and we noted that small, fizzy bubbles were made.  We hypothesized that if we used a syringe full of vinegar we would get even more bubbles, so volunteer number two went to town spraying the vinegar into a foaming puddle.  Finally, I put a couple inches of baking soda into a clear plastic cup and filled a measuring cup up with nearly two cups of vinegar.  I was going for broke with the grand finale.  I added some dye to the baking soda and allowed my son, who was sitting very impatiently the entire time, to come and do the honors.  We counted to three and everyone held their breath as we dumped the entire measuring cup of vinegar into the cup of baking soda.  The room erupted in shrieks of excitement as the foam exploded up and over the top of the cup and all over the tray beneath it.  One kid started bellowing, “Volcano! Volcano! Volcaaaaaaanooooooo!” as he danced around the room gleefully.  They LOVED it.  And again, they wanted to drink it. 

What a pretty mess this makes!

Pour quickly but carefully!

 

We cleaned up our experiments (one of the most important parts of doing science, in my opinion) and discussed the reaction between baking soda and vinegar, and how they combine to make carbon dioxide, a gas, and how this reaction is what is responsible for making cakes rise, nice and fluffy.  One girl asked me why I bake pickle-flavor cakes.  Definitely realized I did a poor job explaining acids and bases to this young group and chose to pretend I didn’t hear the question.  I finished up by saying, “I hope that I’ve shown you guys that science is cool and fun!  You can all be scientists, all you need to do is stay curious about your world and ask good questions!” and then I added, “So who wants to be a scientist when they grow up?!”  Amidst a chorus of passionate cries of “Me! Me!” my son announced that he was going to be a real Doctor like his Daddy (again, disowned), and another smart young man stated that he would rather be an accountant (me too, kid, me too).  Volcano boy was still dancing, and shouted proudly, “I’m going to be a volcano when I grow up!!” 

Shine bright, little volcano boy, shine bright.