Wondering about the Space

The space inquiry has been one of the longest running inquiry till date by Sid and Nidhi. This inquiry is filled with lot of "I wonder" questions.We are still learning something new everyday about the awesome universe.  I cannot believe the depth and rich experiences these kids attain through inquiry. The advantage of this child led self directed learning at home is that they learn at their pace without time constraints. This inquiry is ongoing for about six months now and the zeal to learn more has not yet diminished.

One day the twins were observing the globe and out came the query - " Are penguins in Antarctica standing upside down? Won't they fall down into Space?" This triggered our exploration into gravity. We checked if all things that are thrown up will fall back down.

Next came the wondering. Do all planets have gravity? What is gravity made of? Does moon have gravity? We collected answers to these questions by watching a couple of YouTube videos.

Next the kids started focusing on the solar system. This is their initial understanding of the solar system. They just assumed that the planets go around the sun in a circle.

Their initial thought about Solar System - All planets  go around the sun in a circle.

Gradually they learnt about orbits and moons.

Documenting their knowledge of orbits

We learnt about each planet in detail from books. They imbibed facts about planets by lot of role playing and through creating their own puppet shows. A lot of questions arose about the planets most of them leading to Big bang theory . They also made a lot of inferences.

Why planets vary in sizes?

Why is Uranus blue in color? We figured out that the blue shade observed is due to the methane gas in its atmosphere.

How did earth cool down into rocky planet if it is nearer to sun?

Where did iron in mars come from?

Does Neptune have rings?

If Uranus is tilted because a meteor hit it, why didn't it burn up the meteor ?

Do gas giants eventually burn up like stars? -Sid No they can't -Nidhi why not, gas can burn up? - Sid

I think millions of hot gas planets combined to make sun.

If Pluto is called dwarf planet because of its size, why not little Mercury a dwarf planet? - Sid

When Jupiter has so many moons, why not Mars' moons were attracted by Jupiter?

What will happen if sun burns up? I think earth will get icy - Nidhi

Nidhi made a book on "What will happen if meteor falls on each planet?" She guesses that the meteor will make craters on rocky planets and burn up when they hit gas giants.

We read a book about Hubble telescope and they wanted to build a model of it.

Building a Hubble model with recyclables

What can I see through this telescope?

We attended a local library event where NASA Astronaut Megan Mcarthur talked to kids about her experiences of flying to space, living in ISS and working with hubble telescope. The kids were impressed.

Astronaut Megan McArthur answering questions from kids

Mars, Jupiter and Saturn become favorites.
We went star gazing to look at Jupiter in early evening sky in August. They were very happy to spot Mars and Venus early in the morning.

We talked about living on Mars. They were willing to go there and build houses as pioneers if their cousins accompanied them. They drew pictures imagining living on Mars.  They were able to visualize the Mars sky. They could see two Mars' moons - Phobos and deimos, Earth and sun on Mars sky.
They wondered "Will Earth cause an eclipse in Mars when it comes between the sun and Mars?"

we read about Mars rovers. A Mars Rover with snap circuits is in the anvil at their Makerspace.

Nidhi's plan for a Mars Rover

Sid's vision of his landing on Mars

Nidhi with her cousin on Mars

We discussed about Cassini's journey. I posed them a question about NASA's plan about sending a probe to sun. "How will you design a probe to sun that will not get burnt up?" , I asked.
Nidhi thought and answered "What if we send a probe that is already hot?" Hmm... Nice thought!

They learnt about milkyway and types of galaxies.They used watercolor techniques to paint beautiful galaxies, black holes etc.

Types of galaxies documentation

Painting of galaxies with Watercolors

Sid painting a black hole

"Look! This black hole is burping a jet after eating a star!" - Sid

We got a Space edition of Scientific American "Wonder of the cosmos" magazine, that you can see in the photo above. The magazine was filled with wonderful articles about black holes, nebulae, lifecycle of stars, multiverses etc. We also discussed about the recent discovery of gravitational waves.

They were pretending balls as planets and suddenly got idea of coloring them as planets. Thus our own solar system model was created.

Nidhi painting the sun - "It looks green because the ball is blue, if I add more yellow, it will look like sun."

Sid painting a basketball as Jupiter

Beautiful Venus

Solar system model - They chose appropriate sized balls for each planet

They made up some silly jokes like
What Jupiter said to Saturn? Nice belt buddy!
What did the black hole tell the star? I am going to gobble you up!

Nidhi wondered, if an object falls into a blackhole, where will it be?

They have started documenting their understanding in writing. This gives them a much needed writing practice too.

Sid's Solar system documentation

Nidhi's writeup about solar system

Their inquiries have kindled a lot of curiosity in me. I am learning a lot alongside them.
They are still wondering and pondering every day about this awesome universe. I hope they continue this inquiry till the very end.
To me, the universe is some scary dark mystery.
But Sid and Nidhi sing these verses as a matter of fact way.
" We are made of stardust , every single atom..."
Every night before going to bed, Sid comments " Look Mom, our sky is the universe, we are part of this universe." How surreal!

From our Makerspace - Snapcircuits Artbot

Recently we attended a STEM event in our city. It was a family friendly event rich with Science, Engineering concepts. We got to meet a few enthusiastic basketball playing robots, R2D2 , attended a  great Q&A session with NASA astronaut Megan McArthur. The twins had quite a few hands on activities like building circuits with snapcircuits kit, building brushbots, making flashlights, building and launching their own  rocket etc.

Meeting R2D2

Nidhi building a Bristlebot

"Look a flashlight with popsicle stick!"

Their excitement lingered on for quite sometime after returning home. They played with their brushbots for long time. It is a very simple build with a toothbrush head, a small battery and motor.
We then wondered if they can use these brushbots to paint. They dipped the brush in some watered down acrylic paint and the little robots colored the paper beautifully.

Painting with little BristleBots

We then explored how we can build a bigger robot that make art. The solution is simple. We just need a bit bigger power source and motor. We had a snap circuits jr kit at home. May be we can use the components from that kit. This kit is much easier for little hands to build circuits.We also chose markers in place of brush.

The result was great. We enjoyed this project. I know there are lots of similar drawbot/artbot instructions scattered around the internet. However, it is more exciting to work with what we have at hand in the house. There was lot of learning and problem solving involved.

Sid and Nidhi have learnt a lot of technical vocabulary such as power source, motor, wire, open circuit, closed circuit, IC, series and parallel circuits.

Here is a video of our artbot making experience.

Today they noticed our malfunctioning doorbell and Sid said, "Mom, why don't we build our own doorbell circuit?". Sure!

From our Makerspace - Clock

This is second post in this "Making - Learning by Doing" series.  I hope you remember the making of toy car a few months back. I had promised to write about another everyday object that was closely observed. It is the CLOCK.

It started with Nidhi making a paper wrist watch for herself. She then complained that it didn't seem to work as the clock hands are not moving. She wanted to make a working clock or at least a clock with moving hands.

Paper Wrist watch

They started by observing our wall clock to observe closely. They tried to take it apart, observed the clock hands arrangement. They wondered what happened when the batteries were removed or reversed, will the clock hands move if we tried to move it manually.

Observing a wall clock

Then Nidhi chose the materials to build a clock of her own. Materials chosen were simple collection of a paper plate for the clock's face, a straw for spindle and cardstock for clock hands. The clock model was built very quickly. 

Model clock with paper plate, straw and cardstock

The first challenge they faced was with writing the numbers on clock face with correct spacing. They also wondered why there was only numbers until 12.  "Why there is no 0 (zero) on the clock?", wondered Sid. "There is no 0 hour. Remember zero means nothing.", answered Nidhi.

Next bigger challenge was to make the clock hands move on its own. They brainstormed ways to make the clock work and Nidhi's idea amazed me. She chose Stopmotion animation. She took lot of pictures moving the clock hands slowly and stitched them into a video by using Stopmotion app. We enjoyed the productive use of technology to design,create and make something rather than passive watching.Here is her finished product.

The Idea - Make a clock with moving hands
Materials used - Recyclables like paper plates, cardstock , pipe cleaners and stop motion app.
Project - Success
Process - FUN!

Self Portraits - Looking Closely at ourselves

We are back after a long vacation. Sid and Nidhi enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Lots of learning happened though it all went undocumented. We bought loads of drawing notebooks and color materials to keep them busy and they filled every page and asked for more. Their drawings are getting more detailed by the day.

I started noticing that their more recent drawings and paintings are featuring themselves. One day I observed that almost all of their little characters had only one eye and a mouth. (The nose has always been missing in their drawings.) I enquired, "Why have you drawn only one eye?". Sid excitedly replied, "Because I am looking to the side, mom. See, when you look to the side I can see only one eye of yours."

Sid and Nidhi riding a bike

I was impressed with their observation. Considering their interest in drawing, that too in drawing themselves, I set up an activity to do self portraits.

The twins were very excited to draw themselves. I showed them examples of other kindergarteners' self portraits on internet.
I explained to them that they must observe their facial features very closely on the mirror and try to draw them. They readily accepted it as a challenge.
The very first hurdle they faced was the size of the drawing. They are so used to drawing miniature figures that the idea of drawing just a face on full page baffled them. So, I drew a circular outline of their face as a guide and they took off from there.
Next challenge was to draw facial features in right places, that too proportionately and symmetrically.
A lot of observations and discussions happened when looking at themselves closely in the mirror.

"My eyes are not circle, they are tear drop shaped!" - Sid.
"I would like my eyes to be blue but they are black."- Nidhi.
"Everyone's nose is different! I have 2 holes on my nose and some hair in it. See, I have drawn that", - Nidhi
"Mom, you nose is like a spanner. Mine is like L shape." - Sid.
"Everyone's lips are red in color." - Nidhi
"Sid, if you cannot look in the mirror and draw, you can look at me and draw." - Nidhi
"I cannot do that! I don't look like you.I look different." - Sid.

Sid's self portrait - pencil sketch

They had so much fun that they insisted me to join their fun. So I tried my hand at sketching myself. Strangely, it was therapeutic to look closely at yourself and draw your own features. If you haven't tried it before, I recommend you to try it. It is fun!

My Self Portrait - Pencil sketch

Next they colored their portraits. They chose the medium they liked. Nidhi chose color pencils and Sid chose oil pastels. Nidhi colored my sketch too. They added their own creative touches.

Nidhi added long braids for herself and me. She then exclaimed, "Look Mom, now you look just me!"

Nidhi's self Portrait

My Portrait colored by Nidhi

"I am in an airplane.I am wearing headphones and listening to music. See the little music notes?" - Sid.
I loved how he added a little window with a flying bird to show that he is flying in an airplane.

Sid's self portrait

The twins noted how everyone is unique with differences in shapes of facial features and skin colors. Nidhi wondered, "Why do we have skin?". "What do you think?". "I think, if we don't have skin all our blood will come out."

They had so much fun with this little exercise that they are ready to churn out more portraits everyday. This morning they spent a little more time in front of the mirror observing themselves very closely before starting for school.

"I observe you, and while I observe you, I "capture" you, I interpret you. But at the same time I also modify my own knowledge." - Carlina Rinaldi