The other day I asked what Mommy did at work. Remember this story about making money? Well, this time I told him that I’m a scientist, and make no mistake – he knows what science is and does it in preschool no less!
He says to me “no your not”! “Yes I am”, I say “and I will show you”! He questions me about just sitting at my desk my desk all day, not doing “real” science (man this kid is smart or what!), but I assure him I am a real live scientist who does science for work (he calls it working). In fact, I’m going to prove it to him by taking him to work with me one day.
So, off we were together in late April to TYKTWD. I was so excited that I even volunteered to be one of the participants to teach the kids a session.
We had such a special day that I will always cherish. First there was a tour of all the labs and Alex got to look in a microscope, wear a real lab coat and lab glasses (doesn’t he just look so cute!). There was one session before mine, and then it was go time! Let’s just say that there is no real preparing you for 74 kids and chemistry! But, thank goodness I was teaching in the morning session, the afternoons sessions got a bit wilder!
Some of my colleagues volunteered with me and even came up with the concept. I just had to organize and do most of the talking (not really that big of a deal, if you ask me!). We had already boiled purple cabbage leaves and would use this as an indicator for pH of different household chemicals. We talked about what pH is and why it’s important to us, and how it’s used by some of the Mommy’s and Daddy’s who work here. Then, we got to the good stuff, mixing colored liquids!
The purple liquid would turn pink if it was an acid, or green if it was a base. It would stay purple if it was neutral. We had the kids record what they say on paper (because documentation is important!) and some of the older kids would make hypothesis before they started mixing chemicals. Even cooler was figuring out how many drops would it take for one acid and one base to make different colors. Blue was slightly basic and magenta was slightly acidic. It all went very well and I was so happy I had volunteered.
Other experiments they did that day involved marshmallow animals and phenotype/genotype categorization and extracting their own DNA and putting it into a necklace that they could wear!
We had lunch together and Alex was “flying” there from one building to the next!
The day was exhausting and mentally draining watching 74 kids and maintaining that much attention on that many little kiddos. But, the best part was when we were leaving and Alex told me this “Mommy, I want to be a scientist when I grow up”. All worth it right there, all worth it.
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