Snow, Science and ... Marshmallows?

I often struggle with how complicated life has become for children. While as a child I was totally happy to mix mud and food coloring to make "pies" for my bakery on the back porch, children today are so different. They are often perplexed with creativity and free time, whereas when we were children those things just came with the territory. Children now need to be entertained instead of thinking about how to entertain themselves. We do it to them, don't we? I know we do. They watch us as we try to decide which plasma TV is "big enough", which cell phone "does more", which seat in the stadium has the "best view", or whether or not to buy a better house when the one we live in is just fine and more than enough. I am guilty of it, too. We all are. And I am sure as a child, I wanted more than colored mud pies on the porch. But I turned out just fine without whatever it was that I wanted.

That's why I love evenings like this one. Childhood fun can be a "simple science", so to speak. No techie gadgets, no bigscreens, no oversized monitors, no earbuds, no phones. None of that.

The First Little Nguyen has been hard at work during the last few days on his first Science Fair project! As we were driving along on the snowy roads one day last week, he started to think aloud about the science involved in melting snow. He knows there are kinds of salt we use in cooking (sea salt, kosher salt, table salt for baking) and salt that is used for melting the ice on roads. That sparked his curiosity! So he decided on a very simple experiment which involved pouring a tablespoon of different types of salt into cups of snow. Which salt would melt the snow fastest, he wondered?

He started by checking each cup at 5 minute intervals, making a different colored mark at the highest level of the snow. He took photographs to help make a record of the changes that took place. What fun he had! Well, he found that the ice cream salt he used actually melted the snow fastest, in 40 minutes to be exact. It turned out that he had predicted correctly. That made him proud!

Of course, the First Little Nguyen also found out a lot about the documentation that scientists must complete in doing experiments. For first grade, I think his journaling reflects clarity and a solid step-by-step description of the whole process he went through to complete his experiment. He even learned how to make a timeline! It was a thrill for him to choose the photos he liked best to use on his project board, and it was even more exciting when Mommy let him go through some boxes of winter teaching supplies to find fun things to use to embellish his project board! (He is always begging to go through those boxes in our attic!) He found fun stickers and some giant snowflake shapes.

Our Little Scientist checked in at the Science Fair at his school tonight, proudly delivering his project board to the cafeteria for all to see. There were umpteen exploding volcanoes, and he was glad he had not decided to do one of those. We took a few minutes to explore some of the other projects there, as well as the exhibits and visitors in the media center from various museums. Among them were animals from the Museum of Natural History (where he found "his people" at camp this past summer!), some students from an engineering program at State, and a mountain climber with all of his gear. The Little Nguyens' favorite was an engineering experiment where they were faced with the task of building a contraption that would catapault a large marshmallow! Who knew a marshamallow, a spoon, a paper cup, some tape and few rubber bands could be so much fun!? Who needs toys when you can launch marshmallows across the media center at your school!? We spent 45 minutes doing just that. The First Little Nguyen tried out all sorts of designs to test to see which would cause the marshmallow to fly the longest distance. The Second Little Nguyen stuck with one design the whole time, and, I am not kidding, this four-year old beat out all the rest! His catapault beat the contraptions of his older brother and lots of fourth and fifth graders, launching his marshmallow nearly across the entire media center . This seemingly quiet, obedient preschooler that often accompanies me to do various things at his brother's school was not quiet tonight! Even the principal was "impressed" when the Second Little Nguyen "exclaimed", "4, 3, 2, 1, Ignition, BLAST OFF!" as his marshmallow became a media center projectile. He said, "Wow. I didn't know he had it in him!" Umm...yeah, he clearly does.

Anyway, the First Little Nguyen was so tickled to come home with a blue ribbon -- all scientists received them -- and a bag of special trinkets that he promptly put in the "Special Box" he keeps in the back of his sock drawer. He punched holes in the top two corners of the Science Award he received and threaded a piece of yellow yarn through them. Now, it's hanging from his bedroom doorknob. When he went to bed, he said, "Mom, this was the best night of my life!" I am glad he thinks so. It delights me that a night spent like tonight is his preferred way to spend an evening. He would choose it over a movie or an hour of computer time. Salty, snowy science and marshamallow catapaults are just the things his life should revolve around right now. He doesn't need to be entertained. His childhood doesn't have to be complicated with Wii's and computers and i-Pods. It can be such a simple science, if we let it be.