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Anyone else a failure at the experiments in 106 Days of Creation, or is it just me?:)
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I was a biochemistry major, so this is quite humbling to say, but my poor kids get so excited about our experiments and then most of them have not worked. It’s been pretty frustrating, and I just wondered if anyone else has problems ever or if I’m just doing things incorrectly. I bought the book referred to, 101 Great Science Experiments and use it for more detailed directions. There was the time the clay boat didn’t float at all, it was supposed to hold marbles but no matter how we shaped it, it didn’t work. Then the candle in a bowl that was supposed to cause the water level to rise, and it did but hardly at all. Today was celery, cut into half at the bottom and placed into two glasses filled with different colored water, which is still sitting on my table green as ever. Some do work, but most do not, and I’m starting to just skip them! You can be honest if your experiments are great:)
When our experiments don’t turn out (and it happens here as well), we discuss what should have happened and what might have prevented it from working. This way they are stll learning from the experiment.
Please don’t give up! Failure is a big part of the scientific process… honestly! I am also trained in the science field (an engineer) and we love doing science experiments at our house. I don’t have the specific science experiment book that you are referring to but I have many others, and yes, we experience MANY “failures” – at least at first! We joke that it always takes 3 or 4 attempts before things work the way they “should”. Often the directions are simply not clear enough, which is terrible considering the book should be modeling the habit of providing clear instructions so that the experiment can be reproduced!
When we experience failure I often turn do a search on the Google or on Pinterest to see if I can find a similar experiment. Other homeschool mom’s often have great blogs with better instructions or you may find a YouTube video that outlines it clearly.
I know it is frustrating but we learn so much from these failures. Aside from teaching perseverance we learn so many more scientific principles than we do when the experiment happens to work right away. For example in your clay experiment perhaps you could try having the boat hold something lighter such as beans or paper clips, or perhaps change the experiment so that you make floating objects from tin foil instead. It will take longer and it is annoying when you have to wait to go to the store to purchase more supplies for the next attempt, so feel free to do fewer experiments. If all else fails perhaps you can just watch someone else do a similar experiment on YouTube.
And not everything will work. Sometimes I just don’t “get” what the instructions are trying to tell us. We discuss the importance of writing clear directions and the benefits of showing pictures, etc. The kids are still learning even from our failures.
(Oh, and make sure you have some leaves on your celery stalks – the color shows up more in the leaves. And if you didn’t already you can try making a clean cut on the bottom of your celery stalk for it to better “drink” the water, and you can also try making your color solutions more concentrated. Perhaps fresh celery works better than the stuff that’s been sitting in te fridge for a week and half, or perhaps it’s the other way around! There are so many different things you can try!)
Yes. When I went through 106 Days a few years back, it was frustrating to tell my 6 year old, “Oh well, maybe next time!” Of course I say that lightly, we would retry the experiment, but after a while, like you say, it got to be a little disheartening 🙂
We haven’t had problems thus far, although we haven’t done all the experiments you listed. Our clay boat did float.
A lot of these might have a problem that you don’t realize that are complicating your efforts. For the celery–if the celery is old, or the ends of the tubes have sealed, or you sliced it with a dull knife, or the water isn’t colored enough—you won’t get a good result. Were you using the right kind of clay? We had to try a couple of different jars/glasses/bowls to get a good result at the candle one. You are scientists if you try to figure out what went wrong, and then test your hypothesis. 🙂
All that, and there is ONE experiment that has continually defeated me: Growing sugar crystals. I don’t know if our humidity is a factor, but we’ve probably tried that one a dozen times, different configurations, and we get—wet string. And a jar full of sugar water. LOL
Michele – my daughter grew so many sugar crystals that they made a huge mess on two shelves in my fridge. I’ll send her right over to help with that one.
Thanks ladies, yes I’ll keep trying. Sometimes it’s a bit much with 5 eager young scientists wanting their hands in everything, so that complicates things too. I did take out the celery and try a clean cut because I had just broken it off, it was new celery, but after looking at it, I saw a crack higher up so the water only went that high. I’m going to try white carnations next because it seems like a shorter/smaller stem:) We only tried the kind of clay we have, maybe that was the problem, we tried flat/thin, thick, oval/round/rectangle, etc. So we have tried several ways. Our best experiment was a cork in a soda pop bottle, it shot right off and made a great noise:)
That’s actually one that works better for me that I had forgotten about, it’s called Pop Bottle Science, has everything you need in it, and I may just find ones similar and go back to those since those work.
Just to make you feel better, our science experiments almost never work the way they are supposed to…I finally went to a very simple curriculum with a kit just to make it easier. It does help, but I would say we are still only at about a 70% success rate with the experiments :(. We love science, so it is a bummer when one doesn’t work out!
I actually have a plan for our new house to include a ‘sunny’ window sill, since it is required for about half of all elementary science projects and I have yet to find one with enough sun to get the job done!
Oh well, as the other ladies suggested, at least we can talk about what was supposed to happen and what factors may have caused it to fail. That is part of the scientific method, right? Testing your hypothesis, making adjustments, and trying again!
Also a *gentle* suggestion – let go of the word ‘failure’ in your homeschooling and mothering. God didn’t bring you this far to let you fail, and you are not a failure in His eyes.
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