This time around, I had a better idea of what to expect out of such young students. I dumped the ipad presentation I included last time that showed other examples of thermal imaging (why did I ever think that was a good idea?), but added a space blanket to play in front of the camera with. Also, I didn't bring the printer, because it is a pain to lug around and takes up too much time to print pictures. I also took more precaution ahead of time with regards to my location - last time I was in a small library room that had no chairs, so kids just sat on the floor. Not only was this awkward, but they didn't want to get up to get in front of the camera, and the room layout was dangerous because they were forced to step over cords. So when I saw that I was going to be in the same room as last time, I politely asked that I be assigned a different room that had chairs and more room to move around in. It seems like a trivial detail, but I think it made a huge difference in the overall dynamics of the presentation. And as a bonus, the room had a sink and paper towels, which came in very handy (you'll find out why). I don't remember what I did as a workshop description last time, but somehow I inadvertently scored a home run with this year's title: "Hot or Not? See the Invisible! Scientists can use special cameras to be able to see what's invisible. You can find people in burning buildings, injuries in animals, and maybe even ghosts! Find out what you look like in infrared!" - For some reason, the kids thought the name was really awesome. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this was so popular, but I'm just glad it got the kids excited before they even knew what they were in for.
I started off my presentation with a question: "Who knows how rainbows are made?" After briefly discussing that, complete with kids proudly reciting their ROY G. BIV's, I tried to get kids to think "outside the rainbow". In an effort to get them to make a connection between rainbows and infrared/ultraviolet (which at least have parts of their names that sound like colors), I asked, "Does anyone know the names of some colors we can't see?" The answers to this question were hilarious - Green! Pink! Brown!? CLEAR! Okay, I admit it's kind of a misleading and inaccurate question, but most times someone would eventually get to IR or UV, or if they didn't I would get a bunch of "OHHHHHHH YEEEAAAAAHHH"s when I gave the answer. Although the scientific accuracy of my segue into teaching about thermal infrared could be disputed, it seemed to make a useful connection for the young students (much better than my old ipad slideshow ever did).
This time around, practically ALL of the kids wanted a chance in front of the camera. We played with ice (with no whiny complaints like last time, I might add), looked at mixing hot and cold water, saw the difference between plastic and metal as heat conductors, and of course checked out the space blanket, a trash bag, and glass in front of the camera. In every session, the students were so interactive that we easily filled the entire 35 minutes (so it's a good thing I didn't bring my printer, anyways). This time around I totally resonated with the students as if I actually knew what I was doing. Not only were the kids engaged, but they were quite intelligent, too; it's funny, often times I am disappointed in high school kids when it comes to their scientific knowledge and reasoning, whereas these 5th and 6th graders really impressed me with theirs. To be honest, there wasn't a huge difference in the types of answers I was getting to the questions I posed... But then these kids would remind you how young they are when they'd do things like lift up the garbage bag they're in so they could see, and would then say, "Oh yeah! I can see myself!"
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| In what seems to be a new trend, I had TWO students dump full containers of ice water over their heads! Hence why the paper towels came in handy. This time I finally got a picture. |
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| Does this picture terrify anyone else as much as it does me? |
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