After making a number of videos with Matthew I have noticed that the best stuff often happens once my planned experiment is over. Normally this is once I've stopped filming and have started cleaning up. This is the time when Matthew really starts to investigate things by himself. I am now careful not to stop the 'experiment' too early. Its fascinating the things that he picks up. I've noticed a similar thing happening when I do science shows. While I'm packing up a few kids come up and starts really looking, touching and learning. Recently I intentionally took advantage of this and after the main 'show' I set up some workstations where the students got to carry out the experiments by themselves. This definitely was the highlight and the students absolutely loved the chance to experience the science hands on by themselves. I'm keen to keep thinking about ways to encourage hands on exploring of science. Would love to hear any ideas you may have.
We extended our learning about acids and bases to the pH scale. I intentionally did not over edit the video video because it really shows the learning process so the video is longer than normal. By the end of the video Matthew was better at matching the pH paper against the pH chart than I was. Matthew also introduced the video with out any prompting from me - he's picking it up quickly. Again using the A, B and N tabs really seems to have helped provide a framework for learning. Make sure you watch till the end. Matthew spontaneously started writing down all that we had been going through. It was almost like he was writing up his lab book. I could learn some lessons from him!!