Science: "Enigma Cylinders" (and banana phones)

As you may know, Lisa Johnson (famous and beloved for bringing Fish Lab to Summers-Knoll) has joined our faculty as a science teacher. We'll be co-teaching science this year, and we ran a fantastic activity on class on Monday. I'll tell you all about it, just as soon as Bora finishes this phone call. 

Bora blatantly violating our "no phones during the school day" rule

We wanted the kids to get the kids "doing science" early and often this year, but many people have differing ideas about what that actually means. To get us all thinking about what science really is, we introduced the class to some mysterious objects that we call "Enigma Cylinders." 

As an educator, this activity was incredibly easy to run: We simply passed out a few of the cylinders to the kids. Before we had a chance to bore them with directions, they all instantly snapped into the mindset of scientists. They furrowed their brows, tugged at strings, and started talking. 

First they made observations, then they started offering possible explanations for what they were seeing. Before long, they were sketching. By the time Lisa and I actually told them that they'd be attempting to make their own models of this contraption, most of them were already well on their way to sketching potential designs. All of this was pure inquiry. It required so little direction from us that I was able to film them in action. Check out the following video, which picks up immediately after handing kids the cylinders. None of what you hear them saying is in response to questions that we've posed to them. If you've ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during a Summers-Knoll class, this is the video for you:

As mentioned in the video, all three groups eventually constructed models that seemed to be reasonable facsimiles of the cylinders that they examined. However, Lisa and I have vowed to never reveal the inner workings of our actual cylinders, as that's part of true science! There are many things in this universe that we will never truly know. 

Lisa gave a great example: We will never know for certain what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Never! We do, however, have a very good hypothesis or two about what happened to them. And as we collectively learn more about the world, we can revise our hypothesis (or throw it out entirely if compelling evidence demands it). In many ways, science demands failure and revision. We will encourage both over the course of this school year (and beyond)!

But enough about Science. Let's check in with Bora. How's that phone call going, Bora? 

See? This is why we make kids keep them in their backpacks.