With Shaving Creme, Glitter and Rainbows, Science Doesn't Have to be Boring At All!

Today we had this amazing science day which I wanted to write a little about.

First of all, let me start out by saying that I have always hated the subjects related to science. But in my school most of our science was the calculations behind all of the experiments that were usually done on paper and not in reality. This is why I was so amazed by how fun the science day was and how much the pupils loved it.

What happened was that 2^nd stage (the ones studying working with 6-9 year olds) and 3^rd stage (the ones studying working with 9-12 year olds) from St. Nicholas Montessori College went to St. Nicholas Montessori School and set up tables for science experiments for the children of our stage.

First we in 2^nd stage did our experiments. We were divided into groups and each group did a different experiment: one group illustrated how an egg is actually stronger than you think by making the pupils stand on an egg tray full of eggs and then explained why this worked; one group taught the pupils about clouds using shaving foam: they sprayed a cloud on a table in front of each pupil, then they had the pupils form different clouds out of it, like cumulous clouds, cirrus clouds and so on. There were loads of good experiments, but unfortunately I can’t mention all of them here.

These were the Cirrus clouds the pupils made with shaving creme

My group demonstrated how the prime colours can make any colour with fruit colours and milk, and finished off teaching the pupils how to make their own rainbow using water, a mirror and a flashlight.

The pupils loved this; they were very interested in finding out how a rainbow is actually created and they went crazy for making these simple experiments.

I found this to be a very good way to teach science as the pupils who were only 6 years old were able to understand it and actually found it fun.

Afterwards the 3^rd stage students spent an hour teaching some slightly more complicated experiments to the 9-12 year old pupils.

It was very nice for us to see what the older students did and I suspect that they liked seeing our experiments as well as these bring inspiration to our own teaching.

These experiments were very much in accordance with the Montessori methodology as one of the main focuses of Montessori is to take the learning from a practical plan to a more abstract plan.

I was also impressed with the creativity that was put into making these experiments. This is very normal in the Montessori school. The students in my class are regularly given tasks to create their own materials for teaching a specific subject, so they don’t only use the books that are previously made for the pupils.

I like how the Montessori way promotes the practical methods as the tactile methods often are those that keep the pupils interested and dedicated.

This can turn out to be a problem later on when the pupils become older and have to go to secondary school. There are no secondary Montessori schools in Ireland, so the pupils often have transition problems, coming from the playful Montessori classroom to the “bookly” regular classroom. Usually this works out, but I have heard parents saying that this is a struggle.