Friday Sprog Blogging: random bullets edition.

Dr. Free-Ride: So, what kind of science are you learning in school these days?

Younger offspring: I don't know.

Dr. Free-Ride: You don't know?! You have been going to school, right?

Younger offspring: Of course.

Dr. Free-Ride: When [Dr. Free-Ride's better half] was in the classroom helping with the lesson this week, what did you learn about?

Younger offspring: About Fall, and pumpkins, and pumpkin seeds.

Dr. Free-Ride: There's science in that, isn't there?

Younger offspring: I guess.

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Let the bullets commence!

• With the younger Free-Ride offspring's kindergarten science curriculum, I've hit a patch of ... not disenchantment, exactly. Let's call it curiosity about the pedagogical strategy. It would seem that some weeks the "science" lesson is much less about science than about coloring, cutting, pasting, and all those other mad skillz one is supposed to acquire in kindergarten. And sure, some day those very skills may come in handy in the preparation of a science fair project (or a AAAS poster), but I can't help but think that the coloring, cutting, and pasting might be more fun if they were connected to more compelling science content.
• Is it possible that most of the other kindergarteners haven't been exposed to "growth of a seed to a plant that yields fruit with more seeds" narratives? In other words, does this just not feel like real science content to us because Younger offspring knows this story from preschool (and home)?
• Another thought: Could it be that the underlying plan here is to make science-y content seem ubiquitous, rather than artificially confining it to one specified lesson or set of activities per week? I think I might be able to get behind that, but I think I'd need to see more evidence that science-y content is casually dropped into learning how to write letters and numbers, coloring inside the lines, following directions, and so forth.
• Or, is the plan to starve them of science content in kindergarten so they're hungry for it when they start doing Real Science Classes in first grade?

Meanwhile, Elder offspring still identifies science as the highlight of school each week (despite the fact that this year it's on Monday rather than Friday). Highlights from second grade science class:

• The tadpoles in the classroom haven't started changing yet. Maybe next week there will be preliminary limb sightings to report.
• This week was all about levers and fulcrums. The hands-on highlight was using a small block of wood and an "old, splintery board" to move a "heavy metal block -- with our pinkies!"
• It gooes without saying that a dinner-table discussion of a spoon's potential as a lever ensued. Thankfully, no peas were launched in the course of said discussion.
• There was, however, talk of improving the kindergarten unit on the growth of pumpkins by introducing levers to launch pumpkins.
• While we're talking about fulcrums and levers, Elder offspring recommends a computer game called The Return of the Incredible Machine, wherein one gets to design all manner of fanciful contraptions using fulcrums and levers -- "see-saws and teeter-totters" -- pulleys, gears, and more exotic machine components like cats and dogs. I suggest confining the use of cats and dogs as machine components to computer games, at least until you get the hang of it.
• If anyone could enlighten me on the difference between a see-saw and a teeter-totter, I'd be much obliged!

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Pictured above: a beaded lizard, made by Younger offspring. Perhaps soon we'll be ready to move on to a beaded digestive system.