Exploring Science Together: Preschoolers and 9th Graders Collaborate on Experiments
Learning Gerbils, an Egg in a Bottle and a Clinging Gecko Foot spice up Preschoolers’ Collaboration with 9th Graders in Science Experiments
On the 21st and 28th of May, the 9th graders came to visit the Preschool classes again to conduct various experiments together with our young scientists.
They learned that vinegar is an acid and observed that it can dissolve the shell of an egg. In another experiment the children learned that lemon juice (acid) and baking powder mixed together makes foam. And then, if you add water, you can make your own lemonade.
When you add salt to the glass of water, the ‘magic’ egg rises to the surface.
Another experiment showed how you can make a hardboiled egg ‘slide’ into a bottle without damaging the egg. After heating the bottle, a vacuum is created inside it which makes the egg slip ‘magically’ through the narrow opening.
Fascinating Animal Experiments: Gerbils and Crested Gecko
In an experiment with Pepper and Fluffy, two Gerbils, it was demonstrated that the animals have the ability to find their way through a labyrinth in order to get to a sheltered spot with food as a reward. The preschoolers got to use stopwatches to time the gerbils’ speeds.
The children learned that the gerbils do not see very well but that they have a keen sense of smell, and that they use sand to clean themselves. In addition, the gerbils originated in Mongolia ‘on the other side of the world’ which we located on the globe.
Georgie, our Crested Eyelash Gecko, fascinated the kids with her ability to stick to various surfaces with her ‘adhesive’ feet. They experimented with different surfaces and found metal to be the most slippery one, while cardboard offered the best grip even as the incline increased.
The information that Georgie was actually a girl and lays eggs, sleeps in the science building during the day, eats small insects and apple sauce and can shed her tail when scared, the children found very exciting. Afterwards the preschoolers revisited all their experiments by drawing pictures in their Science Workbook.
Collaborative experimentation by the 9th graders and Preschoolers doesn’t only provide lots of fun but also offers a uniquely valuable opportunity to gain knowledge in different scientific areas across different age groups.
We are looking forward to working together again in the coming school year!
by Lara Agbro and Dagmar Haggerty
(Preschool MINT Teachers)