Captain's Log: Kids + Bubble-ology: Messy Combination

I taught kids from kindergarten to fourth grade bubble-ology this week.

Well, more like they played with bubbles while I spoke and tried to get them to listen. They were familiar with how bubbles were made, and some of them were really knowledgable on the chemistry of it, but I still had some things to teach them because I'd just done a deep dive. Unfortunately, because of how long it took to grab the kids' attentions and surf through the current meme culture, I didn't get to talk about everything. Which is a shame, because learning about bubbles was really interesting due to just how simple such a concept could lead you into the world of chemistry. I'll be writing about that later.

I've heard that to kill a meme, you have to use it with so much cringe that the kids will never use it on you again. I have to do that with 67. I get why it drives adults crazy. It drove me crazy, especially when you're trying to talk about why corn syrup makes bubbles more elastic and the kids are busy laughing at memes, making bubbles, and spouting out the numbers like they're the funniest things on Earth.

I also realized just why powerpoint presentations are so beloved. When the teacher (me) has to write things or draw things on the whiteboard, my back to the students, it's like putting my vulnerable side to the predators. Someone will be calling someone dumb. Someone will be messing with chairs and anything they could get their hands on. Kids will be talking - not whispering! - to each other. And I'm trying to keep their attention on me while remembering my lines and how I decided I'd say stuff. So I'll be using powerpoint presentations in the future. Or Google Slides. Whatever allows me to go fast with minimal vulnerability.

And I might just put 67 on the presentation slides and say it obnoxiously or lamely to them. Will that kill the beast? Who knows.

When it comes to teaching, I've also learned that one must adapt from studying the content for an exam to presenting the content for an audience. Give me a quiz about bubble-ology and I could certainly ace it, but explaining it on stage felt so different because I had to think on my feet the entire time. Was what I was saying accurate? Did I make a mistake? Could I have said something better? One of my studying techniques had been typing out why a phenomenon happened; spilling all my thoughts onto the page, connecting detail to detail as they appeared in my head, because I typed as fast as I could think and typing it out felt like drawing a picture. So I've decided that I'll be doing that for the rest of the wacky science course: typing out a script, going into a deep dive into the science of the activity. Seeing if that allows me to better explain it to the kids and to hold their attention for longer amounts of time.

Also, I've had years of being in a lab as the student, writing down research questions, hypotheses, observations, conclusions - all the science stuff. But when it comes to being a teacher, I have to remind myself of what my professors did constantly. The warnings, the seriousness, and the jovial. I know I have to improve for the future, and I've already figured out one problem I need to solve: my resting bitch face.

Between making sure my hearing aid was securely in my ear, the kids' attentions were on me, making sure my words were correct and my posture confident, and keeping tally of all the messes, I didn't exactly add monitoring my facial muscles to the equation. I probably didn't smile as much as I should; I probably didn't show the kids how exciting this stuff was, how interesting it was in my head. And the kids could have taken notice and mirrored my less-than-enthusiastic exterior.

I know it irritates women to hear that they have to smile more for others, but in this case it might actually be imperative if it keeps the kids listening.

I probably also need to get candy for kids who give the right answer. I'll get lolipops. Everyone loves lolipops.

So, the research question: Can I make students enjoy wacky science?

Hypothesis: If I smile enough, reward kids for good behavior and correct answers, prepare with powerpoint presentations and topic deep dives, and make the current memes cringy and lame, then I can get the students to keep their attention on the content of the class and do the experiments smoothly with minimal mess, because I will be able to convey to them both the fascinating aspects of the science and the fun of being a scientist.

Will it work? That's for next week to decide.