Captain's Log: Magnetic Moments

This week I decided to do something a bit different.

It's not the last class for wacky science, but the end is nearing and I do recall that some parents like to take their kids out of class early at the end of the school year. I want to end my classes with a bit of a bang, something that the kids will love and remember, and something that will challenge them.

So, I chose our next activity to be the lesson after this week's usual lesson, which would have been about the light spectrum, and went for the magnets. A magnet maze.

It was a bit of trouble finding everything, and making sure I had enough magnets for everyone, but I did get everything ready for the kids on time. I still had paper plates stained from the chromatography art from last week, having collected those from the kids who didn't want to keep their plates. Since this lesson was about making mazes on these plates - both the circle kind and the dash-path kind, I figured I'd give them the option of drawing those mazes on these pretty plates. Naturally, I had to do this lesson myself to figure out the kinks, and while the instructions said to use gorilla glue it was pretty easy to substitute that with tape. Thank god. Or thank me, anyways.

So I drew a little 'magnet buddy', taping it to one magnet, and taped the other magnet to one chopstick. I drew up the maze, and of course since I love dragons it was all dragon themed. Once I had two mazes set, and some cutouts for the kids to make their own magnet buddies easily without scissors - with some efficiency help from a friend - I packed everything into a bag without stress.

The first group of kids, being the younger ones, loved the activity. I had a young student eager to be my aid, and they did very well - I was quite surprised and thankful when they offered to help show the kids how to do the taping, the chromatography, and to fill cups up with a tiny bit of water so kids could do their own coffee filter art and stain some more plates for the next day's class.

I think I had actually finally gained the respect of the class. Kids were listening, everyone was doing the activity, and it took less time and effort to actually get the kids to stay on track with the activity. Of course there was some tomfoolery, but it was managed. I had warned the little kids before that I would not do any taping and that they'd have to solve their own little inconveniences, and that I'd help guide but not do.

It worked well when kids came up to me, complaining that their magnets weren't working or kept falling off their chopstick - I asked some guiding questions so they'd figure out that they had taped away the wrong side of the magnet, and I showed them how I did my own magnet buddy to demonstrate that maybe they'd taped things in a less-secure way and just had to redo that part. Doing things this way allowed me to actually put their minds at work to try to solve their own problems, and it rewarding to me to see that. I also didn't feel physically exhausted by their problems like I had before.

Just as the saying goes, "Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish and he eats for a lifetime."

I was able to take pictures of the artwork for Nexplore, and the kids learned about chromatography and magnets. They had fun as well, doing each other's mazes and playing with my mazes, and I had so much pride in how well everything went that I returned home glowing.

The next day went a bit similar - I'd had things prepared, and a little quiz prepared to see what the kids knew about magnetism. I even had a little challenge for the smart alecks, because before they'd complained that things were too easy.

So I gathered up the kids, accidentally urged them to run to class in front of some school employees ("whoops, fast walking, no running! No running!"), and got things rolling.

The kids knew the basics about magnetism, though they didn't know the answer for the earth's magnetic poles and just how magnetism worked on a smaller scale. That's fine, it was an advanced question. The problem for me was that I didn't quite know either, and I wanted to answer this question for myself.

It'll be enough deep dive on here.

But the kids had fun making their own mazes again, and some made the magnet buddies, while it was mostly the boys again doing everything with the magnets but what I asked them to do, and instead doing their typical tomfoolery.

But hey, at times they were just being curious and playing with the magnets in that 'fool around and find out' way, and I actually couldn't see a reason to stop them. They weren't swallowing the magnets or using it to hurt anyone, so I allowed the fun to continue. And doing so brought out their creativity.

I did have to enforce some rules, like each kid getting to take home only two magnets - some kids tried to sneak home four - and I told the kids seriously, very seriously, with danger and caution in my eyes, not to swallow the magnets.

One of the kids was trying to be funny and saying "but what if-" But I kept telling them no. Do not swallow the magnets. There's no if. We are not swallowing the magnets. I was so tempted to alter Yoda's saying and say "do or do not, there is no if". But I warned the kids, I told them seriously, as gravely as I could, to not swallow the magnets.

And to my relief no one swallowed them.

Some claimed to lose their magnets, but that's an easy fix by saying "Okay, find them. You have a magnet detector. You lost it, you find it."

And some kids experienced the same 'problem' as last class, claiming that their magnets weren't working. I gave them the guiding questions, urging them to think about the magnets like pennies - a penny will have a side with a tail and side with a head, and together that makes a penny. A penny does not have two tails or two heads. So how do you make this a penny?

That got the kids to understand that they taped the magnets the wrong way and all was good.

In the end, I had to make sure they cleaned the room before they could leave. I had to stand in front of the door again, acting as reverse bouncer, making sure they listened to me. I swear, it took like fifteen minutes for them to fully clean the place, and it was the boys who after doing one task just decided to fool around while the girls kept trying to find cleaning tasks to do and actually listen to my orders. I swear, the boys need to be raised a little better to take initiative in cleaning. It shouldn't be my job as a teacher to do this, but it appears that I must take that role in the moment so the classroom ended up as clean as possible.

And while it looked cleaner than they usually leave it, I had to some little detail cleaning, but they'd gotten things into my bags so I was alright with that. No one forgot their magnets, and everybody got to do what they wanted to do. They also had fun, and learned, so in the end I could be proud of myself again.

I also learned during the quizzing that no matter how many chances I give to everyone to answer a question, the kids that are introverts will not answer in front of the crowd. The kids that were extroverts were first to answer and be raucous about it, but those introverts looked to them, and then looked to me with all kinds of comprehension in their eyes at the thought of saying something. So I asked them if they at least agreed with what the extroverts were saying or wanted to edit their statements. They nodded in agreement, and that was the best I could do regarding their participation in the quiz.

I think I'd gained more of their respect as well, which I'm glad about. Nearing the end of the school year, I had established myself as a teacher to these kids. I hope they think of me as a firm handle, but not opposed to having fun or changing things for their benefit.

I hope that if this class happens in the fall, the kids will smile when they see me passing by.