Our favorite is to watch kids bringing excitement and a willingness to explore and notice things and to observe the parents help their kids make sense of it all. For example, Jones said, the Little Shop crew has constructed a homemade plasma ball, a large glass ball filled with bright ribbons of gas. Young children enjoy putting their hands on it, and watching the brightly colored streamers in the gas inside the ball follow the motion of their hands. Older children notice that when they put their hands on the ball, nearby fluorescent light bulbs light up. And their parents can help them discover that if they put one hand on the ball and one on a light bulb, the energy from the streamers in the ball will go through their body and light the light bulb.
Science is something anyone can do.
This is the spirit of science that gets kids excited. This page has been accessed 173 times. Copyright 1995-2000 University Relations.