The children
have been experimenting motion and how various materials react to the wind
tunnel that we have in the classroom. We
have previously been working with feathers in the wind tunnel and the children have
been able to see how they react when placed in the tunnel. Some of the feathers fly a little higher
depending on how big they are – but we don’t think the children have noticed
that yet.
We brought in Styrofoam for the children
to experiment with in the wind tunnel.
We had large chunks out at the same time as the feathers so the children
could compare and contrast how the materials were moving. The children noticed immediately that the
large chunks of Styrofoam did not move as high as the feathers – in fact – they
did not even get high enough to leave the wind tunnel at all.
They were confused by this and did
not know what the reason was for the difference in height as they moved. Some of the children literally tried to throw
the Styrofoam into the air to get it higher than the fan was getting them. We are going to continue this with the
children but want to switch things up a little bit more. We want to see what might happen if the
children are provided with the feathers they are used to, the large Styrofoam
pieces they experimented with this week, and also provide small pieces of
Styrofoam. By doing this, the children
will see the difference in height with the same material.
