This week we continued exploring motion and how things move.  We spent time discussing what good scientists do, beginning by asking a question.  Once they have a question they make a prediction.  Then they do several tests to see if their predictions are correct.  It's okay if the prediction is wrong!  Next, good scientists study their results and see if they can learn something from them.  Often this will lead to more questions.

We went through this process with the question "Which ball will go down the slide fastest?" We all made predictions and then tested each ball 3 times, using a timer to see how fast each ball traveled.  Our results were surprising and all of our predictions were wrong!  We looked carefully at the balls and somebody noticed the biggest ball seemed to be the fastest, while the smallest was the slowest.  As we were contemplating this, another child astutely observed that the fastest ball was also the heaviest.  We decided we have some more testing to do to determine whether it is weight or size that makes the faster ball! (Alas, I was too busy managing timers and balls to take any pictures of this, but below are some pictures of children exploring motion in other ways.)