Mad Science

With Mad Science over for the season, I figured it was time to post some pictures of my kids. I taught 4 classes a week and was with the same kids for eight weeks. The last class for all was sad, some told me they COULDN'T WAIT for next year, others telling me that they were glad it was over so they could play with their chemistry sets at home, some gave me huge hugs and told me they loved me, two little boys told me they hoped next year they had a male scientist. What can I say though, it was quite the experience. Here are a few pictures:

These little guys were my Monday grade 1 class...how cute with their lil goggles. This class was called "Junior Reactors" and talked about chemical reactions -- hard concept for grade 1's to grasp but these guys did it!



Ahh my Thursday class. I loved them. At the beginning they kept calling me "vampire" because of my teeth, but we all won each other over. This class was "The Glow Show" and taught about luminescent and fluorescent black light. They got invisible ink pens that only showed up in black light so they thought it was the COOLEST!

My Wednesday class was a lunch class so hectic - I'd drive from work, teach for an hour and go back to work, usually with food colouring on my hands haha. Try shaking someone's hand with that! They were great kids though, Grade 4's. This class was learning about velcro and "super sticky stuff."


Once I read somewhere you should "do one thing everyday that scares you." Well...getting up in front of 20 kids and teaching them about science everyday scared me. But I did it! And I'll be back to teach two classes in the fall. I need the shortened workload, what with the more work responsibility and trying to prepare for the trip. But I couldn't take the kids completely out of my life!

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Mad Science

I wanted to take a minute and discuss my Mad Science job that I've taken to help with my trip. When I realized I had about 7 months left, I thought WOW I have to look for a part-time job to help supplement my income. So, I went online, saw a posting for a Mad Scientist and thought, that might be fun! I'm certainly mad enough! So I got an interview, and I'm sure that it was because in my cover letter I stated just how goofy I am. My (now boss) still laughs at that and says I'm the only woman she's had apply and say that I was "very goofy."

I teach 4 times a week, usually I leave my full-time job and then go back afterwards so I'm not home until 7 - 8ish each night. But I LOVE IT. And I LOVE my kids (most of the time!) My Scientist name is Dr. Goop. The kids relate well to it and it allows me to explain how "goop" or "slime" (something that seems just fun) has a scientific background (slime is made because of two elements - polymers and cross-linkers.)

Some hilarious episodes that have occurred to date:

One Tuesday, (my class that has the loudest kids), I was doing some dry ice experiments. We blew up some balloons with the gas (Carbon dioxide) that comes from dry ice and all was good. The last experiment is putting a huge fishbowl on the floor with all the kids around it, and then dropping in a ton of dry ice. It creates a cloud around them and is fun for everyone. As I was walking around the circle, I made the mistake of commenting, "Wouldn't it be crazy if I had a balloon big enough to go around the fish bowl!" Well, my kids took it literally that I DID and started chanting, "DO IT...DO IT...DO IT...DO IT!" For probably about 2 full minutes, I couldn't get a word in edgewise to tell them that I didn't in fact have a balloon to do this. To make matters worse, two other mad scientist assistants happened to drop in right at this time, and they just watched the whole thing incredulously. Hahahaha. worst day ever.

Then, my Thursday class kids caught sight of my teeth and now call me a Vampire all the time. They almost started chanting it last week until I threatened that if I heard the "v-word" again I would send them home without their take-homes. One little girl even called her sister into the school when her mom and sister picked her up, to show her her "vampire teacher." hahaha.

It has been an absolutle blast though...I've even learned a ton about science itself which will probably help me in other areas of life. So, I am very,very thankful that this trip planted my Mad Science seed...hehehe :)

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