Family SciNights at John Muir CSW

As I was driving one of our New Leaf interns home last Friday night after the 2nd/3rd grade Family SciNight and talking about the day and how exhausted we were,or really just how exhausted I was, she said in her casually frank voice "this was the best day ever". Instantly reaffirming and musical to my ears, this made all the hours of planning so worth it. She'd never made Gak before and that was "super fun" (we made Gak and talked about chemical reactions with 5 classes K-5 for the day's Science Friday, a messy yet satisfying experience). Only a few hours later, we rolled right into making polyhedral playthings with John Muir's second & third graders with the help of three other New Leaf interns. All sorts of different shapes were created with pipe cleaners and clear straw pieces including tetrahedrons, octahedrons, hexahedrons, & lots of these dodecahedrons (soccer ball shapes). Just creating the shape is fun in and of itself, but to take it an exploratory step further, you can dip the shape in a bubble solution and observe the fascinating geometrical shapes that the soap films form as well as the shimmering colors in the soap film. When you lift the shape out, the soap film flows into a state of minimum energy (when it's covering the least possible amount of surface area). It was a lot of fun watching the parents and kids interacting together and making connections and observations, and it was great to see generations of kids, high school interns, and parents all at a table working and learning together. Thanks to Jessica Conkle for coming up with SciNights for grade levels and big thanks to the John Muir PTA for sponsoring all three family SciNights!