Mrs. Lot

I attended a homeschooling webinar this past week and one of the questions was about the science curriculum. Now, those still trigger a small wave of panic in the pit of my stomach: science curriculum? we do not have one! I am brimming with ideas: nature walks, nature journals, leaf categorization, phases of the moon, using light sources to show equinox and eclipses, plant life, the human body... The problem is, I think my kids would much rather read some of their science books, watch a documentary, dig in the dirt and take a picture of a woodpecker on our neighbor's house than do a formal study of anything. 

I attended a homeschooling webinar this past week and one of the questions was about the science curriculum. Now, those still trigger a small wave of panic in the pit of my stomach: science curriculum? we do not have one! I am brimming with ideas: nature walks, nature journals, leaf categorization, phases of the moon, using light sources to show equinox and eclipses, plant life, the human body... The problem is, I think my kids would much rather read some of their science books, watch a documentary, dig in the dirt and take a picture of a woodpecker on our neighbor's house than do a formal study of anything. 

In honor of this week's parsha, Vayeira, I decided to make Mrs. Lot.

Protocol? There was no protocol. Mrs. Lot turned into a pillar of salt, so we were supposed to get a pillar of salt, somehow. I started by filling a pot with a small amount of water. Then I asked boys to add some salt to it and to stir it up. I told them that salt is dissolving and soon we will not see it any more. I explained that salt is made out of sodium and chloride, holding hands, but when it hit s water, they let go and snuggle up with the water molecules instead. I also told them that we cannot add salt indefinitely, eventually, there will not be enough water for sodium and chloride to snuggle up to, so they will choose to hold hands and that will make the solution saturated. The boys took turns adding salt and mixing. I got them to taste it and they declared it to be positively salty. 

Then I asked them: how can we get the salt out? 8 yo said that we could vaporize all the water. I asked them to take a skewer, wrap a piece of yarn around it and tie it. Then I showed them some coarse and fine salt, next to each other. I asked them to compare ( and taste). I explained that coarse salt has larger crystals. I also said that I hope that by dipping the string into coarse salt, we will encourage the growth of larger crystals.

The start things along, I put the pot on the stove. Immediately, 6 yo asked how long it will take. I said, a few minutes till the water starts boiling. They stood there, watching it and counting the seconds. A watched pot does boil! Then we dipped in the string on the skewer. Two things happened: the crystals dissolved and the string started moving around in the boiling bubbles. At this point, it was getting close to Shabbos, and I was not going to let Mrs. Lot take over my stove, so the experiment got moved to the top of the dryer.

This is Mrs. Lot, gently evaporating on the stove

8 yo asked about the white dots on the side of the pot. I asked for his opinion and he correctly guessed that it is salt. I stressed that only water molecules can evaporate, so those are the droplets of salty water, where the water evaporated and the salt was left behind.

Mrs Lot is currently taking up residence on top of the dryer that is running a load of clothes. I am chuckling, remembering my grad school days. I specialized in X-ray crystallography, but, before one can shoot crystals, one has to grow them. Some liked to grow undisturbed, like rock candy, while some liked to be agitated. I hope that the gentle dryer vibrations are encouraging crystal growth.

We do not need science curriculum, not yet. I need to be able to catch my kids when they are interested in science and give them a certain amount of information, on their level, with a hands-on activity of some kind. Overall, the goal is to make science something accessible and enjoyable.