Author Topic: When Children Define Science in Their Own Terms  (Read 12467 times)

Joe Carillo

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When Children Define Science in Their Own Terms
« on: September 09, 2017, 01:47:56 AM »
When Children Define Science in Their Own Terms

The engaging but obviously imprecise ideas about science quoted here were gleaned from actual essays, exams, and classroom discussions. Most were from 5th and 6th graders. They illustrate Mark Twain’s contention that the “most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.”

Question: What is one horsepower?
Answer: One horsepower is the amount of energy it takes to drag a horse 500 feet in one second
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The law of gravity says no fair jumping up without coming back down.

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When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions.

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You can listen to thunder after lightning and tell how close you came to getting hit.
If you don’t hear it you got hit, so never mind.




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When people run around and around in circles we say they are crazy.
When planets do it we say they are orbiting.

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Rainbows are just to look at, not to really understand.




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South America has cold summers and hot winters, but somehow they still manage.

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Most books now say our sun is a star.
But it still knows how to change back into a sun in the daytime.




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Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. There are 180 degrees between freezing and boiling because there are 180 degrees between north and south.

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A vibration is a motion that cannot make up its mind which way it wants to go.




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Lime is a green-tasting rock. Many dead animals in the past changed to fossils while others preferred to be oil.

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Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the sun. But I have never been able to make out the numbers.

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There are 26 vitamins in all, but some of the letters are yet to be discovered. Finding them all means living forever.



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We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation. Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.

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To most people solutions mean finding the answers. But to chemists solutions are things that are still all mixed up.




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There is a tremendous weight pushing down on the center of the Earth because of so much population stomping around up here these days.




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In looking at a drop of water under a microscope, we find there are twice as many H’s as O’s.

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Clouds are high-flying fogs. I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing. Clouds just keep circling the earth around and around. And around. There is not much else to do.




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Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it’s brother against brother.

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Genetics explain why you look like your father and if you don’t why you should
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Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know we know they’re there.

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Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it on a dog’s tongue will kill the strongest man.

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A blizzard is when it snows sideways.



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A monsoon is a French gentleman.

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Thunder is a rich source of loudness.

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Isotherms and isobars are even more important than their names sound.

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It is so hot in some places that the people there have to live in other places.

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The wind is like the air, only pushier.




—From CoolAvenues.com, Zebra Networks
« Last Edit: June 14, 2018, 08:11:18 PM by Joe Carillo »