A Science Lesson

There have certainly been ups and downs in our homeschooling journey, but, so far, I don't regret the decision I made at the end of Zach's first grade year to keep him home and teach him myself. One of the first things I became aware of was that I had serious gaps in my own education. I did drop out of kindergarten, so that may have set me up for failure right off the bat, but considering that I went to 12 years of public school, 1 year at a private college and 3 years at a public university, you'd think I'd have a pretty well-rounded education. Not so. Before I taught Zach second grade geography, I couldn't tell you where China was in relation to the United States to save my life. The only directions I could give you were left and right because, in my estimation, north was straight up and south was straight down. In my mind, time ended and began somewhere in the middle of the United States and I was only vaguely aware that King David was mentioned in books other than the Bible. The Bible itself became very real to me when I read it side by side with secular historical accounts and events and it all began to make sense as history and not just Sunday School stories. I was so excited that first year of homeschooling, and watching Zach soak it all in like a sponge made it all the more satisfying. I think I learned more through teaching Zach second grade than I learned in all the 16 years that I went to school. In school, I learned to cram as much information as I could into my brain in order to spit it out onto a test. I would immediately forget the facts but would still usually end up with an A on the test and in the class. Obviously, I retained enough to do well on the SAT's and ACT's in order to go to college, but my motives for learning were skewed. As an adult I've learned to enjoy learning for the sake of learning rather than for the sake of proving myself. I've continued to learn right along side the kids during the last 7 1/2 years and it's mostly been a positive experience. I'm still pleasantly surprised when I learn something new and feel the excitement of discovery. When I help Zach with his Physical Science, we've really come full circle. He studies it and then teaches it to me. He had a simple science experiment on Monday and I was surprised by the results. The experiment required things we had around the house: a jar, a candle, a candle holder, water, food coloring, and matches. We poured a small amount of colored water into the dish and placed the candle on the holder inside the dish and lit the candle:

We then placed the jar over the candle. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I knew the candle would go out, but I didn't know what would happen with the water.

We all watched with anticipation.

Call me crazy, but I thought it was pretty cool when all of the water was transferred out of the dish into the jar as the candle was extinguished.

The book gives this explanation: "Think about this, then. Air is pressing down on the water in the bowl. Before you allowed the candle to burn, the air in the jar was essentially the same as the air outside of the jar. As a result, the water inside the jar was being pressed down with the same pressure as the water outside the jar. As the candle burned, however, it used up the oxygen in the jar. With less oxygen in the jar, there were less molecules in the air inside the jar. With less molecules, the air in the jar could not exert as much pressure as it did before. As a result, there was an imbalance. There was more pressure on the water outside the jar than on the water inside the jar. As a result, the greater outside pressure began pushing water into the jar. This increased the water level in the jar." (Exploring Creation with Physical Science, p. 59)

Who knew molecules could be this much fun.