I saw this at www.informationisbeautiful.net. Just imagine the potential.
Keep asking your kids what interests them. Keep posting their answers here.
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I strongly believe that a critical first step in finding meaning and purpose in life is to know what interests you. Throughout their lives our students will be bombarded with the interest and demands of other people. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi author of the book Flow sites a study of gifted kids. Most of them were no longer performing above average by they time they entered high school. The only ones that were had fond things in school that were fun and of interest to them. There are numerous stories of students who perform great in AP and advanced classes only to fail miserably in graduate school when expected to pursue their own ideas.
In hopes of inoculating our students against these external forces I'm suggesting that our parents develop a habit of asking their students "What was of interest to you today?" My hope is that they will begin to expect the question at the end of the day, then during the day and eventually, with luck throughout their lives. To support this habit I'm suggesting that parents post in the comments of this page some of the responses from their children. They need not have anything to do with science, or even school for that matter.
Beware they will correct you if you misquote them.
My son loves super heroes - he loves to draw them, talk about them, know everything there is to know about their super powers...He spent some a long time being really into spiderman, but now he likes all of the avengers, batman, basically all super heroes.
ReplyDeleteHe is also really into drawing and art in general. He can draw all day.
One other thing he does all day is asking me to define words
What does "insist" mean?
What is beer?
What is a hostage?
Please login so I know who you are. (I know from your post just the same). So I have a question for your son "Can Aquaman only catch criminals who are under water?" If so who useful is he?
DeleteHi,
DeleteTrue, Aquaman is only minimally useful. Although a villain escaping on a submarine wouldn't stand a chance. But then again, how often does that happen?
have you thought about doing a solar powered project for the school? Teach the kids who to create alternative powers? Rainwater toilets? Wind Power?
ReplyDeleteIs this an interest of a Summers-Knoll student? We might start by measuring the amount of energy that the school uses. Or that we all use as a community. Interesting idea.
ReplyDeleteSana's latest interests include mulling over what will happen to the various foods that were put together in science class and wanting to verify her predictions herself. They also include excitement for learning specific painting techniques from Tracy as Sana loves expressing herself through art and strives to learn more and more techniques to do so. And besides dance, which is another major interest of hers at present, she has spent the last 8 months devoted to understanding smoking. What it does to the body, why people do it - especially the ones she thinks look "pretty." Interviewing everyone she knows about whether they have smoked and why. And ultimately, she always falls back on one question, why are companies allowed to make cigarettes?
ReplyDeleteDr. George, I love that you are encouraging the fostering of our kids' passions and inner interests as they see them! What a great thing.
Ollie was interested in the idea of 'free trials' yesterday at the grocery store. He asked if one could simply go have a meal this way. We talked about the intent of free trial as a way to motivate purchase and thought through examples of where this worked really well ON US. He was curious about abusers of the system and wondered if some stores take this away if no one buys. It was a fun conversation.
ReplyDeleteHe's also interested in black holes. We watched a cool Numberphile video about black holes a couple weeks ago that still has us talking about 'dumb holes' (audio black hole!). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pAnRKD4raY
Jonathan recently got a new puppy and has been worried about the puppy accidently eating something poisonous. We had some wild mushrooms growing outside (which we tried to pick & compost after he tried one - he was o.k.). We also heard that grapes, raisins, cherries & chocolate are poisonous to dogs. However, we aren't clear how dangerous these various foods are (instant death? mild sickness?) and it would be interesting to know WHY dogs (or other animals) can or cannot tolerate certain foods.
ReplyDeleteBen (Val's class): I tickled Papa. I played with Mason and we talked about the movie "all dogs go to heaven"
ReplyDeleteAfter much gentle prodding Christopher (Elaine's class) decided to try another day. We'll be back tomorrow!
Ben and Chloe were interested in how a top spins. Why must it fall to the floor vs. be spun when the point is touching the floor? What determines how long it spins when two tops start spinning at the same time?
ReplyDeleteChristopher gladly shared today - he is looking over my shoulder to make sure I am quoting correctly!
ReplyDelete"Yesterday, I found a big head light at Summers Knoll in the grass. It even had wires on the back of it still connected. Today at P.E. in Gallup Park, we found a smaller head light. Well, that's what I thought it was. But nothing was connected to the back of it. That's what I thought was interesting."
Ben:
"We found a gigantic headlight (gesturing with arms spread far apart) at Summer's Knoll, how did it fall off and get there?"