Wander to the Wonders

                Science, with its different terms and concepts, has been taught to students from Kindergarten to College. As we ascend from every year level, the difficulty of the subject matter increases as well. With every new acquisition of scientific knowledge injected to our minds, it feels like the brain is getting fried. Thus, when there is a talk about science, students often slouch and sleep dismissing the idea of listening to more scientific concepts as boring and stressful.

                When we have come to this stage, we have lost a valuable quality ingrained to us in childhood – curiosity. It is the inclination to question how things come about and the often irritating series of ‘why?’ our parents need to answer to satisfy our young and ignorant minds. This is what the Mind Movers from the Mind Museum intends to bring back to every individual, regardless of age.

                They have presented this mission in class by first pointing out the importance of questioning everything we see. To clearly set an example, they prepared mind-boggling paper activities with the colors of images where we see yellow and blue blocks but once isolated are both gray in color. It felt like our life was a lie since we saw how mislead we are in the concept as simple as color.

                Afterwards, the Mind Movers showed us some cool experiments that can be done with materials found at home. Explaining surface tension, they put a 500-peso bill in flames with 40% isopropyl alcohol. Even if everybody knows they won’t let anything happen to the bill it is still nerve-wracking to watch them do it for a couple of times. Another awesome experiment done is the fire rocket in the water container where they discussed the concept of pressure. It is a wonder how pressure can deform the container since it would take so much strength for a person to do so.

                For the last activities, we did not need to use other materials apart from our bodies. With rather cute and funny movements in tune with hilarious music, the class showcased the states of matter namely solid, liquid, gas and Bons-Einstein condensate under the guidance of the Mind Movers. Another concept introduced is the planets’ relative distances from the sun in our solar system. The Mind Movers presented this through counting steps away from a designated center which stands for the sun. It is a marvel how large our solar system is and how much more in size the universe may be.

                In our everyday life, we encounter science. It is up to us to venture in the concepts behind these phenomena. With curious eyes open and minds hungry for knowledge, take a step further to wander about these various wonders.

Soliman, Karla L.

2013-09067
THX E-one