Burping bags and dancing raisins: Tricks for teaching science during a
pandemic
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[April 23, 2020]
By Brendan O'Brien
(Reuters) - Texas science teacher Avri
DiPietro has a secret weapon in her tool kit to help keep her students
engaged now that the coronavirus pandemic has forced them to stay home
indefinitely. It's a home experiment known as "the burping bag."
The assignment calls for her sixth graders to combine vinegar and baking
soda in a plastic bag, either in their kitchens or backyards. If all
goes as planned, burps and belches will ring out across the small
southeastern Texas town where DiPietro teaches, as the acidic vinegar
meets the sodium bicarbonate, releasing gas from the bag.
"My thing has been to get science into their homes and get them doing
science... it's about discovery," said DiPietro, who teaches about 160
students between the ages of 11 and 14 in Lockhart, about 30 miles (48
km) south of Austin. "This is pushing a lot of us educators in how to
reach our kids."
Teachers across the United States have had to scramble to develop online
lesson plans in a matter of days after nearly every state closed schools
and businesses to stop the deadly virus from spreading. Since then, it
has been a struggle to keep many children from becoming distracted and
tuning out during the school day, many educators say.
For science teachers like DiPietro, the challenge is especially
formidable. One solution has been to assign hands-on experiments that
students can conduct at home, keeping them engaged even though the
school laboratory is closed.
Teachers will typically post lists of the ingredients needed for the
experiment, detailed instructions, and possible observations and
outcomes in their virtual classrooms. Then students spring into action,
raiding their home's pantries and cabinets for materials before turning
their back porches and kitchens into makeshift science labs.
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"It really makes parents understand what teachers go through on a
day-to-day basis... they have to find innovative ways to keep our kids
busy," Heather Simpson said after her son Houstin one of in DiPietro's
students, conducted a "homemade lava lamp" experiment with water, food
coloring, salt, oil, and a jar.
Several second graders at Park Elementary School in Fairmount, a rural
community in northeast Indiana, also got in on the act. The 7 to
8-year-olds completed a "walking water" experiment with strips of paper
towels, food coloring, water, and cups.
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"I understand now," an emphatic blond boy declared in a video posted
on Twitter, as he showed the successful results of the experiment
that demonstrates "capillary action," a phenomena that lets liquid
flow upward in narrow spaces.
"It entertains me to watch their videos and seeing their pictures,"
said Rebecca Freel, his teacher at Park Elementary who assigned the
experiment. "They are learning more from doing this than if I just
gave them a paper to do or a website to go on. They really have to
dive in and think."
To be sure, assigning home experiments has limits. Some U.S.
students do not have the resources to easily access online learning.
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Some also may not be able to get the necessary ingredients and
materials for the experiments. As a result, most of the experiments
are simple, involving just a few household ingredients and steps.
Many are optional or for extra credit.
There is always the potential for failed experiments, too. But the
duds are valuable teaching moments, said Libby Birmingham, who
teaches science at Stanton Elementary in Glendora, California, 30
miles east of Los Angeles.
"I'm trying to get them to be inquisitive and asking questions,"
said Birmingham, who chuckled after dumping salt all over her
laptop's keyboard during one experiment as her students watched live
online.
Birmingham has held virtual classroom sessions from her front porch
since her school closed on March 13. She has also conducted a "cloud
in a jar" experiment with shaving cream, water and food coloring
that shows precipitation and evaporation.
In another experiment, known as "dancing raisins," Birmingham
demonstrated for her students the effect that carbon dioxide gas has
on the fruit's volume when it is submerged in a carbonated liquid.
In a video of the virtual class, her students sounded amazed by the
phenomenon: "They are fizzing... whoa... they have fizz bubbles on
them. Cool."
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Editing by Rosalba
O'Brien)
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