Force and Motion...AKA Banana Smashing

I have realized recently that I am not a very good science teacher. In fact, I kind of hate it, and wish that Cullen would take over science teaching duties. He won't, though, so I am having to learn to enjoy it.

The kids are pretty good science students. I usually have Hailey read her physics chapter, and then "teach" the concept to me. We have some decent discussions and find the answers to all of our questions. Discovery Streaming has a lot of great videos that complement the concepts, and then, of course, there is experiment day. Now THAT I like.

Here is a video of our hands-on project after we learned about potential and kinetic energy. We put a car on a ramp and raised the ramp to various heights to test at which height it would smash a piece of banana best. We all had fun and laughed a lot. Then we ate the leftovers, which was nice, too. :)
We have learned about elastic energy by shooting rubber bands. It was supposed to be across the room, but I will admit, it may have turned into a rubber band fight. We learned about work and force with marshmallows, and then used marshmallows again to learn about chemical energy. I guess I will learn to love science, as long as we keep involving sugar. :D

I think that my disliking this subject will turn out to be an advantage for the girls. I am much more likely to let them explore topics that they are interested in, and learn a lot myself if I am not already well-versed in what we are doing. Sometimes, well, really MOST times, they will learn so much more if I just move out of the way and let the learning flow.

This week, we are experimenting with eggs and inertia. Wish me luck. :)