Science--matter

We continue our investigations with matter--we had AMAZING discussions about the characteristics of solids this week in science.  They were given a tub of items (crayon, wooden block, plastic, paper, tin foil, marshmallow, etc) and had to decide if all the items were solids and they had to decide what a solid is.  At first most students said solids are hard, but then began the discussion about the marshmallow--that one item caused us to think very critically. . .after hearing lots of good and different points we decided that solid keeps its shape unless an outside force or energy acts on it.  Negotiation is not only sharing what you think, but also listening to the ideas of others; this sometimes causes us to change our own ideas.  We first negotiated with ourselves by writing down our own ideas, then discussed with a small group before negotiation in a more "public" (class) setting.  We decided that, yes, we can squish the marshmallow, but it requires our energy, just like we could saw a board in half.  Later next week we will being to set up our own investigations and tests in matter.