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The Top 3 Lessons I (Re-)Learned from My Great-Nephews

I love STEM, art, and summer projects. And I love spending time with my great-nephews — ages 8, 10, and 12 are genuinely magical. (The eldest at 14 is too cool to associate with the rest of us.)

Last week I told you about the cardboard boat — built same-day before raft night, surfed by Dutch and Finn at the pool. This week: the rest of the experiment lineup, and three lessons I thought I already knew.

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Slime — The Unexpected Obsession

I gave the boys a list of experiments to choose from. First pick, by unanimous vote: slime.

They were completely obsessed. We made two versions — contact solution slime and Elmer's Magical Liquid slime — and tested which one stretched further. The contact solution version won. They kept going back to it for the rest of the day.

Lesson #1 sneaking up on me: follow their energy, not your agenda.

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Water Marbling — The Sleeper Hit

I'd done a LOT of prep for the 2D wind tunnel / water marbling project — pre-treating 120+ napkins with alum solution, making the carrageenan size, setting up outside. But when Wednesday morning arrived, the boys showed zero interest.

So I started making my own samples.

It had been about 20 years since I'd done this, and I was relearning my medium — different paints float and expand differently, and I was trying some new techniques including a red dragon design.

Within minutes, 8-year-old Kody came outside. "When are you going to be ready for us?"

Sleeper hit. Total blast.

And then — consequences.

Two of them snuck back to the marbling bath after I'd cleaned up, grabbed my eyedroppers, and made an enormous mess. Paint dredged up from the bottom, bath all over the table. Without permission.

So I pulled the plug on marbling after one day. They needed to experience a consequence. And honestly, it helped me start packing up for the drive home.

They lost the marbling. I kept my sanity. Fair trade.

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Turquoise swirl with yellow highlights My most saturated print. The yellow highlights were my training ground for the dragons that followed.

Red dragon napkin I learned a new technique... pushing and pulling the paint.

Egg Drop, Whirligigs & Coke + Mentos — Thursday's Greatest Hits

Thursday was a rapid-fire day.

Whirligigs — fast, fun, and we had a second-story balcony to launch from. Watching them spin down from height is endlessly satisfying.

Egg Drop — I hadn't packed traditional materials, so I improvised: plastic drink cups, duct tape, popsicle sticks, brass fasteners, newspaper, and popcorn as packing material. I hard-boiled the eggs so nothing went to waste. Dutch even pulled out Play-Doh to weight his design so it would land on one end reliably.

That's engineering thinking. He figured it out himself.

First trials from the first-story porch. Survivors advanced to the second-story balcony.

8-year-old Kody was crowned Egg Drop King — the only kid to survive the two-story drop. He was insufferably proud of himself. Rightfully so.

Coke + Mentos — always the grand finale. Last year we got rained out before the 2-liter bottle finale. This year, perfect weather. Highest geysers ever. The boys got wet. Nobody cared.

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We ended the week with paper plate awards, an idea borrowed from swim team!

Egg Drop King, Kody

Leonardo da Vinci Artist/Inventor, Finn

Surfer King, Dutch

The 3 Lessons I (Re-)Learned

1. Focus on fun and exploration first. It's summer. It shouldn't feel like school. Introduce the science on the sly — after they've already experienced the result and are asking why.
2. Step back and let go of control. It's their problem to solve. The egg drop was better because I didn't have the "right" materials. Constraints force creativity.
3. Be ready to learn new tricks by watching fresh eyes. Dutch cut off the bottom half of the stem from his whirligig to get it to fly longer (less weight).

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More next week — I'm hooked on water marbling again and have about 100 napkins left to finish. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Marsha & Mooney

P.S. Want to try any of these experiments at home? Slime, egg drop, whirligigs, Coke + Mentos, and water marbling (2D wind tunnel) are all in my experiment collection at marshatufft.com/STEM — several are just a few dollars, and the Room Layout Challenge is completely free at TeachersPayTeachers.

NOTE: The 2D wind tunnel experiment on my website uses milk and food coloring to illustrate the fluid dynamics principles, not the full-blown carrageenan marbling bath and acrylic paints plus napkins prepared with Alum that we used last week. That's a lot more complicated and expensive to get into. There are some kits out there that provide an easier entry point with paper. But knowing me, I'll probably be developing details for the full-blown marbling experience. If you're interested, let me know. I got into marbling from quilting... and that takes a larger tray. I've now got a 22" x 22" tank on order so that I can print cotton bandanas.

More updates coming! (Including Egg Drop)...
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P.P.S. Best Wishes for a Wonderful 4th of July (our 250th Anniversary here in the US!)

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