Educating Risa

After we completed the dancing craisins experiment, Daegan had an idea for an additional activity: “Let’s put the dancing craisins in the freezer!” When I asked him why he wanted to do this—as I must admit I thought little of the idea—he said, “I’m curious what happens to bubbly [carbonated] water when it’s frozen.” So we poured the craisins and club soda, still fizzing, into a large plastic container, and popped it in the freezer. I snapped a quick ‘before’ picture:

 

And am I ever glad I did! Now, I knew that water, unlike just about every other substance on earth, expanded when frozen. But I wasn’t expecting how much carbonated water expanded:

We talked about water expanding, why ice floats, and how this was necessary for aquatic life to survive winters. So good on Daegan for creating this experiment and teaching us all a little bit more! The boys then wanted to take the ice out and watch it melt to see if there would be any bubbles. There’ weren’t. But they then found another way to play. Gareth said, very excitedly, “Let’s make an arctic animal habitat!” When I looked in the bowl with the ice this is what I found:

As Jim and I made dinner—curry, yum!—the boys continued to play arctic animals. It was determined in short order that the polar bear would need some food:

It was decided that the fish would not be enough food for the polar bear, and that furthermore, it was not its favourite meal; seal was. But a beluga whale would happily eat the fish.

When I looked over a while later, an arctic wolf and some other kind of whale had joined the habitat:

As the boys played, I heard them also talk about camouflage (the wolf, the polar bear), and Jim and I commented about climate change in the arctic when the ice had melted significantly, dumping the wolf into the water. I love ‘unscripted’ moments like there when you see how much your kids have learned and love to learn, pretty much all on their own.