Questions

Sometimes it can feel like pulling teeth to get relevant questions out of young children on a topic.

Photo by Mads Boedker

Sure, they can ask endless questions about their focus for that second. They are wonder-filled, curious explorers of their world.

But if you expect them to develop questions on a new, unfamiliar topic, then you are setting up for failure. They don't have the prior knowledge, or life experiences, to be able to answer, 'What questions do you have about this new topic? What do you wonder?' Instead, they are bursting to tell you a story or tell about a connection they just made with the topic.

The questions come naturally later. Those questions are the 'halleluiah' moments for me. It shows them extending their thinking beyond the boundaries of their current learning, and it shows them transferring their understanding to new realms.

As we approach the end of our learning on the physics of forces, I had two such questions, from two different classes in one day. I'm beaming with joy with these questions!



While exploring gravity, a student asked why the Earth doesn't get pulled into the Sun. Not only is this student transferring the pull of Earth's gravity to another object (the Sun), they are wondering what is stopping this from following the example that they have been learning about.

photo by stephendl

Another class is thinking about forces in terms of pushes and pulls. A student asked about the pull of a magnet and why magnets sometimes fall down the whiteboard. We hadn't even mentioned magnetism as a force, yet here this student is making connections between the pushes and pulls experienced in daily life and in our investigations with magnetic forces. They are wondering why magnets stay up sometimes, but not every time.

Both questions allowed us to discuss balanced and unbalanced forces and find new viewpoints and make new connections. It is moments like this that I love to be an educator!