Volcano!!

Over the weekend, I asked my kids to start thinking about ideas for a science project. A few weeks ago, we did a little project together in class -- Which will fly farther: a plain paper airplane or a paper airplane with a paper clip on the nose?

So I asked them to jot down a few ideas for potential problems to explore. I was looking for some open-ended questions and some feeling for what kinds of experiments they were interested in.

I got back a few viable responses, but as usual, the nonviable ones are a lot more fun to discuss here. So without any further ado, I present the results of what my class is truly interested in, apparently.

There were bound to be some questions that don't require an experiment to answer:
“What is longer, a ruler or a journal?”
and
“How many cups does it take to get 1 pint?”
(At least they're exploring, right?)

Then there are the ones that would actually be very interesting to see put into motion:
“How does a solid change when you hit something with it?”
(I can just imagine this kid walking around whacking everything in sight with a backpack, a notebook, or a football)

“How long can a human stay underwater?”
(How about, how long can a third grader stay quiet?)

From the "Let Me Know When You Find the Answer” files:
“How do you think liquid was invented?”
(Or maybe it was how do you think liquor was invented? -- the spelling was a bit hard to make out)

Here was one of my favorite responses:
“If I stop feeding my turtle for 10 days will it die?”
(My hypothesis -- the turtle will croak)

From there we go to the most bizarre response:
“Which one will last longer -- game or cake?”
(I don't even know what the intent of that question was)

And finally, here's one that didn't really meet the criteria for what I asked for, but it does show that the boy has learned something in science AND that he wants to impress me:
“If you grab a block with no string and it will be heavy and if you put a string around of a block it will not be heavy because you can pull it up and then go tell your teacher."