School of Curiosity - 9 Oct 2012

We have not deliberately taught Science to our kids. However, in some ways we hope to have instilled in our kids a sense of wonder of the world around them. 
Curiosity Rover Landing


An opportunity to talk about the space and beyond.....
We watched the live webcast of Curiosity rover landing on Mars in August. We could feel the tenseness and excitement of Nasa control room as the rover landed. 


Such a complicated exercise that required years of preparation....

The rover is expected to be in Mars for about 2 years to perform numerous testings and take pictures. We understood from the webcast that the Curiosity mission did not include alien-hunting! It's almost surreal to be able to receive HD colour images from Mars sent by the rover.

We wanted to make our version of the Rover but it ended up like a scorpion.


Paper Mache Solar System 

BASF Kids' Lab


This was the 2nd year our kids participated in BASF Kids' Lab - a chemistry education programme  by the German chemical company, BASF. 


Hands-on experiments to discover the world of chemistry through fun and safe chemical experiments, which, hopefully, might arouse their curiosity for science. The experiments for this year were:- how to make your own sunscreen lotion and discover which food has the highest vitamin C content. The response for this kind of programme was very good.

Backyard Science

Science helps us explain the world around us. At home, we learned the names of the plants and birds in our garden and spent time looking for the ladybugs, spiders, earthworms and grasshoppers (endless...). 


Young entomologists......


We have a rock garden in our backyard and our humble plant experiments. The boys tried to plant everything they could find - even a durian seed! 


We could go on a car trip and there's so much to point out - the clouds, animals, plants and flowers and crops growing on fields. 

Rabbit in the sky?

We kept messy collections of dried leaves, twigs and branches, rocks and stones, pinecones ..... we even have failed submarines in the toilet. 

I couldn't agree more that our everyday experience of the world around us is an invitation to question and explore and wonder.......

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Al-Attas Garden in Janda Baik - 4 August 2012

Image
Besides being a well-known contentious writer, little do we know that Syed Hussein Alattas is also a self-taught gardener and an architect. He had built Taman Hana in Janda Baik from scratch and named after his wife.  Taman Hana sits on a 8-acre plot of land in the quiet village of Janda Baik. It boasts a collection of 1,000 species of plants including fruit trees, more than 700 big flower pots and five buildings that include the home of the Alattas family.  The good news is that it is open to visitors every day.  As we made our way past the entrance, this place appeared unkempt. It was well beyond its heyday (in 2008) but still showing off its faded beauty. Some parts were badly neglected, which was so unfortunate, because it originally was to be a quiet kampung retreat. A mix of traditional Malay, Peranakan, Indonesian and colonial British architecture and a Minangkabau styled roof. Syed Hussein had actually started building the structures in 1982 and he spent...
Read more

Discovering Pasir Pinji's Comfort Food - 29 June 2014

Image
Pasir Pinji Road in Ipoh is like a living heritage town. If you google this place, you will see a long list of local delicacies you must try - the famous yong tau foo, chee cheong fun, cendol, roast pork, traditional mooncakes, pastry, etc. On a Sunday, we saw the idyllic lifestyle of the local people - watching the days go by, sipping tea and catching up with friends along the corridor of shophouses, waiting for the takeaway of their favourite food or desserts from the roadside hawkers, sitting in coffee shops and dipping Hainanese buns into their kopi-O or Milo. .. it's like a walk to my childhood years in the 80s.  Ban Guan Foong Bakery has been around for more than 50 years. One of the very few remaining bakeries producing traditional Hainanese bread and buns using wood-fired oven.  A family-run business by the Goh family and some old and loyal workers. Getting ready the wood-fired brick oven  Removing the ashes from the heated oven  ...
Read more

A Potter Village in Sayong - 30 May 2013

Image
Pit Stop at the Perak royal town, Kuala Kangsar. The 1st rubber tree in Malaysia was planted in this town. That's about all I knew about this place. Labu Sayong or water pitcher from Sayong village, known for its health value to help migraine, lower blood pressure etc due to the special properties inherent in the local clay. Before this, we didn't know much of labu sayong.  We didn't go to the village or plan this visit. Out of curiousity, we bumped into this unassuming workshop at No. 3, Kg Setia, Enggor, run by Mohd bin Harun.  Pakcik was very open and gave us a tour of his workshop and how he makes labu sayong. His warm, friendly welcoming people made a lasting impression on all of us - a trait that we've lost in the big cities. The traditional way of making labu sayong uses hands to mould the clay into the shape of a 'labu' (gourd-like vase) but this is too slow. Now, the clay mixture is poured into standard mould blocks. It's ...
Read more