If there’s one thing that is constantly amazing, it’s the creativity (and hard work) a lot of “YouTubers” put into their videos. Some of these things, I would have never have imagined even exist. For example, after watching some amazing falling domino videos, I, with Leander (4) came across this:
Basically, this YouTuber puts together marble races and “games” of different sorts, tapes them, puts in a few “special effects” and posts them to YouTube, and the results are strangely fascinating.
However, me being the “geek” that I am, I ended talking with Leander, then Asher (7) about stuff in the video.
I get it; some people might accuse me of trying to suck all the fun out of fun by making things “educational”, but I am trying all the time to make them realize that the things that we talk about in school have practical applications, and I try to foster those connections in their heads. I firmly believe that when kids (and even adults) make solid connections between information and application, learning becomes a much easier process.
So, back to the video. One of the things I pointed out was the flags. Each country has a flag; I don’t expect my kids right now to recognize many, but as the world now has “become smaller”, realizing that other countries exist and learning something about them is important. With Leander, just getting him to understand that the flags represent something is good; with Asher, he understands this, but it was also interesting how he was pulling for certain teams (the US and Japan, to be precise).
Next, there are concepts of gravity and inertia. I just touched upon gravity with Asher, he’s heard of it before, certainly, but when I asked him why the marbles were moving, he didn’t come up with the word immediately. Also, we talked a little about how the marbles end up on different paths, and that it tends to be fairly random, but what path the marble goes down greatly affects the speed of the marble.
No, I’m not asking them to plot probabilities or anything, but even from very early on, I want them to learn that what they see has a foundation in science; that the way things act and react isn’t “magic”, some alchemy of daily life, but, for the most part is a place where, when one understands how things work, is generally predictable.
Not only this, but this “mini-tournament” also demonstrates the manner in which a lot of sporting tournaments are run, complete with “3rd place round” . As adults, a lot of these things seem like second nature, but for kids, they do have to see it happen a few times before they understand what is going on.
Now, for your watching pleasure, a demonstration of art which is dependent on the predictability of gravity and the laws of physics.
Their Education Begins Here 