Water Pollution, Cloning, and Corn Ice Cream

Here's three random, and interesting tid-bits from today:

1. The kindergarten classes met to do a science experiment together in the library today. A tub of clear drinkable water was contaminated by adding oil, coffee grounds and garbage, the students had to clean  the water. It all ties into our unit on earth and pollution. Of the 13 students who attended the experiment, 12 of them predicted we would be able to clean the water with tongs and a strainer. The took turns plucking garbage out of the water and trying desperately to get the weird colour out. The whole point was supposed to make them realize  "OH! That's why we don't throw garbage in a river!". But after we had determined the water would not get any cleaner I asked if the water was good to drink, and one cheeky student was all like "yeah, I'll drink that water". No, your mum would have a fit.

2. My oldest class started their new debate topic: cloning. Since we only had about 15 minutes left in class I just had them watch an intense New York Times segment on Dolly the Sheep. They actually seemed more interested in the science than the ethics. But I never though I could get three teenage girls so interested on in watching a video about sheep -especially in the last 15 minutes of class.

3. Finally, I took the new teachers by the grocery store in case they wanted to buy anything over the weekend. I also talked up how tasty the ice cream is so we all got one. I bravely chose the corn shaped ice cream cause I just thought it was so weird, I had to taste it. It appeared as if it was a kind of ice cream sandwich were the "bread" was a shell made to look like corn husk. But it was more accurate than I expected, the ice cream inside was corn flavoured with a bit of chocolate. It was actually really good!