We had a fun science moment this morning (after two hours of giggling-I mean math). We experimented on whether or not a caterpillar responded to external stimuli, in our case, light and gravity. Our first experiment asked, "Does a caterpillar prefer to climb up a branch or down a branch?"
We put this poor little caterpillar, who is behind all the other caterpillars developmentally, on a dowel held vertically. We watched him climb halfway to the top and then I flipped it over. He turned around and climbed toward the top again. So we learned that caterpillars crawl away from the force of gravity.
The second experiment asked, "Does a caterpillar prefer to crawl toward light or away from light?"
For this experiment, we took the caterpillar, dowel, and flashlight into the bathroom and closed the door. The scariest part was when the caterpillar fell off the dowel and landed on the floor. "Don't anybody move!" I was worried he would get stepped on! We held the dowel horizontally this time, and showed that he preferred to crawl toward the light.
The last experiment asked, "Which force is stronger? Light or gravity?"
I asked the kids what we should do to test both forces at the same time. Only IJ was able to figure it out. He said, "Is it like the cat and buttered toast thing? Tying buttered toast to a cat and dropping it to see if it just hovers?" Exactly, my fine young scientist. We held the dowel vertically, as in the first experiment, but had the light shining from the bottom. We found that both forces work against each other and the caterpillar was very confused. It took longer for it to decide which way to go. But it eventually chose the light.
The absolute hardest part of this experiment was keeping my kids from being so silly! They are always laughing! I told them whoever makes the next joke has to leave. And it was me. I was trying to get a good picture in the dark and I made IJ move so the bathroom doorknob was not in the background. He wondered why it was such a big deal to not have the doorknob in the picture. I said, "Because it would be like, 'Oh, there's the D Family Bathroom Doorknob! I hope the kids washed their hands!'" And that was enough to send them over the edge to the silly place of no return. School was cancelled until after lunch and kids were sent outside.
And that is how a typical morning runs. Non stop laughing and not much accomplished!
