Science teaching at Brownies

adorable girl doing my homemade crystal switchboard

eating rock candy and doing the switchboard

making the rock candy and using the microscope

Part of my college science class requires me to tutor a group of kiddos three times. So tonight I taught my daughters' brownie troop for the first tutoring. We learned about crystals. I made a crystal switchboard, brought in Emily's microscope to see salt and sugar magnified and we made rock candy. It was fun. Em and Tara liked that their mom was teaching. The brownie troop leader was concerned with counting cookie money so she welcomed the timing for my teaching.

I overestimated what the kids could do. I thought knot tieing wouldn't be too tough. None of the nine little girls could do it. But I had some WONDERFUL older Girls Scouts that stayed after their meeting to help me. I had them helping with the knots, ladeling sugar water into jars, labeling the jars with a label maker, and various other jobs. What complete sweet hearts they were. I hope Em and Tara grow up to be like those girls.

I wanted to show the finished product of the rock candy we made since the one they made has to sit for up to a couple of weeks to grow the crystals. So I went on a two hour hunt for rock candy. I went to IGA, nope. Dollar General, Hallmark, Rite Aid even Harrod's Chocolate- no luck. Then Jay came home from work for his break and suggested Cracker Barrel. Success! I cleaned them out of all their rock candy. The girls liked it.

But they really enjoyed the microscope, which I initially brought as an afterthought. They lined up to see the salt and sugar crystals at different lighting and magnification. It was fun to watch their little faces get excited. Even the troop leader came over for a looksy. :)

I was too busy to take many pictures but I got a few. You know me, can't go anywhere without picture documentation!

Anyway, it went well and now it's off to camp in a couple of weeks. This time I'm going as a parent helper. It should be fun, albeit a bit cold. :)

Good night my blog buddies. I hope you had a good day today, too.