Our Adventures at the Boston Children's Museum

To go or not to go, that was the question.  As of Wednesday, the meteorologist called for a snowy mix right during the morning commute.  Of course, we planned our field trip for the one day of Winter, so far, where snow was expected.  So a decision had to be made.  To go or not to go... Well, as a team we decided that if there was any sort of delay, we would reschedule the trip.  If there was no delay, we would venture to Boston no matter what.  Rewind to this morning at 8:00.  No delay!  Yes snow!  Driving to Shrewsbury from Westboro, it was evident the snow was way worse as we moved West.  As I arrived at school, I knew it was going to be a hectic morning.  After all was said and done, name tags were placed, groups were formed, and the bus was loaded, we were on our way.  The worst part of the trip was getting to the Mass Pike.  Once we hit that, we were in the clear.  The snow turned to rain and we were right on time!  The bus dropped us off and after a short walk in the rain to get there, we had arrived.  FEW!!

The reason we decided to take our one and only field trip to the Children's Museum was because they have an exhibit called "Balls and Tracks".  Fortunately for us, our Trimester 2 Science unit is Balance and Motion.  PERFECT FIT!!!  So, the package included a 1 hour hands on class that let us explore with tracks and balls.  The children were the engineers and they were given three challenges. For the first challenge,  they worked in groups to try and form a track that would make a marble go the fastest it can go.  Our second challenge was to make the ball roll the slowest possible.  The children talked about how in order to make things move, you need a force.  The children were asked, "When something goes up in the air, what force makes it come back down?"  Our new student, Svahbu, answered proudly, "Gravity"!  He was absolutely correct. They also learned that in order to make the marbles go up a hill, they need momentum.  So is the force that makes things go down and momentum is the force that helps things go up.  Our third challenge was to create a ramp that allowed the ball to go up a hill.  This took some figuring out, but the kids really rose to the occasion and had a great time creating these ramps.  Here are some pictures of each group working together to beat the challenge. 

After our workshop, the kids were aloud to spend about an hour and a half exploring the rest of the Museum.  Some of the favorite exhibits were; The Japan House, The Jungle Gym, The Art Studio, and the Bubble Room.  Over all, despite the rocky start with the weather, they had such a blast!  Here are some more pics from their explorations around the museum.

Thank you to all the parents who were able to come with us to the Museum.  I hope everyone had a great time.  I know the kids did.  When we got back to school, I had the kids show me one thing they learned at the Museum.  They could sketch, write me a letter, or explain with just words.  They could choose the way they wanted to show me their learning!  The field trip was a huge success.