I went there thinking I would be spending 1-2 hours observing kids. I didn’t know it would end up longer, with me getting involved in it. I entered when the 3rd session was almost 70% done. 7 kids were there and I started looking at the messed-up place around. Kids were trying to fold some paper and observe how it fell. I had no clue (Thanks Apoorva!) what the activity was or what they were doing. So I started asking the kids what they were doing. They explained me quite well that they were trying to find the reason why one of the folded strips of papers fell in a different way as compared to the other – different in the direction of rotation.
Initial 5-10 minutes were nothing but chaos. Kids appeared tired. And suddenly I heard a kid calling “Sir”. To my surprise, I found that I was the only Sir (;)) in that room as Apoorva had also gone out. I went to that girl. She was desperately trying to unravel the mystery. So I thought of helping her help solve the mystery for me too.
I started asking her questions and in turn got question from her. We were trying to formulate a theory and test it. She had 2 propellers (technical name for those folded strips of paper J) with her, each one of them folded in a different way, opposite to each other, and as a result they both fell rotating in opposite directions. We started by writing down points that were different between the two sets and came up with things like different coloured clips (holding the cut folds), different arrangements of the two clips (one horizontal and one vertical) and different ways in which the paper strips were folded. So our theory was ‘the two propellers rotated in opposite directions because something, of the 3 we had noted down, was different for the two’. We decided to test each and every factor.
I was just trying to play the role of a torch-bearer in a dark theatre. The one who had the ticket and was searching for the seat and see the movie was that kid.
I asked her what to do if we wanted to test if the colour of the clips affected rotation. She didn’t answer for a while. Perhaps, she was thinking about something. I sort of gave the answer “let’s try using two same-coloured clips”. The spontaneity with which she said “Yeah” indicated that she was probably thinking the same thing, but was just afraid to give such a simple stupid answer and maybe she was more happy to hear it from a fool like me. J So we tried the experiment with two same-coloured clips. But they still rotated in opposite directions.
So I asked, “What should we do now?” She said, “We should try to see if the arrangement of clips affected rotation.” We made both the clips hold papers in the same way (vertically) and then again tried observing rotation. But it didn’t matter. So we were left with only one option that needed testing before we could conclude anything.
We had observed that the folds of paper were different in the two sets and so I asked her what should we do to test it.
This time she gave an answer without waiting for me to give one. She said, “We should arrange the cut paper strips in both of them in such a way that the folds are same in both of them.” It was indeed the answer I wanted. This time, I think , she must have thought “Ye gadhe ko shayad nahi ayega. Mujhe hi batana padega.”
We folded the papers in the same way. But to prove myself, that this gadha was smarter than she must have thought, I purposely arranged the clips in different ways (one horizontally and the other vertically). We tried to observe them fall. Since they were folded in the same way, they both rotated in the same direction.
So I asked her whether we could conclude that it was the fold of paper that determines its direction of rotation.
To my surprise (I was really happy to get this surprise!) the 4th grade kid proved that a gadha is a gadha however smart he is. J She said, “No. We cannot. We should not only have the folds same but also the clips in the same direction. Only then we can conclude that the fold of paper determines the direction of rotation.” This is what I think can be called a MindSpark!
And we repeated the experiment with the clips oriented in the same way and finally we established out theory.
I had never thought that something like this could also excite me on a Sunday afternoon except my sweet sleep.
Thanks Apoorva for not informing me about the activity nor about the way I had to conduct the activity. If I would have received those instructions/”training”, I would not have enjoyed it to the full extent I did.
