<\/p>\n
Do you have a little scientist-to-be living under your roof? Does your little scientist have an unquenchable thirst for new toys, projects, and equipment? There will never be enough money or space, will there? And how many \u201cwhy?\u201d questions can your kid ask before you say, \u201cenough\u201d? Supporting a child\u2019s curiosity should not break the bank, nor should s\/he depend on you as the sole source of knowledge. A good little scientist is not only curious, but also self-directed and resilient. Curiosity and persistence is an unbeatable combination in life. However, these characteristics can use some nurturing.<\/p>\n
Here is a simple project that costs very little and promotes developmental goals important to a young scientist.<\/p>\n
Find an old shoebox, a roll of duct tape, some cardboard, and a knife. Use pieces of cardboard and tape to create a new interior for the box. (Anything goes: ramps, mazes, etc.) Then include some expendable object (a Sammy Sosa autographed baseball, an out-of-date iPhone, \u2026) that will navigate this interior. Close the box and seal it with duct tape.<\/p>\n
Present it to your young scientist with this challenge:<\/p>\n
\u201cFigure out what object is in the box and what the interior of the box looks like. You can do anything you want to the box, except open it. Take as long as you want.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n A true scientist will need to keep a record of hypotheses and tests performed. A young child may need a scribe, but after that, consider affixing paper to the box or finding a little (lab) notebook. If your spouse wants in on the fun, then the lab notebook can stay with the box, for anyone to annotate. How the experimenting is recorded can take any form. Just don\u2019t open the box.<\/p>\n What are we accomplishing?<\/p>\n Keeping the mess inside a single box (a noble goal in itself)?<\/p>\n Promoting curiosity<\/strong> and inquiry.<\/p>\n Encouraging logical thinking<\/strong> in the form of hypothesis generation & testing.<\/p>\n Encouraging persistence<\/strong> (because you are NOT going to open the box).<\/p>\n Also promoting tolerance<\/strong> and resilience<\/strong> (because you are NOT going to open the box).<\/p>\n Promoting debate <\/strong>and discussion<\/strong> (because you are NOT going to open the box).<\/p>\n Promoting emotional self-control<\/strong>, as in dealing with frustration and impatience (because you are NOT going to open the box).<\/p>\n \u00a0Do you think you can resist opening the box? I\u2019ll leave that decision to you. However, scientists have developed useful theories, such as Evolution, The Big Bang, and Relativity without complete access to the inside of the box. At our house, I never did open the boxes, but for the life of me, I can\u2019t seem to find them anywhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A fun activity for all ages is described that promotes curiosity, logical thinking, and emotional self-control. Solving The Black Box Puzzle Do you have a little scientist-to-be living under your roof? Does your little scientist have an unquenchable thirst for new toys, projects, and equipment? There will never be enough money or space, will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[76,77,44,52,60,40,78],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-applying-ideas","tag-curiosity","tag-emotional-competence","tag-impulse-control","tag-logical-thinking","tag-resilience","tag-self-control","tag-self-direction","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777,"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.childproofingforadolescence.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}