STEAM Powered Holi Celebration

Holi is an Indian festival of colours. As Mother Nature starts adding more colours to our surroundings, we Indians like it to celebrate to welcome Vasant ritu or spring season. Our club also decided to play with colours; not in usual way, but by conducting colourful experiments. These experiments not only pleased our eyes but filled our hearts with joy!!

Our Holi Special Experiments

Holi Special Experiment 1: Rainbow with skittles(video)

This is one of our most favourite experiments. While fighting with the temptation of putting the skittles in the mouth instead of the plate, we managed to arrange them in a round shape making a pattern of colours. The next step was to just pour water and watch. What an easy experiment to do! As we were waiting for skittles to show their colour magic, we discussed what to expect and why. We were awestruck by the view that unfolded in front of our eyes. You can enjoy it too!!

Holi Special Experiment 2: Walking water (video)

We had setup this experiment earlier in the day. Kids kept observing what’s happening from time to time. At the same time, they were pondering on what’s changing and why. By the time we had the session that was conducted in the evening, the rainbow was ready. It was super fun to watch the transportation of water and mixing of the colours. We kept the setup for next two days and kept observing how the colours darkened and paper towels were shaded with mix of colours. Simple experiment but so much to learn and observe!!

Holi Special Experiment 3: Magic Milk (video)

This was our almost 4^th or 5th time performing this experiment. And every time we do it, it delights us as never before!! The wait and watch actions, the little colourful storms in the milk and the beautiful patterns add to the sheer excitement. J

Holi Special Experiment 4: Sugar Density tower

I had created colourful solutions of same amount of water in 4 cups with different sugar quantities dissolved in them. When we started to stack one solution on another, however slowly we tried the solutions got mixed. And the mixture got new colour. After trying multiple times, we concluded that the difference of dissolved sugar should have been more. What do you think?

And you know what, instead of getting disappointed, we discussed how perseverance is required to keep trying experiments by changing variables until we succeed. So much to learn from these little scientists!! J

Holi Special Experiment 5: Water water, where do you go

At the end, it was time to play with all the left over colour water! With the help of droppers, we created beautiful colour patterns on paper. Kids made discoveries like the same colour water was getting absorbed in different ways in different types of paper napkin or paper towel. Also by varying concentration of colours in the water added different shades of same colour. This simple activity was so much fun that nobody wanted to stop doing it even though it was time to end the session. We left all those colour papers to dry; to be used for later for any craft activity. What a colourful way to learn absorption and evaporation etc. concepts!! 

Thus, we added more colours to our Holi; without actually putting them on our body but letting them play with each other; in a unique way of celebration. I’d shared the videos on my Facebookpage and Youtube channel , so that other kids can also try them. I was very glad when Sara, our little friend, who had also attended the session; tried the experiments on her own again and shared the pictures. So proud of her!! J

Done by Sara!

Happy Holi!! Happy STEAMing!! :) 

Musings

"Tell me I forget; Teach me I may remember; Involve me and I learn"
~Benjamin Franklin

So true! Over the years, I’ve realised the importance of activity based learning or learning by doing for life long retention of the learnings. This realization has come from my own experiences that I had in my childhood as well as while raising two curious kids.

From my professional and personal experience, I've learnt that ability of applying the acquired knowledge to the real world problems is a crucial skill. That is the best use of knowledge. Problem solving skills cannot to be taught. Those are the self learnings when you actually work on them. Like the famous caterpillar story; to become a beautiful butterfly; it has to struggle on its own to emerge out from the cocoon. Similarly each one of us need to go through our own struggle to learn to become an effective problem solver. 

Creativity and imagination help to solve problems differently. Having an open mind helps to understand that a problem can have multiple solutions. With creativity and imagination, we can "see" those solutions when we actually start seeking them either in our thoughts or actually working on them in practice. That's how the inventors and innovators are born!

We are all born curious minds. We always want to know more about the world around us and how things work. We are curious to know what works and what not. We want know "whys" i.e. reasons.  We are explorers and experimenters. This curiosity is at its peak in our childhood. Some can retain it, some are not as we grow up.

If we can help our children to fuel their curiosity; help them to explore the things than just to know about them; let them practice their own problem solving skills so that they enjoy the process rather than getting fearful of the problems; I think we are better equipping them for their future.

From my childhood, I have always been interested in STEM i.e. Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Today the acronym has advanced to become STEAM. The "A" which stands for Arts, boosts creativity and imagination. Thus activities built around STEAM today, work perfectly to stimulate both left and right brains. These activities not only add to knowledge but also give plenty of opportunities to be an explorer and a problem solver. 

And I believe, that is what a curious mind needs!! :)