A Cool Day. Literally.

When I invited my father-in-law, UT Professor Ken Diller, to come share his Hero's Journey, with the AI Griffins today as a tie-in with our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory invention quest, I immediately began to worry. He speaks to audiences all over the world, but usually at a college level or beyond. Would he be able to engage some squirmy eight year olds? Would they be able to behave as an attentive and respectful audience? Should our class bow out and just let the Middle Schoolers hear his talk?

Boy, were my concerns ill-founded (as usual). The Elementary School kids were ready and waiting on the dot of 12:!5, many with notebooks for sketching in or taking notes. We had talked briefly in our morning launch, before reading the fabulous book The Inventor's Secret, about good manners for a guest speaker. Well, these kids grabbed hold of this privilege and responsibility and ran with it. They raised their hands eagerly to answer his questions, and they also responded with fabulous, thoughtful questions of their own. One gem of Abigail's: "Do you do most of your experimenting alone, or do you work better with helpers?"

Our speaker shared with them about his journey as an inventor and holder of many patents over the past decades. He confided that inventors use about 10% inspiration (good ideas!) and 90% perspiration (hard work!). He told them the steps of the process that have led to his successes: prayer, intuition, knowledge, and experimentation. And then, before showing them all the iterations of his latest medical device, he pressed home this central idea: Some of his most important learning has come about when things don't work the way he thinks they will. 

Since the device he showed them had to do with cooling the brain in order to save lives during heart attacks and other acute events, it was only fitting that our project for today was all about cooling! We weren't cooling brains, though. We were making ice cream! Big shout-out to Mrs. Outlaw and little brother Brooks for bringing the materials and kicking off this project alongside our fearless Head of School! (I had to give our guest speaker a tour of the schoolhouse. :-))

Team 1 made a batch in a bowl using dry ice, with rather carbonated results. Do I even need to tell you how exciting it is to play with dry ice???

Team 2 and Team 3 churned their ice cream in Zip-loc baggies, using rock salt and regular ice. Team 2 had half and half; Team 2 had coconut milk.

In the end, it was dry ice for the win. You probably would rather not know how many spoons were dipping and double-dipping into that big bowl of carbonated ice cream. So I won't tell you. Let's just focus on the fun and the learning that took place. Deal?