In truth, there is not much to fear from the middle of the month. In fact, it is truly a time to be exploring one’s world, one’s universe, in search of some big meaning, greater Understanding.
As an introduction to Science, my students (all of them, regardless of grade) work through a little exercise that I call Mobius Loopage. It is a chance for them to experience a few things about science (using the example of a one sided, one edged strip of paper — a Mobius Loop.
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Science is, for example, sometimes not obvious. Often, something that seems one way, is often another, upon further investigation. Students prove this to themselves by predicting an outcome, and then investigating to see if it is so. In the case of a Mobius loop, they predict how many pieces you get when you cut a strip in half, down the middle. (The answer is…, well go find out for yourself 
).
The Mobius Loop is really an allegory to how science works, and from the story we see a few characteristics of science:
- A scientist needs to keep an open mind. That is, she needs to allow herself to have her mind changed in the face of contrary information.
- Science is experiential and experimental. Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.
- Science is not always intuitive. Sometimes the obvious answer is wrong.
- Science makes you say “Huh!”. Or hey!, or wow!, or “that’s weird”, or “that’s interesting…”.?
I want my students to experience these feelings on a regular basis.
To close our investigations into the Mobius Loop, I presented this short video: Wind and Mr. Ug. It’s a touching story that speaks to identity and one’s place in our World. Those ideas — who we are and where we belong — are a key idea in the study of Cosmology. Our Grade 6s will know this well as they tour our Solar System in their study of Sky Science.
