Potions

by Mike Kaechele

It is a beautiful, sunny Mother's Day in Michigan. I got my first nap of the year in my hammock, listened to the Tigers win on my stereo (yeah I still have my big speakers from college in my shed), and my son went fishing in the lake.

My yard

Then my son made a potion. He has been begging me to do it all week. He mixed vinegar, Oxi Clean, baking soda, cinnamon, sugar, flour, and ketchup. He then applied it to my dandelions and apparently they will be dead tomorrow.

My son loves science and experimenting. When is the last time you experimented? When is the last time you gave students time and space to experiment?

Now I am off to help my daughter make a potion. Experimenting is contagious...

Game School

Have already received a couple comments and a few emails about my last post. Hmm... could we be on to something here?

More than one reader is taking me seriously about the experimental game developer high school (now all we need is a millionaire and a building... [cough] Mr. Gates?):

Let's see what they might need to do. Content - Create a structured narrative that is not necessarily linear (English), establish rules, create puzzles or obstacles that require logic and reasoning to solve (Math), have an appealing look (Art), represent a physical world (Science), have a setting in time and space (Social Studies). Yeah, I think we can get that going.

Skills- team collaboration, use of contemporary technology and tools, troubleshooting/problem solving.

I'm sure there's more, but this is what I've got just off the top of my head. Sounds good, let's go.