Understanding Structure

The second graders were introduced to the world of crystals this week through a book called Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg.  We read the first part of the story where a group of worker ants headed on an adventure to recover some delicious crystals found in an unknown place…a family’s kitchen.  Two of the ants found the crystals so delicious they decided to stay in the bowl of crystals and eat to their hearts content.  After the children put on their different thinking hats to consider whether staying in the bowl was a good idea, they started to wonder what crystals might be in that bowl.  The kids thought perhaps jewlery from the mother, a broken necklace, a crystal rock, pencil lead, etc.  There was a wide range of ideas.  The one thing the kids decided was that one must take a closer look in order to truly know what was in that bowl.  We broke out the jewlers loops and the digital microscope to look carefully at 2 crystals that are found in most every kitchen around the world…salt and sugar.  Here are two images from our investigation:

 

 

 

 

                SALT                                                                                                 SUGAR

After looking back at our defintion of STRUCTURE the kids decided that crystals were example of Natural Structures…structure created in nature.

Help us think of other structures that are created in Nature.  How many natural structures can you think of?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *