Scientific Method

When pea season was over, we had a few pods left on the vines that grew to a ripe old age. We thought we might as well keep the peas as seed for next spring and gathered them up. Since then, they had been sitting in a shallow bowl on top of our microwave. One particularly still evening, we realized that the peas were making some suspicious, albeit very quiet, rustling sounds. We decided it might be best to keep our seed in a sealed jar.

Soon, beetles were hatching out of the seed and Larkin and Finn have been keeping a close eye on them. After they had taken the jar outside and were quiet for some time, I asked them what they were working on out there. Larkin said, "We're learning about beetles. I've noticed you can learn a lot about something just by watching it." Hey: observation! A key step in the scientific method. I admit I'm not sure whether I said that out loud or not.

I went and sat down with them and asked what they had learned so far. The following is a pretty accurate account of Larkin's stream of consciousness: "Well, we know they can fly, even though you can't see any wings when they're not moving. They also like crawling up the edge of the jar and never seem to get hungry. And we know they eat peas because you can see the hole they ate through the peas and they're hollow now. I wonder if they're not eating because they want something to eat that's not peas. Maybe they would eat leaves since they like peas. [hypothesis!] Let's put this leaf in and see if they eat it." And thus an experiment was born.

The experiment within the experiment was how to get a leaf into the jar without all the beetles flying away. Several stern shakes of the jar seemed to keep them in line. I am sure, after more observation, a conclusion will be reached. Then, if necessary, the hypothesis can be revised and re-tested. Then again, maybe not. They've become distracted by drawing a zoo, giraffes first.