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Sometimes, I volunteer for the science outreach organization . Their monthly Saturday Science events offer interactive activities for children related to the theme of the month. 

A Saturday Science event in March focused on the body’s senses of smell, sight and touch. I looked at the activity stations around me and saw optical illusion flash cards and books, video simulations, a large set of spice jars and several microscopes.

Nour Mimouni

Jessica Desamero volunteers at the deceptively simple “A Cool Activity” during the Saturday Science BioBus event in March that focused on the senses of smell, sight and touch.

Then I was assigned to my station: three plastic cups of water. 

The cups held water at three different temperatures: hot, room-temperature and ice-cold. The children were to dip two fingers in the room-temperature water for 20 seconds, then in ice-cold water for 20 seconds, then back to the room-temperature water for 20 seconds. After the third dip, they’d say what they felt. If they were still interested, they could try again with hot water instead of cold.

The purpose of the activity was to experience how skin senses temperature and how past experiences influence present experiences. When children dipped their fingers in the cold water, their skin sensed this cold, and when they dipped their fingers back in the room-temperature water, they would feel a warm sensation at their fingertips — a quick, kid-friendly way to demonstrate body temperature regulation.

“Oh, that’s simple enough,” I thought. “It’ll be a short, one-minute activity.”

I questioned whether children would be very interested in this exercise; there wasn’t much to it.

Sure enough, the first child looked bored, and I could tell he wanted to move on. His mom, who was watching him, even remarked, “That’s it?”

The next few children behaved in a similar way; they took one minute to complete the first part of the activity, obtained their completion stamp and quickly moved on to the other stations. 

But as the event went on, I found that some children were taking longer at my station. Instead of just stopping after the cold water, they stayed to try the exercise with hot water. Many were eager and excited to put their fingers in the cups. One girl’s face lit up like a Christmas tree as soon as she felt the temperature difference at the third dip.

Some were also curious about what else they could try. One child put one finger in the cold water and one finger in the hot water at the same time. A few children were so amazed with the water activity that they brought their friends to the station to try the exercise and then did it again themselves. What seemed like a simple and quick activity turned out to be popular with the kids.

I recently learned that this water activity has been a station at many past Saturday Science events under slightly different names to match the themes. It never fails to garner interest. And after manning this station, I understand why.

Water may be a simple molecule, and sometimes you don’t think much of it. But water really is an effective teacher.