Our historical adventures with the award winning Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trip took us down a scientific path this month.  My kids enjoyed it immensely.  The presentation of material built on the very things they have been learning in their daily science studies. 

     Monday we went over the historical background of the Age of Enlightenment.  Then the kids played the interactive games at the EFT website.  After each game, they watched the video, then the question and answer session with CW historians from a few years ago when this premiered. 

     The story line is reminiscent of my own son.  Whenever I send him to complete a task, I may not see him for hours because he had to investigate something.  When he is not examining something, he is asking questions.  Scores of questions, tons of questions, millions of questions!  Daniel, the colonial boy in the movie, is no different.

     In the story, it is 1769 in Williamsburg, and 11 year old Daniel is sent on errands to the shoemaker and the printer and must return in time to join his family on the last ferry across the river to home.  Well this is an inquisitive boy.  On the way to the cobbler, Daniel helps to put out a fire by filling buckets of water for the fire truck.  Now covered from head to toe with soot, he hurries on to the shoemaker to fulfill the first errand when he hears the bells strike in the distance. 

     At the shoemaker Daniel asks tons of questions about the water glass magnifier.  Eventually, he collects the shoes and runs to the print shop.  On the way he sees the fire engine getting cleaned and stops to ask a ton of questions about how it works.  After a demonstration there Daniel hears the bells strike and hurries on to the printer.  At the printer, he asks tons more questions about how the printing press works. 

     In the second part of the movie, Daniel helps a gentleman, John Page, calculate the transit of Venus. John Page really did live in the area.  Because he had wealth, he was able to indulge his interests in astronomy. To explain the transit of Venus, he used an orrery.  It was interesting to see how the sextant and special lenses in the gorgeous telescope were used to obtain necessary information to track the transit of Venus. 

     In the third part of the movie, Daniel is five years older, attending the College of William and Mary.  The teacher is Professor James Madison, cousin to the future President James Madison.  Historically, Professor Madison had attended the college and later taught Natural Philosophy there. In fact, he eventually became president of the college. Professor Madison conducted several experiments, many of which explained some of the principles that were learned in the earlier part of the movie.  On each day of class, Daniel arrived late because he had had yet another inquisitive adventure.  

     The three on-line activities were great.  In the first one, we were given different scenarios and we had to choose the most Enlightened, scientific choice for each.  In the second one, Benjamin Franklin explained how he conducted some experiments regarding electricity, which we could duplicate on the screen.  Then we had to record our results.  The third one was my favorite.  John Page explained that we could help select the four best papers for publication, which would be sent to the scientific society in England. He explained the types of things to look for to choose truely beneficial research that would advance science. We got to listen to several different men explain their theories and research (if they actually did any).  We rated each one.  At the end, we chose the four best.   For each of those, we wrote an introduction into the book on the computer.  After the publication arrived in England, an 18th century Englishman appeared on the screen and thanked us for our valuable contribution for the cause of science.  We each did these activities separately, at our computers.  Afterwards, we had a Socratic Discussion on the last activity.  We discussed which papers we selected to send to England.  It was helpful to hear why the kids chose the ones they did, yet not others. Two were obviously the best and some were obviously poor choices.  But they got stuck on the other ones.  I helped them to see why some choices were better than others.  It was fun to hear the "Ohhhhhhs."  Yes, they were enlightened by these activities!

     Then we read short biographies of several 18th century scientists.  I had the kids each select one for their project this week. The project was completely different from anything they had ever done before.  It was a display board.  It required light writing, which was great due to our having been busy with life on top of having recently completed a research paper.  Surprisingly, my daughter did not choose the lady scientist from Italy.  Instead, she was inspired by Carolus Linnaeus, due to her interest in plants. 

My son decided to further research Edmund Halley. 

     They worked on these display boards primarily on Thursday, in between the live broadcasts.  On Electronic Field Trip days we spend the day working on the projects, as if we were on a real field trip.  This has turned out to be a wonderful break from the regular schedule while reviewing basic skills and learning new things.  The kids always anticipate these days with enthusiasm.

     We watched the morning live broadcast on our local public television station.  I only recently discovered this option.  If you check your local listings, perhaps you can view one of these field trips and see how wonderful they are for yourself!  Then you can enroll with Homeschool Buyers Co-op at an affordable price for all of the wonderful activities that go with the program!  Because our local station only aired the morning broadcast, we watched the afternoon's live broadcast on-line. 

     For the question and answer session, we got to hear from historical interpreters portraying Professor James Madison and John Page, and 2 modern scientists/historians from the College of William and Mary.  One child asked if Ben Franklin knew he could be electrocuted if he wasn't careful.  Before John Page could answer, my son exclaimed "the turkey!"  Yes, John Page told the infamous story of how Ben Franklin electrified a turkey to cook it for tender meat, only to get electrocuted himself.   Another great question was how these experiments were funded.  The general answer was that experiments back then had to be funded from one's own wealth.  In the morning, John Page added his own personal experience, of having purchased his special telescope which he highly prized.  That same question was asked in the afternoon and again John Page answered, this time saying that he purchased his expensive telescope "much to his wife's chagrin."  I had a feeling there was a bit of 21st century experience to that answer!   Another child brought up a question about man landing on the moon, something that John Page could not imagine!  The kids loved it all! 

     My kids each thought of great questions to e-mail to Daniel.  We've been wondering who would actually answer the questions for Daniel.  Surely, an adult would be fielding the historically scientific questions.  My daughter e-mailed this: "If someone were to go to college in the eighteenth century to be trained as a scientist, what kind of classes would he have to take?"   The reply was extremely informative and interesting and full of fun 18th century language!  A few hours later my son e-mailed his question.  "Somewhere I read that a bolt of lightening is seven times hotter than the sun's surface.  Even if a bolt of lightening is not that hot, what prevents a lightning rod from melting in the extreme heat of a lightening bolt?  The rod is after all only copper." The answer he received was also extremely interesting and informative, and using much of the same style as my daughter had received.  We had a lot of fun reading this answer!  As I read it out loud, I got this feeling that I knew who wrote it.  As I was considering this, my daughter exclaimed my very thoughts, "I think I know who Daniel is!  It's Professor James Madison!"   The e-mails sounded so much like him!  Well, there is no way to test the evidence. But the data we collected was that he began her e-mail, "Mistress _____________, A very interesting query," whereas he began my son's, "Master ____________, a very worthy query..."  Also words that ended the e-mail like, "I trust..." were in both.  Although the words in between varied, we can just hear Professor James Madison saying the words.  Alas, we'll never be able to prove our theory. However like a good puzzle, it was fun to try to figure out!

     Over the weekend, the kids completed their projects and rehearsed their presentations.  They asked if they could wear their costumes when they gave their presentations to their dad!  I got my son's everyday Colonial costume out of one closet, then from the other closet I got his Lafayette costume where I keep his Renaissance/Colonial shirt. While I was taking his shirt off the hangar that holds his Lafayette costume, he got a big grin and thanked me for being a great seamstress.  Awwwwww...... (I'm really not a great seamstress.  I have so much to learn.  But I am touched that the kids enjoy doing the costumes.  Someone once asked me if the kids appreciate all the sewing of costumes that I do for them.  Yes, they do!  And  I think the Lafayette costume is my son's favorite.)

     I had an easel for them to prop their boards on, but they actually felt more comfortable with holding the display boards themselves.  We have had extremely busy lives the last few weeks so they did not have this information memorized, even though they had learned it well.  My intent was not to push for perfection, but instead to give them practice in public speaking.  Doing these field trips once a month is giving us seven more opportunities for them to practice public speaking in a fun way.  It is definitely paying off.  My daughter has had some learning delays while growing up, and this afternoon I marveled at how well composed her presentation was!

     I did very little to help them with the display boards.  Instead I encouraged them to consider the audience. They've been in the audience for Revolutionary City at Colonial Williamsburg. What did they enjoy about that?  I challenged them to transfer that to their presentations.  What type of information would the audience want to hear?  How would the audience like to have it presented to them?   Although dubious at first, they rose to the challenge and did an excellent job!  My husband was impressed!

Here is my son talking about Edmund Halley...

Here is my daughter presenting information on Carolus Linnaeus...

Then there was time for questions and answers...

     My kids had a blast stepping into the 18th century to learn a little Natural Philosophy! In fact, as I type this, it is twilight.  My son is taking out the recycling and has called us out to see the flash of light across the sky.  Ohhhhhh that's right!  A few nights ago he asked me if I had ever seen a comet, a shooting star, and the International Space Station.  Yes to all three!  Then he wanted to know the difference in how they looked.  Well tonight he had the moving light pegged as the ISS.  We all ran out front but sadly we weren't quite quick enough to see it.  However we did see Venus, the steady bright light in the sky.  Hopeful, we went to the backyard where the ISS crossed over.  We still couldn't see it, but my daughter saw a twinkling light in the sky.  Testing my son, I asked him what that was...a star! Good for him!   He knows the difference from the stars and planets when looking at the night sky! Now he wants me to look up the path of the ISS to confirm his sighting.  Excuse me while I work with Daniel, I mean my 21st century son!  International Space Station Sightings (He was right!  That was the ISS we had just missed!)