Reprinted from Connect
Vol.14 No.3, January/February , 2001
Focus on: Predicting and Problem Solving
Grade Level: K-8
Grade Level: K-2
Grade Level: 6-8
Grade Level: 3-5

Surrounded by Challenging Problems

by Casey Murrow

On any given day, there are questions near at hand that can challenge and motivate students. These questions can become investigations that call for predictions and engage children in valuable problem solving exercises.

We can often find in students’ own conversations the basis for an investigation that is challenging, yet relatively easy to undertake. Here is just one example. A conversation about laundry led to this question:

The water in laundry hung out to dry on a warm, sunny day evaporates until the laundry is dry. How much water vapor is that and where does the water vapor go?

To answer the first part, Susan ran a typical load of laundry through her washer and weighed it when she took it out. Then, when it was completely dry, she weighed it again. In her test, the wet weight was 13.65 lbs. The dry weight was 8.85 lbs. So 4.8 lbs. Of water were evaporated. This was done with a clothes drier ( which may offer various degrees of dryness), but you might decide to use solar energy–a clothes line. Would that make a difference?

Converting this data to metric (or using the metric system to begin with) makes it much easier to visualize, because one liter of water weighs one kilogram (technically, at 4º Celcius).

Wet laundry: 6.19kg
Dry laundry: 4.01kg
Difference: 2.18kg

Casey Murrow - Casey Murrow is Co-Director of Synergy Learning and editor of CONNECT.
List all articles by Casey Murrow