Intellectual Curiosity?

Last Friday I was in a science classroom. Science classrooms many times have working faucets at the workstations. The students are supposed to leave them alone unless they are doing a lab, and most of the time they do.

I noticed one group of four running the water. Of course, I went over to investigate.

They explained that they were doing physics. They wanted to see how many drops of water they could get to balance on the end of a pen.

This kind of pen, although theirs was blue.

Because of the surface tension of water, they could balance a couple drops. If you look at the end of the pen closely, you'll see that there's enough of an indentation to keep a little water there, which is what held a drop on top.  

They were able to get three drops or the third drop obliterated their efforts--I wasn't clear on which.  

I stood there and watched them for a bit. It was kind of interesting. 

There are all sorts of things students will do when given the chance. (The assignment was a finish-up-the-packet-that's-due thing, and several students pulled out work from other classes.) Many of my nightmare posts result from this.  

But of all the things they can get up to, this is the sort of thing that bothers me the least.