Gever Tulley's great book 50 Dangerous Things (You should Let Children Do) is a constant source of inspiration for me, and I have been wanting to incorporate it more into our makerspace programming. I thought page 14 gave us an excellent chance to do so, as we already had a microwave in our Creative Arts Center when I took over. In his book Gever recommends all sorts of great things to put into your microwave, from CD's, to grapes and marshmallows. One of my favorite things to put into a microwave however, that I was shocked was excluded from his list, is the humble potato chip bag. (I've had a love for potato chip bags and their usefulness ever since picking up Potato Chip Science as a christmas gift for my oldest boy a few years back.)
Potato Chip bags are made of a stretched polymer, so when you place them in the microwave they magically shrink, the same principle is in play with the popular craft/toys from our childhood, the shrinky dink.
Before we started placing things in the microwave we had some rules to cover, for this I read directly from Gever's book.
"Before we start putting things into the microwave, there are a couple of rules we must follow in order to minimize the danger to ourselves and the microwave.
Potato Chip bags are made of a stretched polymer, so when you place them in the microwave they magically shrink, the same principle is in play with the popular craft/toys from our childhood, the shrinky dink.
Before we started placing things in the microwave we had some rules to cover, for this I read directly from Gever's book.
"Before we start putting things into the microwave, there are a couple of rules we must follow in order to minimize the danger to ourselves and the microwave.
- 10 second limit- never power any experiment for more than 10 seconds at a time.
- Cancel and Contain- if the experiment should happen to catch fire, immediately hit the 'cancel' or 'stop' button, and keep the door closed until the fire goes out.
- Expect it to be Hot- small objects that absorb microwave energy have a tendency to heat up, sometimes spectacularly. Use an oven mitt or tongs when removing experiments from the microwave.
I also made sure to tell the children to always ask an adults permission, and to have an adult present when exploring the potential of the microwave as a tool. Adults may not always want you to put strange things in their microwave, but don't worry because that's why we have one here for you!
After reviewing the rules with the children we started in on the fun. For demonstration purposes we first threw an old CD into the microwave. Before we hit the 'start' button we asked for the children's hypothesis on what may happen. Most children assumed it would spark and blow up the microwave, or melt the CD.
After reviewing the rules with the children we started in on the fun. For demonstration purposes we first threw an old CD into the microwave. Before we hit the 'start' button we asked for the children's hypothesis on what may happen. Most children assumed it would spark and blow up the microwave, or melt the CD.
After demonstrating with the CD, we moved on to the chip bags. I instructed each child to grab a chip bag and use a paper towel to wipe out as much oil from the bag as possible. Once our chip bags were clean and ready, we formed a line at the microwave and took turns shrinking the bags. Once the bags came out of the microwave in their miniature form the kids hot glued a pinback to it to create a nice little button!
I was suprised at how much the children, and the adults they were with really seemed to enjoy this activity. The next time I think I will go ahead and include all of the activities Gever recommends.
I was suprised at how much the children, and the adults they were with really seemed to enjoy this activity. The next time I think I will go ahead and include all of the activities Gever recommends.