The Beakers

About this page

Three beakers bubble away on page 54, and each one bubbles in its own surprising way. This playful scene sneaks in a big idea from Chapter 4, The Adventure Kit, which is that experiments compare things. When researchers mix different ingredients, they watch closely to see what changes. The square, round, and star-shaped bubbles give kids an instant lesson in comparing results side by side. It also celebrates the pure joy of experimenting, because sometimes the best question in science is simply, what happens if we try it this way instead?

Talk about it while you color

• Which beaker would you want to peek into first, and why that one?
• What do you think was mixed into the beaker with star-shaped bubbles?
• If you had a fourth beaker, what shape would your bubbles be?