Chapter 5: Counting the Treasure
Negative Results Coloring Page
"Even a 'No' is a discovery!"
A sad face on a screen, but Professor Hoot is smiling and pointing at it.
About this page
The squad's experiment did not turn out the way they hoped, and the screen shows a glum little face. But Professor Hoot is beaming, because he knows a secret every scientist learns eventually, that finding out something does not work is still finding something out. This page teaches children that a "No" answer is real information, not failure, a habit of mind that makes the rest of Chapter 5 feel safe to explore. Disappointment and discovery can share the same page, and Hoot's smile shows which one wins.
The research skill
The screen reads No Result, and Professor Hoot gives it a thumbs up anyway. Researchers call this a negative result: the test was done carefully, and the expected effect simply did not show up. It still counts as data, because it rules one idea out and narrows the search. In Chapter 5, making sense of findings means reporting the no answers as honestly as the yes ones. Your child will meet this in science class, when an experiment "fails" and the lab report still has to explain what happened.
Try it at home
Test a simple guess that might well come out as a no. Ask your child to predict which household objects will stick to a fridge magnet: a spoon, a crayon, a plastic cup, a pot lid, a sheet of foil. Make two piles, Yes and No, and test each one. Then look together at the No pile and ask what it teaches you (maybe that not every shiny thing sticks). Give the No pile its own cheer, the way Hoot does, so a no feels like news rather than a flop.
Talk about it while you color
- Why do you think Professor Hoot is smiling at a sad face?
- Can you remember a time something you tried did not work, and what did you learn from it?
- What could the squad try next, now that they know this answer is a no?