Valencians Aida Ivars and Tomás Hernández met while teaching at an institute: she taught Chemistry and he, Art. In 2013 they decided to leave teaching, create the theater company Los Gato con Batas and take advantage of their knowledge to make scientific dissemination on stage. The key to their shows, which they offer to town councils and educational centers, is always the same: they carry out experiments linked to the different themes they deal with in the stories they tell. “When you see something that catches your attention, you ask yourself questions and you enjoy it. Science likes more than we think, "says Ivars. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, both her functions and her daughter Iris's classes have been canceled, and they have used their time at home to continue entertaining through their YouTube channel. Every Tuesday at 5:00 pm they broadcast their “experiences”.
In these live shows, the couple chooses a story and, when they finish reading it, they do an experiment that adapts to what they have just narrated. These tests range from modifying straws to make sounds that resemble birds singing, to applying physics to balloons. While Hernández records and reads the comments that people are leaving, Ivars tells stories and carries out the experiments with the help of his daughter Iris. The first days they broadcast daily, but now they have decided to do the experiments only on Tuesdays. “We have changed the frequency, we believed that confinement was not going to last as long. Now we want to reorient the channel and do it every week, to simultaneously intersperse with other more worked videos. We hope to make YouTube our source of income because we believe that we will not be able to return to the theater in a long time, ”says the former teacher.
Primary teacher Miriam Sandez has also had to readjust her situation as a result of the confinement. On her Instagram account @abeceart she has been sharing the materials she uses to make crafts with her students for a while. Before the suspension of classes, Sandez received a multitude of requests from both colleagues and parents to teach them how to view this content from home. Thus, he came up with the idea of summoning other teachers and doing with them a series of live shows called Happy Days . “They are educational days every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 15:00 to 20:00. There we teach online training or different activities ”, explains the teacher.
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VISCOSE MASS but TASTE 🧪. . I encourage you to do this experiment that you can find in my PDF! The children are amazed! Thanks to this mixture the children see the characteristics of the liquid and solid property. . . ▶ ️Materials: Cornstarch. Water. Coloring (optional). Mixing container. . . ▶ ️Step by step: 1️⃣Pour cornstarch into a bowl. 2️⃣Pour water. Very little by little. It does not have to be liquid. 3️⃣ Mix well and remove 4️⃣ Add coloring (optional). . . StáIt is great because the children will take the dough and can make a ball (it will be hard and compact), but if we stop pressing, the dough will dissolve. . . ❤️If you like it, give it a like! . . . #abeceart #claustrodeig #maestraprimaria #maestrainfantil #infantil #primaria #educacion #art #artkids #kids #manualidades #manualidadesmolonas #mestra #learnandplay #recursos #teaching #educacioninfantil #educacionprimaria #artcrafts #yomequedoencasa #acece
A shared post by Miriam ABeCeART (@abeceart) on Apr 2, 2020 at 12:43 PDT
Within these live shows, it occurred to him to dedicate an entire one to teaching experiments. "Since I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to be followed from home without seeing the steps and that they had the materials, I uploaded it all the day before, explained in a document," he says. The great reception that this activity had made me decide to dedicate another direct to this type of demonstrations, in addition to uploading its corresponding pdf where it details all the steps. In total, there are more than 20 experiments (ranging from making a home projector to preparing a dough that goes from being compact to liquid in a few seconds) for children from early childhood education to elementary school. "They are adaptable depending on age. While, for example, with mass, the oldest can be explained the difference between heterogeneous and homogeneous, with the smallest, only the textures would be worked on, ”explains Sandez.
The 72-year-old Mexican astronomer Julieta Fierro has always been clear that experimentation is key to the dissemination of science. When I taught online to university students, I showed them simple experiments to explain astronomical phenomena. He thought it would be interesting to share these simple demos with everyone. In this way, in collaboration with the mathematician Damián Real and the physicist Diego García, he created the Facebook page Quantos de Ciencia. Now in his quarantine, he is uploading new videos for those grandparents who want to entertain their grandchildren with science, an idea he drew from his own personal experience. “One of my sons asked me to teach his young son from a distance every day. So with the things I had at hand I began to teach how to carry out experiments that could be repeated at home ”, explains Fiero.
In case you were left with more desire for science, below we propose other activities:
- We remind you of this initiative that EL PAÍS mentioned a few weeks ago. Second graders have designed a collection of scientific experiments (all with their corresponding video) for all elementary grades, ranging from how to blow up a balloon without blowing to making an erupting volcano. You can consult them in this extensive pdf, divided between the first cycle of primary and second.
- The UCM, in collaboration with the Federation of Astronomical Associations of Spain, has launched the AZOTEA project, with which they intend to photograph and monitor the sky during and after confinement. In it, as specified on the website, "any interested person who has a digital photographic camera" can participate.
- Do you think you know a lot about science? Check it out through the Hi Score Science app. Through this application developed by the CSIC, you can take tests to test your scientific knowledge. This quarantine has released a new online mode, so you can also test yourself in front of users from anywhere in the world.
Without Leaving the Salon is a series of topics in which we tell how we stay active while we are at home in the midst of the coronavirus crisis thanks to the initiatives promoted by social networks:
-Festivals and concerts
-Yoga, pilates, crossfit ... and almost any sport
-Online and collaborative table games
-Child stories
-Confinement kitchen 'made in' Andoni Aduriz or Cristina Oria
-Wizards lend their tricks to adults
-The most artistic challenge: one drawing every day
-What does one comedian without rooms say to act to another? Let's tell jokes on Instagram
-My first class of "bachata para torpes" from the classroom
-Test your language skills
-Homemade costumes to remember art classics
-The day to day of dozens of people, told in photographs
-Foam, Sloth, Electronic Calic ... Returns and emergency reunions
-Origami to make boxes or paper cranes and not think about anything else
- Experts who guide you from YouTube on your DIY tasks at home
-Dust off the guitar you have forgotten since adolescence
- Challenges, tips and courses to finish that book or story you have in drafts
To know more...
... Questions and answers about the coronavirus: from its symptoms to its possible social and economic effects.
... In this guide to action against coronavirus you can find answers to know what to do when you suspect it, how to prevent it or how to act if you are infected.
... We offer you ideas to better spend your time at home: exercise, music, culture without leaving the room.
... Watch your eyes during confinement.
... Guide to make video calls with adults.
... How to deal with isolation at home if you have anxiety problems
... Ideas and projects that seek to stop the curve.
... Do you get many jokes and memes about the coronavirus? What is humor for in a moment like this?
... You can follow the latest news about the coronavirus in the live of EL PAÍS.
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