© Loree Griffin Burns
“This experiment is important, because, as far as we know, no one in history (including adults) has done this experiment before.”
So say the twenty-five 8- to 10-year-old children from Blackawton Primary School in Devon, England, whose study of the bumble bee Bombus terrestris was published in the December 22, 2010 issue of the journal Biology Letters.
Their experiments are clever, their results are interesting, and their scientific report is delightful. I highly recommend you put your thinking cap on (its a fairly complicated experiment) and read it.
I love that the Blackawton teachers created an elementary science experience based on the simple idea that science is a game everyone can play. I admire the editors at Biology Letters, who acknowledged this idea in such a powerful way: by publishing their paper. And I adore the closing sentence of the paper itself: “Science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before.”
Hear! Hear!