Not an eggzact science

I earned my lowest ACT score in high school for the science competency test. I've never really liked science. Partially because science always seemed much less scientific to me than it did to others around me. When I was in high school, my experiments never turned out right. I mean the vials rarely had the color or texture they were supposed to have, though I'd followed the directions verbatim. I often handed in lab logs with my fingers crossed, hoping my instructor would give me an 'A' for effort despite my failed results. Precision is not my forte.

Justin studied chemical engineering in college, and even his rationale for English grammar rules is strangely reminiscent of a chemist or mathematician. He outlines the rules for difficult grammar questions with a simple formula. He liked to talk about how not to catch H1N1 and knows about why MSGs are bad. Justin likes science.

When I first arrived in Korea, he had me teaching a science course for the English camp. I found it funny that they would need to learn science at English camp, but to really learn a language, one must learn the vocabulary associated with everything! Now, Korean students are on winter vacation, so a science/conversation course has been added to entertain and educate during the break. And I'm teaching it. Justin gave me a thick, spiral-bound book called 730 Science Experiments for Kids. (He said he was going to use it for his daughter someday, but they're packing to move back to the states, and he thought I could use it.) The new class is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so I thought we could do a simple science experiment once per week and use the other two sessions to review science vocabulary and just practice simple non-scientific conversational English.

Today, we conducted an experiment titled "Detecting a Hard-Boiled Egg." According to the book, a cooked egg spins and will stop when touched lightly with one finger, but an uncooked egg wobbles and doesn't stop moving when touched lightly with one finger. The raw egg keeps moving due to the laws of intertia, which state that moving things have a tendency to keep moving and still things have a tendency to stay still. I bought about two dozen eggs from a local grocery mart and mixed the cooked eggs with the uncooked ones in the egg carton. I brought two clear glasses, so that we could test our hypothesis by cracking the eggs open. I explained the idea and taught the students "spin," "wobble," "cooked" and "raw." Then we conducted our experiment.

On one hand, the book was right. A cooked egg spins very quickly while a raw egg wobbles like a penguin doing the hokey-pokey, turning itself around. On the other hand, the book was not exactly right because it's not impossible to spin a raw egg if you use enough force. And I was working with three little boys! Also, a hard-boiled egg sometimes moves when stopped as well, if the "light" touch of a little boy's finger is actually quite forceful and abrupt for example. The type of motion that marks the difference. A cooked egg still sways a bit, but a raw egg rolls.

Thus as we conducted the experiment, we sometimes guessed a cooked egg and found out it was actually raw, or vice versa. We got it right several times, though, and teacher got better at recognizing the egg behaviors.

Two things were concretely accomplished through today's experiment: 1. I realized how important it is to train young scientists in the technique of accuracy in order to achieve accurate results. If I were to do it again, I would emphasize that they use a one-handed spin and stop the egg with a light finger-touch rather than a full-handed stop. Then, they should wait a moment after releasing the egg and observe the type of motion. 2. They had a lot of fun spinning and cracking eggs in English class! Even despite our inaccuracies.

White elephant gift exchanges are not an exact science, either. That's obvious, I suppose. Yesterday, we had a Christmas party after Dongshin service and introduced the white elephant gift game to the Koreans. My friend, Nate, and I were pretty certain that getting a high number is better than a low number, because those who go toward the end have a roomful of gifts to steal while those with a low numbers are usually too enticed by the pile of unopened packages to steal even a covetable gift from someone else. My number was 5 out of about 30. Nate had a twentyish number.

I grabbed the most interestingly wrapped package I could see and unopened a fake yellow tulip plant with a little green frog charm sticking out of it. Pretty cute, but useless for someone like me who doesn't care for cutesy decorations without a semi-permanent home in which to display them. I acted amused and settled down to watching others unwrap, thinking to myself, "No one is going to steal a fake plant." A Hello-Kitty recorder, a nose massager, a giant jar of Prego, pink bunny slippers and a pair of numb chucks, which Nate proudly bought at a Home Plus Mart, were some of the more interesting gifts. (I contributed a gold piggy bank, hwajangsil sticker and some chocolates.) White elephant gift exchanges are a spectacle anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed.

But to my surprise, some middle-aged Korean woman eventually stole away my fake plant, giving me another chance at the pile. This time I looked for texture and unwrapped a large bag of pumpkin-flavored jelly candy. Several Koreans seemed impressed, but I don't even like pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread. I was surely finished. Nate even commented that my pumpkin candy was a done deal. Yet again, to our surprise, another Korean woman envied the pumpkin jellies. I shopped around the room and stole a gift bag with a neat looking coffee cup and nice teas. I guess one man's trash is another man's treasure, especially when playing with a diverse crowd. It's not a science, but it was a really great time!