The world is full of fascinating phenomena: the water cycle, pi, volcanoes, square roots, photosynthesis, gravity and migration, just to name a few.  These, and so many other things, are taught in the Montessori School of Duluth’s elementary class.  Experiments and stories are used to make these things easy to understand and experience.  But part of the motivation there, too, is to pique the children’s interest in something they’ll want to find out more about on their own.

That’s what’s most thrilling about the elementary classroom — that children can research what they’re curious about.

And that’s how we end up at quicksand. A while back two girls at MSD researched quicksand, wrote an essay about it, found a recipe for quicksand, made it, and gave a presentation to the class.  Both their teacher and the other children were spellbound listening to their presentation.