Junior Scientist

I was going to post pictures.. . Of family camp. and Willas 10 month pictures (since she is almost 11 months) and other good pics like that. But my phone and computer and having a long slow conversation that I dont want to interrupt. So I will just share instead

Addie got a Junior Scientist Award today. Let's be honest, she herself did nothing scientific. But she participated in a study at UW so science may have taken one minuscule step forward in tiny part thanks to her?!

Back when she was a baby/toddler I participated in a few studies at UW with her. Basically because I got bored staying at home and figured "why not" and they always gave a free toy or a small compensation. So one of those studies has been trying to contact me about doing a follow up because they want to compare how kids reacted when they were babies to how they act now right before entering kindergarten. As a mom of three now, my initial response to any request like that would be "not going to happen. how would I make that work in our schedule? what would I do with the other too? not worth it!"  But they got lucky because I had just finished reading a really interesting book about habits. The book talks about a lot of different studies and it made me think about how sacrificing an hour of our time wasnt that big a deal. And it might eventually help lead to an interesting discovery or at least help researchers understand things better.

Anyways, Addie says she had fun. And I enjoyed it. I got to sit in a room and watch & listen to everything Addie was doing (unbeknownst to her) while also reading a book some. They were testing her ability to remember things as well as her patience/ability to delay gratification (marshmallow study coming to mind for anyone who was a psych or science major??). They had her play Simon Says, they tested her vocab, they listed off 3 numbers and had her say them in reverse order, things like that. The last thing was the funnest for me to watch. They put a battery operated robot on the table right up in her face basically. They told her they had to leave the room for a few minutes and they wanted her to sit there and not touch it and they would play with it together when the researcher returned. And she didnt touch it for the entire 10 minutes they were gone! She had no clue she was being videotaped. She was really curious about it. They turned it on right when they left the room so it made noise and lit up for about 1 minute then stopped. She wanted it go back on. She peaked on each side of it to look for the switches. She even whispered to it a couple times that she wanted it to turn on! She yawned, she stared at the ceiling, she played with her hands a little, but she stayed sitting and didnt touch it. Part of me was really proud because she was so obedient and patient. Part of me chuckled when i thought of what Etta would have done with those 10 minutes.  Another part of me wondered if she is too compliant and I need to teach her to think for herself more?

And have I mentioned that she starts kindergarten in less than a month?!!!Shoreline Christian School here she comes!