On the way home from school today, we spotted a piano on the sidewalk planted with flowers… a sight worthy of a u-turn. I asked my daughter and her friend, “What do you think? Does a planted piano still play?” They considered the question as they hopped from the car to the sidewalk where the piano stood. I challenged them to inspect the piano first with their eyes only- don’t touch it. The two looked the piano up, down and all around pointing out “There’s not too much dirt in the wires” and “None of the keys are jammed.” ”So, what’s your guess?” ”Yes! We think it will play!” ”Go ahead, try it out.”
And sure enough… they were right! A happy experience… and experiment. A few simple questions turned the sidewalk into a science lab and the two friends into scientists making observations, creating a hypothesis and conducting a test… also known as the Scientific Method.
As we drove home, I asked the two, “What would you call a planted piano?” Zippy piped up, “A pi-lant-o!”