How to Turn a Chore into a Science Lesson

I have a confession to make. I love coffee.  Since I love coffee so much, I wanted to figure out a way to make it a science lesson. My motive? I wanted my children to make me coffee. You guessed right, I drink coffee throughout the day!

If you do too, make it into a lesson. You welcome! Here is a focus question you can use for the lesson. Which coffee brewing method makes the best coffee?

Okay, this is not a scientific question but we can use scientific skills to arrive to a personal opinion. 

Let’s get started! Gather materials. We used the following two brewing methods:

• french press machine
• sock filter

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I rallied the children and told them that we were going to do a tasting lesson. Um, I mean, chore, I mean science lesson. You get the point. We started with the sock filter. A sock filter is an old brewing method were you insert a metal wire to flannel or cotton fabric. Cool, right?

I told the girls to microwave 2 cups of water for 2 minutes, pour 2 scoops of coffee in the sock, and steep the coffee for 5 minutes. We then moved to brewing coffee with the french press. We used the same quantities as before in order to have a fair comparison. Now my children know how to brew coffee using both methods. Chore accomplished! Can you sense the coffee chore being a regular on our list? 

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After my daughters brewed the coffee I asked them to serve me coffee in two mugs without telling which cup was from the sock and which cup was from the french press. Then, I had to “blind test” the coffee and describe it.  Permission to savor the coffee in middle of the day? I love this chore!

Because it was a science lesson, I mean chore, they did the blind test too. We recorded our personal opinion in a piece of paper and compared our results. Here is the picture of my subjective data. 

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My children thought that coffee is disgusting and couldn’t come up with a decision of which brewing method is better. But I enjoyed this chore, I mean lesson! It was fun and I got them to make me coffee.

How do we turn a chore into a science lesson?

• Find a chore your children currently do or you want them to do.
• Find an alternative method to doing the chore a different product/method/tool etc. 
• Invite children to figure out how to compare, record, and come to a conclusion. 

And even though this lesson is not scientific in nature it sure makes for a great sciencish (is that a word?) family activity. It was fun and I got to enjoy another coffee cup.

What chore do you want to turn into a science lesson? Leave a comment below and let me know which chore(s) you want help turning into a science lesson. I can’t wait to hear from you!