Saturday, March 7, 2015

Questions... Make Life Interesting

     We encourage our students to ask questions, but how often do we actually take the time to question ourselves? I'm not talking about our pedagogy, or classroom management, but things. How do we notice the world around us? The other day I was bringing my daughter to her flute lesson. Her teacher lives in the city of Syracuse. On the way there I noticed many of the beautiful old houses lining the street were weighted down with huge icicles.

     They impressed me so much I thought I might write a slice about them, or maybe a poem. And so I might. But today I'd like to write about questions. Wonderings.

     When we arrived, I could not park. There were two vehicles in the driveway and busses facing me. If I were to park, cars would not be able to get by. So, adversity actually inspired me to drive around and snap some pictures of some of the icicles I saw. These are a couple of them.  

I haven't been able to stop thinking about these icicles and my questions have started bubbling up into conscious thought. So here, they are. 
  1.  This icicle monstrosity made me wonder how much a cubic foot of ice weighed. That was an easy question to research - a cubic foot of ice is 57.2 lbs. I still wonder how many cubic feet of ice there is in this icicle. 
  2. How long will it take to melt this? (Obviously, this answer varies, depending on the sunlight, temperature and wind.) 
  3. Another question: Why right there? Does it have something to do with the slope of the roof? 
  4. What would happen if you knocked that down? (Doesn't the kid in you want to try that?)
  5. Why do some seem to be formed at odd angles to the house? How strong does the wind have to be to make them grow at 45 degree angles? 
  6. Does an icicle "grow"? Or form? Shouldn't growing be reserved for living things?
  7. Umm... are the landlords even concerned?
  8. What might cause an icicle to split at the end and look like a forked devil's tongue?
  9. Some look like the have little rings in them, and some look like an artist took a paintbrush and made little straight lines down the inside. How does this happen when they are adjacent to each other? How does it happen at all?
  10. One icicle looked like it took a 45 degree angle detour before continuing. Again, how does this happen? 
  11. How strong does the wind have to be to make them grow at 45 degree angles?
  12. How are air bubbles formed in them?
  13. Some look to be razor sharp needlepoints at the bottom. If it fell on you... well that's kind of a gory question, but you get the drift, I think.
The world is full of questions, full of wonderings! So, next time I am modeling questioning with my students, I will be ready with a list of my own! 


  1. I loved your questions! Yes, I think we have to question everything around us. It pushes us to reflect and explore on many different things in our daily lives! Thank you for the great photos!

  2. What a list of fun questions! Do you use Wonderopolis with your students? Looks like you'd love it! Such a fun site for interesting articles based around these kinds of intriguing questions.

  3. Questions about icicles . . . Who knew there could be so many? My daughter is in Ithaca, so we fly into Syracuse sometimes. I spent several weeks there last summer, but I don't envy you your winters.