What does it mean to be alive?

The lesson began with a basic science question.
 

How do you know when something is alive?
 

Young Kindergarten brainstormed ideas.
 

Then, they went into their worm bin laboratory.
 

The worms have been living in this classroom for several weeks.
 

The students have seen their worms move.
 

They have a good working theory of how they eat.
 

They haven’t actually seen their hearts beat.
 

But they’re pretty sure they are alive.
 

Then, their teacher introduced a different kind of worm.
 

What’s the difference between a red twister worm and a gummi worm?
 

The students made observations.
 

They recorded their results.

Asked later, it was not entirely clear they had fully absorbed the lesson about the definition of “alive.”
 

The experience of eating their gummi worm, but not their red twister, seemed to overshadow the rest of the lesson.
 

But it was clear that this year’s science work was pushing their thinking…