Socratic educator Michael Strong with father Ryan Nohea Garcia
Michael Strong asks 5-year-old Ilana why some things fly and others fall. She figures out that wings alone don't work: ostriches are too big, soap bubbles rise because air pushes them, and paper airplanes need the right fold. The conversation moves from her first answer (wings) to understanding size, weight, and how air works.
Chapters
I can hear you.
Okay, I've got headphones too, so hopefully the sound is better for both of us.
Yeah.
Boy, Logan is loud. What's Logan doing? He's just making noises?
Yeah, my dad's carrying my brother.
Okay. Often very loud?
Yeah, he's really loud sometimes.
He sounds funny. Is he a funny little boy?
Yes.
Do you like being a big sister?
Yes.
Why?
Because I get to help my brother.
Oh, what do you help him with? Um, with—
when my mom and dad asked me to help with him when they cannot do stuff with him.
Oh, do you play with him?
Yes, I do play with him.
What kind of things do you play with him?
Well, we play with toys and blocks. We also play some toys at my side of my, on my dad's desk.
That sounds wonderful. It's nice when brothers and sisters get to play together, I think.
Yeah.
So, I have a question for you. Are you ready to start thinking about stuff?
Yes!
Okay, I've been wondering, why do you think that some things fly? So, you know, normally I've got a little ball here like a seed and I drop it. You know, normally things just fall, right?
Yeah, but some animals fly.
So why is it that some things drop and fall but other things fly?
Because other things do not have wings.
So if something has wings, then they fly, is that right?
Yeah.
How about, have you ever played with soap bubbles? You know what soap bubbles are? You blow bubbles and then they sometimes float up into the air.
Mm-hmm. I play with them before.
Are they fun?
Yes.
I think they're really cool. Sometimes they're really huge soap bubbles. What's the biggest soap bubble you've ever made?
This.
Wow, that's huge.
Or maybe this big.
Wow, that's really big. So why is it that sometimes soap bubbles fly? Because they don't have wings.
Well, they don't have wings because they're not an animal. They are just little bubbles.
That's true, but I guess I'm wondering why is it that a soap bubble doesn't just drop like that?
Well, because of the air, it pushes it.
So fair enough, Sarah. So the air bubble pushes the soap bubbles up, but is there any way we can get the soap bubble to push this up? I mean, the air to push this up?
No.
Why not? Can I say, please air, please, please, please push this up so it doesn't fall?
That would be funny.
Well, why do soap bubbles— why does the air push soap bubbles up but it won't push this up?
Well, I don't know.
Is it a mystery?
Yeah.
Okay, so some things are mysteries.
Mm-hmm.
How about little pieces of dust? Have you ever seen little pieces of dust sort of floating in the air? No. Well, without a picture it's hard, but sometimes I've seen like when the sun comes through your window, sometimes when you see sun coming through windows you see little pieces of dust kind of floating around in the air. I'm thinking of other things that don't fall. So most things fall, right? Like if you drop most things, Like, this is a little ball, but suppose, suppose this was a little car. Would a little car fall just like this? Yes. How about a little toy? Would a little toy fall just like that? Yes. So we already— so things with wings can fly, but soap bubbles don't fall. So I'm trying to figure out, is there anything else that doesn't fall? That doesn't have wings?
An ostrich has wings, but it doesn't fly.
You know, that's right. That's a really good point. So let's try to figure that one out. Why don't ostriches fly?
Um, maybe because they're too big?
Okay, okay, so ostriches are too big to fly. Maybe. That would explain why horses don't fly, because maybe horses are too big. They're really big. Airplanes are way bigger than ostriches, but airplanes fly.
Yeah, airplanes fly.
So, so how can— if, if, if a person is driving So you have to have— so maybe if we had somebody driving the ostrich, then the ostrich and the person would fly?
No!
Why not? Why not? Why not?
Um, maybe because the ostrich doesn't spread his wings.
Maybe what we need is we need Alana to train ostriches how to fly. So maybe we could create a school. The Ilana School of Ostrich Flying, and you teach those ostriches. No? Why not?
That would be funny.
It would be funny. But do you think you could teach a bunch of ostriches how to fly? You say, ostriches, you stupid ostriches, spread your wings and then you'll fly.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's easy, but the reason why a dog barks Because I'm at my Apo's house.
Oh, okay.
In Los Angeles. And they have a white dog.
That would explain the barking. Thank you. Thank you. So do turkeys fly?
No.
So why don't turkeys fly? Um, They have wings, right?
They do, but they cannot fly.
Do you think we just need to teach those turkeys how to fly too?
No!
Why not?
It's their own animal.
Okay, so you said some things, things with wings fly, but now we have ostriches and turkeys don't fly. And they have wings. So how do we know which things with wings fly and which things with wings don't fly?
Well, ostriches and chickens don't fly.
Well, those darn chickens! Why don't chickens fly?
Um...
Sounds like we need another Ilana School of how to teach chickens to fly. You ready to have a chicken fly in school?
No!
Why not?
Because the building is gonna be too big and small.
Okay, so it'll have to be out in the country. So we have to create a country school for how to teach chickens how to fly, right? No! Why not?
That's supposed to be funny!
Okay. How can you tell it's supposed to be funny?
Um, because most animals cannot fly with wings.
Okay, so only some birds with wings get to fly. Is it just like luck, or, you know, some lucky birds, you know, they, they get to fly and other lucky— other birds are unlucky?
Um, well, Some birds are lucky that they fly, but some birds are not because they don't fly.
Okay, okay. Well, how about bugs? So some bugs with wings fly, like flies and dragonflies, but some bugs with wings— or do you think all bugs with wings fly, or there's some bugs with wings that don't fly?
Some bugs that have wings do not fly.
So are those just unlucky bugs as well?
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Okay, so I'm now I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of, have you ever had a little tiny toy airplane? No. But have you seen little toy airplanes?
No.
Okay, but I bet there are little, some little toy airplanes that don't fly. That sound right?
Yes, because it's a toy.
Okay, but there are also toy airplanes that do fly. Have you heard of model airplanes? No. Some people actually have model airplanes that really do fly. It's really fun. You should talk to your dad about model airplanes.
Okay.
Okay? Okay. Here's another one. Have you, have you ever seen a paper airplane?
Yes.
Have you ever made a paper airplane? Yes. Did it fly?
Yes.
Wow! How did you make it fly?
By using instructions.
So do normal pieces of paper fly?
No.
So this sounds like magic to me. Are you saying that you can take a just regular piece of paper and turn it into a paper airplane?
Yes.
Is it magic? You say, "Abracadabra, piece of paper fly now." Is that what happens?
No.
So why is that that— how do you make paper fly? Do you teach it? Do you have a lot of school of how paper should fly?
No!
Tell me, how do we get paper to fly?
By the air.
Okay, but again, you just told me regular paper does not fly, so there's air all over the place. There's air here.
Well, when there's a paper airplane and then the air pushes it up into the sky.
I agree, but the question is, why does it push the paper airplane into the sky? But not regular piece of the paper?
Well, regular piece of paper fly in the air, but sometimes it doesn't.
So what makes paper airplanes fly better than regular paper?
Um, because of the wings.
Oh, the wings. So we're back to wings, are we? So when you make a paper airplane, do you create wings?
Yes.
Ah, so now things— you said things with wing flies, so airplanes fly, birds fly, and paper airplanes fly, and you, you make paper airplanes fly because you put wings into the paper. Is that kind of right?
Yes. Okay, and when we're in outer space, we can Wow, how do you know about that? Um, because I saw a show about it.
Would you like to fly?
Yes, but I don't want to go in outer space.
I totally agree. Why do you not want to go to outer space?
Because there's aliens.
Oh, that doesn't sound good. How about if there were just nice aliens?
That they would be still Bad if they get mad.
Okay, okay, so let's stay out of outer space because the mad aliens, the bad mad aliens, right?
Mm-hmm. Well, really, really mad.
Okay, well, I think you know a lot about those aliens. Um, well, I am thinking about these flying airplanes, and I like the fact that You know how to create, put wings onto paper. I think that's pretty cool.
Or we could draw an airplane and then cut it out.
Would it fly then?
No.
Why not?
Because it needs to do of a whole paper.
So just cutting out wings is not enough?
Yeah.
Why not?
I guess you'll need to fold them so we can go.
Okay, okay. Well, I think this is super interesting. I love paper airplanes, by the way. I think they're so much fun.
Me too.
So, well, I'm thinking I should let you get back to your family, but you've given me lots to think about, so I'm going to think about paper airplanes and Ostriches, okay?
Okay, okay.
So you have a wonderful week, and maybe we'll talk next weekend about something, something related to all of this, okay? Okay, go ahead. Bye-bye.
