Improbable inventions

This month, I've been reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy out loud to our class. It's a funny and exciting book, but it's also got a lot of interesting scientific, philosophical and mathematical content that engages the kids on a different level. Some of it is over their heads, but most is just within their comprehension, and I think that's a good mix: they're getting to encounter some new ideas, ideas they can play with, and they also have the sense that there is more here waiting to be plumbed, so they pay close attention. The adventurous plot helps, of course.

One of the main ideas we've been exploring is improbability. The Heart of Gold spaceship is run on an Infinite Improbability Drive, which causes all sorts of bizarre coincidences to occur within the story. We've had a lot of fun toying with improbable ideas, and it's been interesting to hear the kids discussing the difference between "probable," "improbable," and "impossible." We made a chart on the board one day: I asked them to give me a probable event, and then we changed the same thing to make it improbable and then impossible. The first example I got was "Christmas will come next year." That, we all agreed, was probable. The improbable version was that Christmas would not come next year. The impossible version (contributed by Mike) was to say that Christmas is always, definitely coming.

The kids have all drawn Scenes of Improbability, which are arrayed on the classroom wall as you walk in the door. Each picture is accompanied by an improbability factor, in the style of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, such as "two to the power of six hundred thousand thirteen to one, against."

As a class, we've written limericks about improbable things!

If humans could live on Neptune

Then they would all live in cocoons.

Oh, it would be cold there

Pears wouldn't grow there

All pianos would be out of tune.

This book has provided a lot of worthy avenues of exploration, but I think improbabilities have the most potential for fun!