We had a great session today with 15 brand new faces. First of all the students had to consider their answers to two open ended questions: 1. Name everything you can think of that is orange. 2. What can you make with a pillow and a mirror?
We talked about the reasons we'd asked to bring them together, and discussed what it meant to think outside of the box, and what "curly" questions are.
Together we read the book "The Mixed Up Chameleon", which is a story about a chameleon who wishes to be like other creatures, until no part of his original body remains.
Our discussion centred around identity, what makes you you, and about being grateful for the things you have rather than wishing for others. "Be careful what you wish for," one of the students suggested. It was also a book about social identity; wanting to be like others, and about personality or instinct. We could tell that although the chameleon looked nothing like a chameleon by the end of the book, he was still a chameleon inside, as his first instinct when he saw the fly was to eat it.
The book also raised questions about change - how much can change about something before you can no longer call it the same thing, and it is actually a new thing.
This is a well-known paradox called the Ship of Theseus.
We watched an interesting video which introduced this paradox, and discussed the ship amongst our group. It is very cool that we all had different opinions on the idea, and that all our answers were valid.
If you want to explore more about the Ship of Theseus puzzle, the Khan Academy has a good learning video here:
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