Sensibility

A couple of months ago, I found myself jotting down Austin's comments as he worked on his first ever science fair project. His fifth grade class is learning how to do research using the internet as part of their projects. Austin started out doing his project on "Which type of fruit do ants prefer?" After buying a bunch of fruit and slicing it up, and waiting...for hours.... we learned that ants don't want to go searching for food in the winter ;) Seeing as how the project was due in a couple of days, Austin switched the project. His goal was now to discover "Who has a better sense of smell, males or females?"

After completing the physical part of the research, Carl and I taught Austin how to google, and how to ask questions online. We sent him off to our home office, and he was working away for a bit. Across the house, we hear his footsteps running toward our room. Frustrated, he said "Mozzarella firefox isn't working." (For those of you who didn't notice, he meant Mozilla.) Carl and I got a chuckle out of this, and told him to use Safari instead. Off he went.

He came back a few minutes later frustrated that he didn't know how to ask google the question. Carl asked, "What question are you trying to find an answer to?" Austin thought about it for a minute and said "Ohhh....okay..." and started walking off.

Wanting to make sure he understood the task at hand, I asked, "What question will you go ask google?"

His answer: "Who smells better, men or women?" He didn't quite comprehend that this search would not yield the results he was looking for. Carl told him he would save him the trouble of asking that question, and just tell him the answer is women because women wear perfume. We re-explained this concept of asking questions online, and off he went.

Proudly, Austin came back in our room a few minutes later. "I found the answer!" Carl and I were curious what answer he found, but we both knew the correct answer already. Austin said "Women have a better sense of smell." Excellent! He got the right answer.

"Now Austin, why do women have a better sense of smell?" Carl asked.

So you know the correct answer, it's because estrogen gives us women more sensitivity in our olfactory nerves. Austin understood this concept, but the answer he gave us?.....

"Because women have more sensibility." I praised the youngin and told him he found the meaning to life. ;)

From Blog