Wanna Be A Blockhead?

Last class we met up with another science class and talked with them about box theater. At first, much like us, they were pretty apprehensive to go outside and stick a box on their head but soon enough you could hear the "OH WOW!"s coming from within the box. Our group of four (Melonie, Dayna, Amanda, and I) had a group of four students from the other class. All four of them got in the box, and all but one of them seemed pretty interested in what was happening and either wanted to see it again or offered up some thoughts on how it happened. Part of me wishes we had more time so really do more of the experiments and actually start with a small hole like we had done and "play" with it a little more before it worked so that maybe the students could have seen the box as more than just some weird contraption. On the other hand, there was a bit of an awkward moment when we were trying to talk with them about it because they weren't as enthusiastic as we have been the past several weeks. I think part of that is because they didn't really have time to think about it on their own and digest it and consider it from all angles. They pretty much saw it and then were asked "Why?"
Once we got past boxing everybody, we asked them specifically what they saw- a "beam" when the hole was facing the sun and a "projection" when the hole was away from the sun. They got that the hole facing the sun was too much light, and at first thought that the tape had something to do with it too. We shared ideas and they were pretty much on the same train of thought I was minus a couple details like the concave shape of the tape when it was punctured but I just don't think they had time to come up with a full explanation. We eventually got them to throw out more ideas (conversation wasn't exactly flowing) and they agreed that the light from the sun must hit the objects and then "bounce" into the box. We didn't get much in to the whole color topic... I don't think they really cared to go there, so we just shared our thoughts. They nodded. I think they knew that this was sort of a short term thing for them, so honestly I didn't get a lot out of it at all, although it was still fun to share the experience.