Inquiry-Based Experiment Idea on Words and Thoughts having a physical effect on matter!

I stumbled onto this video randomly on youtube and I thought it was really interesting. I had heard of Dr. Masaru Emoto and his research the effects of thoughts on water in my psychology class and his experiments had always peeked my interest.

For this experiment, you fill 3 cups/bowls with equal amounts of water and rice. For the first cup, you label how much you love it and write positive messages. For the second cup, you label how much you hate it and write negative messages. For the third cup, you label nothing and pretty much ignore it.

For the next thirty days, you affirm what you wrote on each of the cups to each of the cups and wait. What will end up happening is that the positive bowl of rice will be relatively healthy, the negative bowl of rice will be relatively rotting, and the ignored bowl of rice will be relatively rotting and forming other chemical/substances.


It's pretty amazing and I will definitely try this with my students one day! This would be a great inquiry-based project idea on what we think, feel, and say may have an impact on matter. And because we are all made up of matter, we are also very influenced by the words, thoughts, and feelings that bombard us on a daily basis.

This relates to education because I have always known that to help children grow, we need to nurture, be patient, and tend to their needs. Just like plants, they need love, daily care, and support so that one day they will grow into the beautiful plant that they are. Just because it does not grow at the 'normal rate', it does not mean that they will never grow into their own individual beautiful being.

This also leads us to 'mindfulness' teaching which means in order to be a mindful person, we need to be consciously aware of what are thinking, doing, feeling, and saying. That means paying attention to what we are putting out each day and being considerate of others. Because what we put out has an impact on everything around us, there are consequences for our actions too.

This would be a great project for school-age children because it can incorporate language arts, science, math, social emotional learning, and a bit of physics. Students can also create theories of how this might work and as teachers we can guide them into exploring how their own thoughts and words can have an impact in their own self-esteem and relationships with peers.

Like they say, 'what you put out, is what you get back.' Well, this theory sure proves that in some way. I will have to do a test run to see if it works for me. But I still love the idea!