Science! Yes! on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

November 17, 2017 5:27 PM

Intermediates - she blinded me with science by Professor Skies

“Good morning,” Selina greeted the intermediate class. Today they were probably in for a pleasant surprise. Whilst this lesson was down on their timetable as ‘theory’ it was going to be quite a practical theoretical lesson.

“Today, we’re going to be doing a basic introduction to experimental methodology, and it will include some spell-casting. Whilst many spells have been being used for thousands of years, all fields of magic are still developing. Should you wish to specialise in a particular type of magic, you will likely to start to conduct research into it - perhaps theoretical, trying to answer questions about how things work, but there are practical experiments too, designed to invent or refine spells.

“You will notice that you have a pebble in front of you. Today, you will be trying three different wand movements to turn that into it a pencil. They are a circle, a flick, and a flowing motion,” she explained, demonstrating each motion.

“However, before you begin, you will need to lay out a page in your notebooks as follows. Aim - what are you hoping to find out with the experiment? Equipment - what things will you need. Method - how will you carry out the experiment. Hypothesis - what do you think will happen? A hypothesis is like an educated guess. Think carefully about the different movements and which one you think will work best, and rate them from one to three. Please don’t change this, even if you prove to be incorrect. Your reasoning for why you think it is as important.

“As you try the different wand movements, make notes about how well each one works. We’ll come together halfway through class to compare results and talk about how we write them up.”

The traditional wand movement was the flick, which echoed the shape of the finished product, and would work best for most students, but a significant minority of students would find the flowing motion, which echoed writing, would suit them better, depending on their thinking style.

OOC - usual rules apply. At least 200 words, marked on length, realism, relevance and creativity.

Subthreads:

I’m petrified. No seriously. This is a panic attack. by Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw with Raine Collindale, Teppenpaw

Science! Yes! by Zevalyn Ives, Aladren with Tasha DuBois,Aladren

It's poetry in motion. by Joe Umland, Teppenpaw

13 Professor Skies Intermediates - she blinded me with science 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw

November 21, 2017 4:50 PM

I’m petrified. No seriously. This is a panic attack. by Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw

Jozua was not expecting much from today’s Transfiguration lesson. It was theory, and while he could follow most theory discussions without too many headaches, he much preferred practical work. However, when Skies explained the topic of the theory being discussed, he sat up straight and looked outright alarmed. He knew altogether too much about experimental methodologies, and he’d lost his house to one such experiment gone very wrong last summer. If his grandfather, a professional inventor, could have things go that badly for him, Jozua was terrified to think what might happen if an entire class of untrained Intermediate students started messing around with untested spellwork.

Though, to be fair, there was only one Sparks in this classroom, so the chance of catastrophic failure may not be as bad as all that, but the fact remained that there was one Sparks and Jozua didn’t want to actually explode the school.

His wand was aspen with a dragon heartstring, a volatile enough combination that he could get away with occasional sparks and smoke and flames in Charms and Transfiguration during normal lessons without the teachers thinking he was doing it on purpose. In DADA, it was harder to get away with it, because Pye and Nash knew how good he was at dueling club, but even there, he could sometimes make it look accidental.

He was petrified that this lesson might actually cause genuinely accidental destruction and this time, since he wasn’t going to be in control of it, it might hurt someone. Sonora wasn’t a Pheonix House like his own home. It wouldn’t get everyone out to safety at the first whiff of trouble.

“I can’t do this,” he said when he registered that Skies was no longer talking. He was reigning in panic, but not well. He did not actually know what the specific lesson was even about because his distressed brain had shut down and stopped listening shortly after the word ‘experimental’ had come up, but that was enough information to hold him frozen in place.

“Don’t make me do this,” he said, not even sure who he was talking to - Skies, probably, but he’d done nothing to try to attract her attention first, so it was unlikely she was listening. “I don’t want to do this. Nobody wants me to do this. I’m a Sparks.” He thought that bore repeating so, he did. “I’m a Sparks.” This was a wizarding school. Didn’t they know what that meant? Didn’t they know Sparks were brilliant but destructive inventors? Didn’t they know Sparks blew up entire towns in the course of their experiments??!

1 Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw I’m petrified. No seriously. This is a panic attack. 348 Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw 0 5

Zevalyn Ives, Aladren

November 22, 2017 12:53 PM

Science! Yes! by Zevalyn Ives, Aladren

As she always did, Zevalyn Ives took a seat in the front row. She hadn’t been a front row seater back in normal middle school, but that changed last year. With the amount of extra help she needed, combined with it being a reasonably ‘cool’ thing to do amongst her Housemates, being a habitual front row sitter had lost its Social Death aspect. Not that she really had much of a Social Life anyway so far, between her excessive studying habits, being a transfer, and having been considered a first year when she was fourteen years old. But at least she wasn’t actively disliked as a smarty-pants nerdy teacher’s pet, at least as far as she’d noticed.

Not that she felt like a smarty-pants here. On the contrary, she felt she was constantly playing catch-up, always behind the rest of her year group, never really in full grasp of some basic information everyone else seemed to have been born with. She wasn’t entirely sure how much of that was due to starting late, and how much of it was because she was a muggleborn witch. Most likely it was a combination of both.

She was glad today’s syllabus notation promised a day of theory in Transfiguration. She was getting better at the practical wand work, but the fact was she’d had at least one year less time to practice the beginner stage spells than everyone else, and the intermediate stage spells built on techniques she simply hadn’t refined as well as any other intermediate level student. It was hard. Theory she could keep up with better because she was smart and always did the extra readings.

So, it being a theory lesson, she was expecting to earn a good participation grade for answering a question or two that third years would be expected to know, and maybe even make some educated guesses for questions intended to challenge the fourth and fifth years.

She wasn’t expecting a lesson on a topic she knew backwards and forwards and lived and breathed for most of her life. Professor Skies was explaining the scientific method. Zevalyn had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Finally. Finally, something she was genuinely comfortable with, something she was maybe even ahead of her peers on.

She hadn’t felt this on top of a lesson since she finished the eighth grade. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be competent in academic material aimed at her own age group. It was a good feeling.

Applying the scientific method to wandwork was, admittedly, a little strange, but suddenly magic didn’t feel so foreign and impossible and scary and strange. People invented new spells and potions the same way they invented anything else. The magical world abruptly became more familiar and welcoming and understandable to her.

She was actually breathing easier than she had in months. Tension she hadn’t even known had been building up left her muscles. It was kind of weird, honestly, but she wasn’t going to complain about it. She was a square peg in a world of round holes, who just turned a corner and discovered they had square holes here too, she just hadn’t known how to find them. She did fit here after all. It was very freeing, really.

She absolutely beamed at her neighbor as they were allowed to start. “This is so awesome! My mom’s a scientist and researcher, and I thought I’d had to leave science behind when I came here instead of going to high school!”

1 Zevalyn Ives, Aladren Science! Yes! 380 Zevalyn Ives, Aladren 0 5

Raine Collindale, Teppenpaw

November 26, 2017 9:47 AM

That doesn't sound good by Raine Collindale, Teppenpaw

Raine’s standard method for dealing with class was to keep her head down and just do as she was told, as best she could. It didn’t always work, because sometimes she found the work too difficult, or made mistakes which drew attention to her. However, in wandwork subjects, she could usually get on with it quite well. Her practical spellwork was decent. So long as she took time and care to master the words, which were often tricky for her to read, but which she had become adept at listening in on other people to verify, then she did ok.

Today though, Professor Skies was throwing them a bit of a curve ball. They had to try the spell three different ways… Whilst that was well within Raine’s capabilities, she was a little bit phased by the directions that deviated from the norm, and by all the writing that seemed to go with them. She looked around, as usual taking her cues from others in the room. Other people were writing, which meant she had some time to think it over. She began to dig her quill out so that she would look like she was being purposeful and not just staring into space, although she planned to read over the directions again as best she could before she actually started work. However, before she could find her writing utensils, she became aware of the muttering beside her.

I can’t do this.

Raine turned, ready to offer her sympathies, but the person next to her continued to talk. When he seemed to have reached a stopping point, she gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I feel like that a lot of the time too,” she reassured him. “I… It’s tricky sometimes.” She wasn’t sure how else to help… When she’d been distressed, Joe had offered to take her out, but Joe knew her better than she knew Jozua, and also had more confidence when it came to asking things like that of teachers. In lieu of knowing what else to say, she rubbed his shoulder gently.

13 Raine Collindale, Teppenpaw That doesn't sound good 327 Raine Collindale, Teppenpaw 0 5

Jozua

November 28, 2017 11:23 AM

No, it’s an unpleasant load of baggage by Jozua

Jozua flinched slightly as someone touched him. Fortunately, he did not yelp or draw a wand or do anything else to draw further attention from anyone else. He drew in a deep a breath and turned to see who had noticed- and thankfully broken- his spiraling panic. He still wasn’t at all comfortable with doing any kind of experimentation today, but he’d been working toward the belief that the whole school was in imminent danger of combusting just because he was sitting in this classroom, and that panic fueled delusion at least had popped with the introduction of another person.

The other person in question was Raine, who he was vaguely aware was on good terms with Joe. He forced a weak smile at her. He doubted she’d ever felt exactly like he did right now, but he could grant other people did have their panic triggers, and hers might look like his from the outside. “Shall we try not to panic or blow up the school together then?” he asked, with more than his normal amount of nerves when seeking a class partner.

“Fair warning,” he added, because it was all too relevant today, “My granddad exploded our house last summer doing this kind of thing. And my family didn’t get the name Sparks because someone thought it sounded pretty.” Of course, Raine was only a year older than him. She was probably already well aware of his propensity to make minor fiery disasters in class, so a family tendency toward that effect shouldn’t completely shock her.

“I just already decided inventing new spells was not a career path I wanted to follow, for the safety of the universe, and I resent being made to try experimentation.” He crossed his arms and looked properly resentful, but inwardly he was just glad he wasn’t panicking anymore. He supposed he should thank Raine for that, and made a mental note to do so after he was done sulking.

1 Jozua No, it’s an unpleasant load of baggage 348 Jozua 0 5

Raine

November 29, 2017 3:20 AM

How about we put it down? by Raine

“Um…” was all Raine managed to Jozua’s comment about not panicking or blowing up the school together, followed by “Oh,” at the rest of his explanation.

“I’m sorry about your house. Was anyone hurt?” she asked with concern. She assumed that if anyone had been really injured - or worse - he might have led with that, as people’s welfare tended to rank above that of houses. She knew wizards were pretty good at patching themselves, and the things around them back together but that didn’t stop those injuries hurting, or the damage from being frightening.

It also seemed she’d incorrectly guessed the issue, as her problem wasn’t really the same as Jozua’s. She had noticed that he made fire a lot, but he’d never seemed unduly concerned about it before, and lots of people messed up spells in fairly dramatic ways, so it hadn’t stood out to her as a particular danger. She had taken his statement of ‘I can’t do it’ at a more literal face value.

Whilst most other people might have tried to reassure him that they were sure Professor Skies wouldn’t get them to do anything risky, Raine merely nodded sympathetically to his explanation. If asked whether she really thought their professor would set them a dangerous assignment, she would probably have answered in the negative, but it wasn’t in her nature to rush to the defence of the teachers, and to assume that everything they did was right and fair to everyone. The ‘one size fits all’ approach to education - that this was what they needed, what it took to count as ‘clever’ or ‘successful’ - had never particularly suited her, and so she could see how a lesson might fail to take into account someone like Jozua with a slightly unusual problem.

“Well, um, the first bit we have to do is the writing. We could do that together first, and then that will give us some more time to think about what to do to help you.” There were two possibilities… One was that she just did the spells, and Jozua watched and took notes from her. That seemed awfully like cheating though, and in a small class like this, Professor Skies was bound to notice that Jozua hadn’t lifted a wand. Raine’s ears burnt hot with humiliation and embarrassment just thinking about Professor Skies asking them why he wasn’t doing the assignment. Or they could ask Professor Skies whether that would be ok, although Raine’s confidence levels in asking teachers for things, especially things that involved being an exception, where not terribly high. “Do you want to ask Professor Skies about it?” she asked, in a genuinely questioning tone, akin to the one someone might use regarding whether their partner wanted to poke a sleeping dragon.

13 Raine How about we put it down? 327 Raine 0 5

Jozua

November 29, 2017 10:34 AM

Great plan. Where? by Jozua

Jozua sighed and relaxed his cross-armed stance as she asked in concern after the well being of his family. “Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “We’re Sparks. My great great granddad figured out how to make houses that could get everybody out safely in the event of an explosion and make the rebuilding process super quick and easy. It’s called a Pheonix House. I think we still have a patent on them but they’re not real popular since they burn up fast and take all your stuff with them. Well, except what you put in the special evacuation bins, but nobody remembers to keep those up to date.” Jozua hadn’t at any rate. “They are the safest option if you have an inventor’s lab in the basement, though.”

He heaved a heavy sigh and pulled out his quill and some parchment. “Well, I guess I can do the written part,” he agreed with her reasonable suggestion to start there and work up to the dangerous part. “After that, we can decide if I’m up to the rest of it, or if I need to beg Skies for an exemption.” He thought he might have a good case, him being a Sparks and all, and Mom had surely informed the school of what had happened last June, since he’d lost all of his old class notes with the house.

He primed his quill to write then realized he was missing critical information. “Erm, what are we supposed to be writing about? I kind of stopped listening after the words ‘experimental methodology,’” he admitted ruefully. “I assume we need a hypothesis, but what are we hypothesizing about?”

1 Jozua Great plan. Where? 348 Jozua 0 5

Raine

November 30, 2017 10:18 AM

Chuck it out the window? by Raine

“Those sound very interesting,” Raine commented with a smile, as Jozua explained about his house. She wanted to tell him how nice it was to meet someone else who thought in usual ways, or at least whose family did, and that it made her feel a certain camaraderie, especially as most of the world didn’t seem to see eye to eye with Jozua’s grandfather about how useful his idea was. “And very useful. Even if it’s not for everyone,” she added tentatively, not quite confident enough to express the ways in which she understood what that feeling was like. She was curious as to what had been in Jozua’s special bin, but felt that question was a little too personal for someone she didn’t know particularly well. If she had to have such a bin, she’d probably keep some of her favourite costumes, and the records she’d bought with Dallas… Little things from her childhood. She wasn’t sure it would need updating very often, as most of her treasures were small objects that she’d always owned. Her family tried to travel light, and didn’t always have much money, so she didn’t keep on getting new things. Maybe she could keep everything she owned in one, depending on their size.

Raine tried not to panic when Jozua asked her what the lesson was about. She wasn’t good at explaining to other people Part of her wanted to just refer him to the board, but she knew that might seem abrupt, even though she didn’t mean it like that, and that it would be good to keep the conversation going because she would probably need his help with the writing. Luckily he prompted her with a follow up question, to which she was able to nod, and it was a bit like momentum for a flip, it was just a little bit easier once you were already in motion…

“Yes, we need the hy- that,” she confirmed, hurriedly aborting her attempt at the intimidating word, which even though Jozua had just said it she really found wouldn’t stick in her brain. “And we need an aim and… those other things,” she added, gesturing at the board. “And, um, after the writing, we have to try the spell with three different wand movements. So… is that our aim? Or our method?” she asked anxiously. “Sorry… I’m not very good at explaining to other people,” she added, feeling that this was by now painfully obvious and that it might be less awkward to just acknowledge it. At least Jozua was a fellow Teppenpaw, which meant he’d probably be at least somewhat sympathetic about it. “Maybe I should have let someone more useful come and help you.”

13 Raine Chuck it out the window? 327 Raine 0 5

Tasha DuBois,Aladren

November 30, 2017 7:34 PM

I'm happy for you. by Tasha DuBois,Aladren

Tasha settled in her seat for Transfiguration. She usually enjoyed this class quite a bit, though she supposed that was true for all her classes. It was going to be hard to choose which ones to continue with after this year though Transfiguration was a given as was Charms probably. The rest she was less sure about. Part of her wanted to keep COMC so she could be there for Juniper next year, but then she and her cousin had extremely different views on animals. Mostly because the Teppenpaw was a vegetarian and Tasha was...well, not . She accepted that Juniper didn't eat meat and vice versa and had long ago decided against telling her cousin that she had eaten horse meat as Juniper loved horses most of all but her cousin didn't seem to really like working with her in COMC because of these differences.

Besides, the bottom line was that Tasha was more into eating animals than taking care of them.

Professor Skies began the lesson. The Aladren wasn't going to go into this area, but it was still fun to experiment she supposed. Of course, it didn't sound like they were going to be creating new spells themselves but just...doing an old spell a new way. Tasha supposed that made sense, one could hardly expect the third years to do that. It sounded like something more for someone in the advanced classes.

And why pencils? Wizards used quills. Wouldn't it make sense to change a pebble into a quill? Though Tasha supposed pencils would be easier. Plus they didn't need ink the way a quill did.

She was about to start writing out what her the experiment was, when Zevalyn turned to her. The other girl seemed about as excited as Tasha would be if Sonora served menudo and inerja on a regular basis.

The fifth year smiled back. Zevalyn sort of intrigued her in general from her late start at Sonora to her interesting name. "Then I guess you're really in your element today, then? I felt that way about the International Fair a few years ago."

11 Tasha DuBois,Aladren I'm happy for you. 323 Tasha DuBois,Aladren 0 5

Joe Umland, Teppenpaw

November 30, 2017 10:10 PM

It's poetry in motion. by Joe Umland, Teppenpaw

Experimental methodology was a pair of words Joe regarded without confusion, or even – entirely – lack of interest (he often wondered how, exactly, he had ended up in Teppenpaw and not Aladren; the best guess he had ever come up with was that it had something to do with the nuances of how he was interested in things, as one of the main differences between him and Tasha seemed to be that he found people at least almost as interesting as the things said people did. This hypothesis was tentatively supported by John’s dismissal of the very idea of psychology as “worthless rubbish” aside from the Behaviorists, though he had to admit that the fact that John’s two particular friends were both socially proficient was also good evidence in the John-being-poor-evidence-for-the-existence-of-anything-other-than-himself column; it was possible that his brother was simply a stray bit of data which diverged from the general trend altogether), but it was a pair of words he regarded with a certain amount of caution. Experimental methodology was, after all, what had supposedly been behind that time that his runners had been cut to pieces, and why his mattress had once caught fire, and how he’d gotten in trouble at Scouts when he was eight, and yes, he knew it was a bit petty to still be bitter about that eight years later, but it hadn’t even been his idea….

He shook his head slightly as Professor Skies, unaware of his childhood traumas, continued placidly explaining the basics of the scientific method to probably a decent number of his classmates. He glanced over toward Tasha to see how she was reacting, wondering if she had ever heard of it or not. Mom said it had begun to develop in ancient times and then picked up in the western world in the thirteenth century, but that it admittedly had only really come into its present form and level of importance after the Great Divide in the eighteenth century. It was weird, from his perspective, to see what those raised entirely in the wizarding world did and didn’t know; in some ways they were roughly as advanced as the Victorians, at least, and in others, they were…not.

The way Professor Skies explained it all, however, made him think that whatever the average wizard kid learned before he or she came to Sonora, it presumably didn’t include the steps of the scientific method as he knew it. Or maybe they all needed a refresher; he doubted he would have remembered the bit about writing down all the equipment needed. He wondered if he ought to write down ‘this pen and paper’ or if that would be (accurately) interpreted as sarcasm and marked down accordingly. Probably, he concluded, it was better to be safe than sorry and omit that from his list, which left the list at ‘rock’ and ‘wand.’

He continued setting up his page as the professor had asked. Her words were slightly different from the ones he had learned from Mom when she’d tried to teach him basic science when he was younger, but they were close enough that he didn’t hesitate at all until he reached the hypothesis. That was a tricky part – how, exactly, was he supposed to have an educated guess about this topic? The nuances of wand movements were something he had only a cursory familiarity with. John had rambled at him about it before, but there was a difference between that and really knowing about a topic….

He remembered, though, that John had once referred to Joe’s style as more ‘elegant’ than his own. He had not been entirely sure whether it had been meant as a compliment, but while he liked the phrase, he suspected that from John it was simply an observation, as he had noted at the same time that Julian was less expansive than either of them when using her wand, isolating her movements much more to the fingers and wrists than they did. Now just to figure out what in the world, if not complimentary or derisive, that word meant.

Joe decided to put an experiment in an experiment and try both wand movements without trying the spell. The circle irked him a bit (it wasn’t perfect), but the other two both seemed usable to him. However, the flowing motion was the one which felt most natural to him, and which seemed to bridge the gap between the sharp, manufactured, geometric lines of a pencil and the rounder, more organic lines of the pebble. He wrote down this hypothesis and his reasoning and was, finally, left with the essential bit – actually trying it out with actions and words together.

He started with his least-favorite, the circle. The pebble rose, losing its flattish shape and becoming more or less a cylinder, and stretching out, but not turning yellow or developing all the component bits of a pencil. He picked it up and rubbed one end against his paper, but didn’t get much of a mark out of that. He glanced at his neighbor.

“It just occurred to me that we’re probably going to have to test all these more than once to be sure one’s the easiest,” he observed. “Do you think?” He almost hoped that his neighbor did not so think, as his neighbor so thinking would mean a lot more data than he had expected to compile, but he suspected he was right.

16 Joe Umland, Teppenpaw It's poetry in motion. 329 Joe Umland, Teppenpaw 0 5

Zevalyn Ives

January 03, 2018 4:50 PM

Oh? What was the fair like? Sounds fun! by Zevalyn Ives

“I guess so!” Zevalyn agreed happily, still grinning at the girl sitting next to her. Tasha, she thought, was her name, but she wasn’t certain enough of it to use it.

“What was that?” she asked with genuine interest about the International Fair the other girl mentioned. “I missed it,” she admitted, kind of wishing she hadn’t been quite so adamant about not believing in magic when she was eleven. Not only would it have made her Sonora education much less stressful, but she’d evidently missed a few awesome events.

Of course, then she wouldn’t have met Amber, and from what she’d heard, Amber might not have even gotten adopted at all if Zevalyn had been less stubborn and hadn’t needed a subtler approach from the wizarding community, so it probably all worked out for the best.

Still an international fair sounded cool. After today’s transfiguration lesson, there might even be hope that Sonora hosted science fairs. Slim, certainly, but it no longer seemed completely impossible.

Paying more attention to Tasha’s answers than to what she was writing, Zevalyn began to at least start drawing up some basic charts for recording her results from her experiments, once she got started on those. She’d also need a hypothesis first, but that could wait a few more minutes, until her brain didn’t have something else to focus on.

1 Zevalyn Ives Oh? What was the fair like? Sounds fun! 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Tasha

January 06, 2018 5:50 PM

It was! by Tasha

Tasha nodded. "It was a lot of fun. I was in the Ethiopia group. " It had been great, as she had developed a love of Ethiopian food and made friends with Joe. Until then, she hadn't had any friends at school or really, her age either since she'd spent most of her childhood in the company of adults. She'd always been travelling and in the company of her parents, tutors and nannies as well as friends and business associates of her parents.

Still, despite those early interactions primarily with adults, and not much with other kids, she wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. Tasha had seen and done so much more than her peers and it was one of those things that made her different than them. She had more overall life experience and this was even true compared to some other purebloods her age.

"I'm really into travelling and I've been to lots of other countries, so it was really exciting for me. My parents even took me to Ethiopia for midterm that year." Tasha explained. She wasn't bragging when she said things like this, it was just that it was a simple fact of her life and she couldn't really talk about herself without bringing it up. "I really like trying different foods and exploring different cultures."

She went on. "Anyway, sometimes we do have fun events here. That one was the best though. I also enjoyed last year's concert because I'm in the orchestra. I think we're going to play for the bonfire too. So what do you like to do besides science?" Tasha asked the other Aladren.

11 Tasha It was! 323 Tasha 0 5