Hatch
Making a guess before you look, then checking what really happens
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Hatch is a brand-new chick with a bit of eggshell still on top like a little hat. Hatch has one favorite word, and that word is "I wonder." I wonder if this leaf floats. I wonder if this rock is heavy. Before Hatch touches anything, Hatch stops and makes a guess out loud. Then — and only then — Hatch looks to find out. Guess first, look second. That is the Hatch way.
Hatch's friend Pip the beetle is holding two cups, one with a stone inside. "Which one is heavier?" asks Hatch. Pip freezes. "What if I say the wrong one?" Pip whispers. Pip does not want to guess. Guessing feels scary, like it could go wrong in front of everyone.
"Here's my secret," says Hatch, leaning in. "A guess can't be wrong — it can only be not-yet-checked. You say what you think will happen. Then you look. If you were right, hooray! If you were not, hooray — now you learned something you didn't know before!" Pip's eyes go wide. "So... either way is good?" "Either way you find something out," says Hatch.
Pip takes a breath and points. "That one. The left cup is heavier." Then Pip lifts them both. The right cup sinks down — the stone was in the right one all along! Pip gasps... and then, slowly, smiles. "I was sure it was the left. But now I know it's the right — and I know heavy things pull your hand down." Pip guessed wrong, and learned something real.
Pip wants to guess again right away. And again. Each "I wonder" makes Pip's heart beat a little quicker — not the scared kind of quick, but the excited kind, like standing at the top of a slide. Hatch bumps Pip gently, wing to shell. "That feeling? That's what finding out feels like." And the two of them sit in the grass, wondering about everything, happy and unafraid to guess.
The SproutLab ensemble
Hatch is part of SproutLab's distributed-narrative cast. Each character embodies a different curricular primitive; together they teach the full subject.
