Encouraging a Love of Science in Children
Helping Young Students Feel Confident About Science
Jun 24, 2009
Textbooks can't do it justice. Science is an amazing subject, but it's difficult to capture the true magic of science and contain it in a book. For young learners, textbook science often looks like a lot of big, confusing terms that have to be memorized by rote. Below are a few tips for encouraging a love of all things scientific.
Involve Students in Hands-On Learning
Instead of just reading from a book about the water cycle, air pressure, chemical changes, sound waves, fingerprints, etc., let students experience these things instead. It's much more memorable for them to discover a principle or fact about science on their own that it is to simply be told about it. There are great resources online that include complete lesson plans for hundreds of hands-on-science activities. Afterwards, a brief discussion can bring the principal points home to children. In addition, an explanation of any unfamiliar terms at this point will make a lot more sense.
Slow Down and Take Time to Observe
Science is all around. Taking time to look at the world and to discuss what is seen, encourages scientific observation and a love of learning. Look at changing seasons, weather events, plants, pets, insects, the stars and virtually everything else as an opportunity to help students learn more about science.
Encourage Kids to Keep a Discovery (Science) Journal
Real scientists record their findings. Encourage young scientists to draw pictures and write about what they see and do. Science isn't an isolated subject. It involves reasoning, writing, math, history, art, and more. A journal gives students a place to record the things about science that interest them most.
Introduce Kitchen Science
Cooking is filled with chemical reactions. Teach students about what happens when carbon dioxide bubbles form in dough. Help them to understand mixtures by making a salad, solvents by mixing up powdered drink mixes, colloids by making gelatin, evaporation and cloud formation by observing a boiling tea kettle. Crystals can be observed (and grown) with salt and sugar. Liquids can be changed to solids in a freezer. The list is almost endless.
Take Science on the Road
Day trips and vacations have much to offer in the way of science. See if children can determine the direction in which they are traveling based on the position of the sun or the direction of a flowing stream. If traveling more than a few miles from home, see if they can discern any climate variations, changes in soil texture and color, land formations or habitat. Start a collection of rocks, fossils, leaves, seashells, etc.
Finally keep in mind that reluctant or science-wary students don't always have to be told that what they are about to do is "science." Science activities can be introduced with worlds like "play," "explore," "investigate," or "discover." Students will soon learn that what they're really doing is studying the world around them. And that's really what science is all about.
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