Tips for Getting Kids Interested in Science

Technology and science are part of our everyday lives and, as a result, we are required to have some degree of scientific literacy just to manage day-to-day living. Our children will need far more advanced scientific knowledge than we do today. You can help prepare them for the future by instilling an interest in science at an early age. 

The following provides some simple tips for integrating science learning into their everyday lives:

• Take advantage of everyday situations and turn them into a science lesson. Ask questions without pressuring or lecturing. Look for constellations in the night sky. Bake a cake together. Grow a plant from seed. Experience the world with your child and discuss your respective observations of it together. Encourage their questions.

• Children learn by doing, by trying new ideas and challenging old ones. Experimentation is a key element of scientific study. Help your child experiment and test their ideas by providing a safe and supportive environment. Teach them to understand and heed safety precautions. Provide supervision when necessary.   

• Help children learn to think scientifically by introducing them to just a few topics in depth. Use your child’s own interests in stars or animals as the basis to build more in-depth knowledge. For example, take an animal-loving daughter and the dog for a walk together and discuss how dogs, bird or cats are alike and different.  

• Encourage activities that are neither too hard nor too easy for your child. If in doubt, err on the easy side, because something too difficult may lead them to believe that science is too hard. Child don’t need complex demonstrations to learn science — the simpler, the better. Make it fun.

• Scientists break down the natural world into smaller units or systems in order to study it in-depth. Have your child gather and organize objects according to their size or color. By doing this, you are helping prepare her to think in terms of systems.  For example, have them pick a variety of leaves and then put them into piles of like leaves.

• One of the best ways to help your school-aged children advance in their science education is by staying involved in your child’s school life.
  • Visit your child’s school
  • Find out about the school’s curriculum, including science
  • Meet with your child’s teacher and if your student is having difficulty with a    science concept
  • Ask for ideas on how you can help your child better understand
  • Find out how your school is performing on state tests.  

     

• As tempting as it may be, let your school-aged child do his own science project. It’s ok to support, encourage and supply the needed materials for the project, but they will learn only if they do the project themselves.

• No matter how simple or complex the concept, we should help them understand how that science is a way of thinking. The early years of elementary school are a good time to teach children scientific principles. These principles of conduct are:
  • Observe carefully
  • Record accurately
  • Try to look for patterns in an objective, unbiased way
  • Share their observations (or results) honestly and in a way that allows others to test what they’ve said
  • Realize that they might make mistakes
  • Respect curiosity
  • Stay open to criticism and change.