September 2006
Parents Can Make Daily Science Fun for Kids
In today’s high-tech society it is important that children develop an interest in science at an early age and see that science is a part of all of our lives. Getting children interested in science does not take a lot of time and effort. Their natural curiosity will ease the way. Making it fun is the key element.
The learning process in children happens through play. During play, the world is not so threatening. Kids feel safe, secure and capable. They explore on their own. There is an old Chinese saying:
“I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember
I do and I understand.”
Information and knowledge gained from hands-on activities
and self discovery remains in the long-term memory.
You can find most of the materials and equipment you need in the home,
school, grocery store or local hardware store. Science activity can be
carried out with a single kid or group of kids wherever and whenever you
want to do it - when there is “nothing to do” and kids are
bored, when the weather outside is not friendly, in the kitchen, in the
garden or on nature hikes or beach trips.
Science experiments in our house started in the kitchen. One day my kids
were helping me bake cookies. Curious as usual, they started asking questions:
“Why do we add sugar? Why do we add eggs? Why do we have to add
baking powder?” So we made some cookies without baking powder and
compared them to ones with baking powder.
One day when we were folding laundry, some clothes had static. They made small crackling noises and stuck to each other. We had fun learning and experimenting with lot of other things that produce static electricity.
Another day, when we were at the beach, we talked about
ocean water being salty and how salt is extracted from seawater. The kids
brought some seawater back home and placed it in sunlight in a shallow
tray. In two or three days, the water evaporated and they collected the
salt crystals. The satisfaction in self-discovery is incomparable. Without
any prompting from me, the children also experimented to see if saltwater
freezes faster than tap water.
Following our children’s interests, a friend and I began doing planned
experiments in a group setting. Kids enjoyed them and looked forward to
the experiment days. Volcanoes and slimes were a lot of fun. We did an
experiment on coloring daisies, placing white daisies in a glass of colored
water and watching as petals started showing the tint. Pretty soon the
children found more flowers to experiment with, and then came the question,
“Why do some flowers pick up colors faster than the others?”
One day while we were weeding in the garden, we found lots
of ladybugs on one particular type of weed. That led us to investigate
why certain bugs favor certain plants or animals. Similarly, different
kinds of rocks found in the garden piqued kids’ interest, and we
ended up doing a project on rocks.
This first step - science is fun - can be followed by the next, more exciting
step, where kids learn that science is also an adventure and challenge.
It often requires some detective work, and it requires learning a methodical
step-by-step approach to solve problems. This approach is called the scientific
method.
The steps in a scientific method can be roughly outlined as follows:
1. Start by collecting data. Read books, talk to people and make observations.
2. Brainstorm. Spend time looking over and understanding the information collected. Have discussions if you are working in a team.
3. Make predictions.
4. Design and carry out experiments to test whether your predictions are true.
5. Analyze your results and derive conclusions.
It is a lot more fun to do these activities in a group or as a team. Parents
or friends can be very good companions. As kids grow up, participation
in science fairs can also bring a good learning experience. If parents
get involved with their kids’ science activities and share with
them the excitement of being a scientist and an explorer, children will
know that science is fun. Once they get interested, they will keep thinking,
investigating and inventing forever.
Dr. Kanchan Bodas is a Federal Way mother of two,
a biology instructor at Green River Community College and editor of the
free, online Springboard Magazine (www.springboardmagazine.com).
The educational magazine for children ages 3-9 includes fun and educational
games to help children learn math and language, science experiments, essays,
audio stories, arts and crafts projects and coloring pages.
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