Sooner or later, kids start asking the question”why” incessantly. Though this can be very frustrating to any parent, this can be actually the beginning of Scientific thinking. Why are rainbows from the sky? Why can we have lightning? Why is beach water salty? All scientists start with a QUESTION. What effect does this compound have on cancer cells? Why does the rod attract lightning? How can we come up with different fuels for our automobiles that aren’t pricey?
The first approach to help a young child with Science will be to encourage this kind of thinking. It’s wonderful for your child to wonderful things in the natural world. Together you can find answers. Even the dreaded question, “Where do babies come from?” Is a scientific opportunity for learning.
Utilize the internet, books, and house investigations to find out why things occur as they do. Before a visit to the Grand Canyon, my kids and I made a mini-canyon from a skillet and dirt, with a steady flow of water. As your child questions the world around him, encourage him to make a theory (and utilize this expression!) Regarding why he thinks the cake in the oven climbs, and then check out the science behind it ( a great mini-lesson on chemical changes).
Help your child build background knowledge. Ocean life, beach erosion, rock formation, and tides mean so much more in case your kid has been to the beach. Collect shells, make discoveries about them. How are they alike and different? Have a hike, and collect leaves.
What are the different parts of the leaves? Where’s the stem? Why are several leaves fuzzy? A child who has never seen snow may not be able to connect to some solid (snow), liquid (water), and gas (water vapor). Even cooking enables the opportunity to describe things such as steam, yeast rising, physical changes (cutting vegetables), along other concepts.
Dad can help the children help with home fix-ups. What’s a plane, screw, lever, pulley, and other straightforward machines. Kids can understand science so much more when they have been subjected to various experiences.
Approach home tasks with the strategy of the scientific method, as science facts can change, to learn more visit Studio-K.com (remember when Pluto was a planet?) But critical thinking does not. The method of scientific thinking is essential: Query something, form a hypothesis (guess), test it out, collects data, and form a conclusion. This might be as straightforward as…I wonder if I could fix that horizontal swimming tube toy by plugging the leak with chewing gum.
Guess that it likely won’t work for the long term. Put the gum at the pit, set the toy back into the pool, and compute it took only ten minutes for the gum to get moist and drop off the floatable toy.
You decide that gum is NOT a good sealant for pool toys. Oh, and then retrieve the gum in the bottom of your pool. It should be stressed to a child, it is OKAY to be wrong once you test your idea. Great scientists learn by their mistakes. A story that springs to mind is that the scientist who thought of himself as a failure when he failed to come up with a fantastic parachute material for the Army during World War II.
Now we ladies use his invention regularly, as he accidentally invented nylons (pantyhose). Other creations which were”scientific flops” were: Coca-cola (originally was a medication ), Post-it Notes (originally was supposed to be a super powerful paste ), Tollhouse cookies (the inventor attempted to make an all-chocolate cookie and ended up using tasty chocolate CHIP cookies), and paper towels (the first idea was as toilet tissue)!