At some point, kids begin asking the question”why” incessantly. Though this can be very bothersome to every parent, this is the beginning of Scientific thinking. Why are rainbows from the sky? Why do we have lightning? Why is beach water salty? All scientists begin with a QUESTION. What effect does this compound have on cancer cells? Why can the rod attract lightning? How do we come up with various fuels for our vehicles which aren’t pricey?
The first approach to enable a child with Science will be to encourage this type of thinking. It’s wonderful for your child to question things in the natural world. Together you can discover answers. The dreaded question, “Where do babies come from?” Is a scientific opportunity for learning. To get more information visit Ollin Davis.com.
Utilize the internet, books, and home investigations to discover why things happen as they do. Before a visit to the Grand Canyon, my kids and I left a mini-canyon from a skillet and dirt, using a steady flow of water. As your child questions the world around him, encourage him to earn a hypothesis (and use this term!) Regarding why he believes the cake in the oven rises, and then check out the science behind it ( a fantastic mini-lesson on chemical changes).
Help your child build background knowledge. Ocean life, shore erosion, stone formation, and tides mean so much more if your kid is to the shore. Collect shells, make discoveries concerning them. How are they alike and different? Take a hike, and collect leaves.
What are the different portions of the leaves? Where is the stem? Why are several leaves fuzzy? A kid who hasn’t seen snow may not be able to relate to some solid (snow), liquid (water), and gas (water vapor). Even cooking allows the opportunity to describe things like steam, yeast climbing, physical changes (cutting veggies ), along other concepts.
Dad can help by having the kids help with home fix-ups. What’s a plane, screw, lever, pulley, and other straightforward machines. Children can comprehend science a lot more when they’ve been subjected to various experiences.
Approach home jobs with the scientific methods approach, as science facts can alter (recall when Pluto was a planet?) But critical thinking does not. The method of scientific thinking is basically: Question something, form a hypothesis (guess), test it out, collect information, and form a conclusion. This might be as straightforward as…I wonder if I could fix that horizontal swimming tube toy by simply plugging the flow with chewing gum.
Have a guess it probably will not work for long. Put the gum at the pit, set the toy back in the swimming pool, and calculate that it took just ten minutes for the gum to get moist, and fall off the floatable toy.
You decide that gum is NOT a good sealant for pool toys. Oh, and recover the gum in the bottom of your pool. It needs to be stressed to your kid, it is fine to be wrong when you test your idea. Great scientists learn by their mistakes. A story that comes to mind is the scientist who thought of himself as a failure when he failed to come up with a fantastic parachute cloth for the Army during World War II.
Today we ladies use his creation frequently, as he accidentally invented nylons (pantyhose). Other creations that were”scientific flops” were: Coca-cola (initially was a medicine), Post-it Notes (initially was likely to be a super strong glue), Tollhouse cookies (the inventor attempted to create an all-chocolate cookie and ended up using delicious chocolate CHIP biscuits ), and paper towels (the original idea was toilet tissue)!