Inspiring students to think like scientists teaches them how to be capable and independent learners. It also allows them to understand the material more thoroughly, and prepares them for the future. Here’s how you can inspire children to think and act like scientists!
- Encourage curiosity of nature and science
Passion and interest are the most important parts of being a scientist. Students should be motivated to learn and work hard. Here’s how you can appeal to their curiosity when teaching:
- Guide them to ask essential questions and draw their own conclusions
- Make learning fun: have hands-on activities, engaging videos, and content that will pique their interest
- Give them opportunities to share their learning with the class and encourage them to share it with their family at home as well
- Show them how science connects to their everyday lives to encourage their interest and awareness of science. For example, let them think about how laws of physics apply to roller coasters.
- Similar to the above, show them how science is a part of major real world issues such as global warming
- Provide them with opportunities to work with others
Collaboration and working with others are key parts to being a scientist. Many important scientific discoveries were not done alone but as a group. Teach students how to learn from and help others. Teamwork makes the dream work! You can do this by:
- Having class discussions or opportunities where students share their ideas
- Having group projects or have students work together in table groups
- Having labs and other hands-on activities that are partner or group activities
- Let them discover their own conclusions
Many textbooks tell students concepts and explain why they work, but scientists in the real world do not have textbooks telling them the answers. Often, activities where students can find things out for themselves are much more effective than reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, because the student will absorb the information and remember it much better.
- Provide opportunities like experiments and labs that are engaging and let students discover scientific concepts themselves. For example, for gas laws, have a lab where students have to do different experiments with balloons so that they can observe and learn about the relationships between pressure, temperature, and volume.
- Other than hands-on activities, you can also let them create graphs to understand relationships better, or have them identify patterns in a series of data.
- Help them connect their learning across various subjects
The understanding of how science connects to other disciplines is fundamental and extremely useful for scientists.
- Math: calculations in science can often seem daunting to students. Help them understand the concept behind it and then show how that translates into an equation. Understanding how the equation works makes it much easier to remember and use. Graphs are also a powerful tool in science that students should know how to read and make. They can illustrate patterns and the relationships between two variables.
- Reading: reading comprehension skills are very important because scientists do tons of research on the topics they are studying to learn more and understand their topic the best they can. Have students take notes on articles or textbook chapters or have a research project so that they can learn how to connect their learning across a variety of sources, pick out and absorb important information, and make sure the sources they use are trustworthy.
By Vivien Chen
Date: April 12, 2022
Sources
- https://www.pbs.org/education/blog/inspire-children-to-think-and-act-like-scientists
- https://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-teach-students-to-think-like-scientists
- https://www.naeyc.org/resources/blog/inspire-children-think-and-act-scientists#:~:text=Thinking%20and%20acting%20like%20scientists,think%20and%20talk%20like%20scientists
