Kids who have a solid science and technology background are better equipped to go to college, and will have many more choices once they get out into the real world.
Learning science isn’t just a matter of memorizing facts and theories. On the contrary, it’s developing a deep curiosity about the world around us, AND having a set of tools that lets kids explore that curiosity to answer their questions.
Teaching science in this kind of way isn’t just a matter of putting together a textbook with a few science experiments and kits.
Science education is a three-step process (and I mean teaching science in a way that your kids will really understand and remember). Here are the steps:
1. Get kids genuinely interested and excited about a topic.
2. Give them hands-on activities and experiments to make the topic meaningful.
3. Teach the supporting academics and theory.
Most science books and programs just focus on the third step and may throw in some experiments as an afterthought. This just isn’t how kids learn.
There is a better way. When you provide your kids with these three keys (in order), you can give your kids the kind of science education that not only excites them, but that they remember for many years to come.
Don’t let this happen to you… you buy science books that were never really used and now your kids are filling out college applications and realizing they’re missing a piece of their education—a REALLY big piece. Now that’s a setback.
So what do you do?
First, don’t worry. It’s not something that takes years and years to do. It just takes commitment.
What if you don’t have time? What I’m about to describe can take a bit of time as a parent, but it doesn’t have to. There is a way to shortcut the process and get the same results! But I’ll tell you more about that later.
Putting It Into Action
Step one: Get kids genuinely interested and excited about a topic. Start by deciding what topic you want your kids to learn. Then, you’re going to get them really interested in it. For example, suppose I want my 10-year old son to learn about aerodynamics. I’ll arrange for him to go up in a small plane with a friend who is a pilot. This is the kind of experience that will really excite him.
Step two: Give them hands-on activities and experiments to make the topic meaningful. This is where I take that excitement and let him explore it. I have him ask my friend for other chances to go flying. I’ll also have my friend show him how he plans for a flight. My son will learn about navigation, figuring out how much fuel is needed for the flight, how the weight the plane carries affects the aerodynamics of it, and so much more.
I’ll use pilot training videos to help us figure this out (short of a live demo, video is incredibly powerful for learning). My son is incredibly excited at this point about anything that has to do with airplanes and flying. He’s sure he wants to be a pilot someday and is already wanting flying lessons (he’s only 10 now).
Step three: Teach the supporting academics and theory. Now it’s time to introduce academics. Honestly, I have my pick of so many topics, because flying includes so many different fields. I mean he’s using angles and math in flight planning, mechanics and energy in how the engine works, electricity in all the equipment on board the plane, and of course, aerodynamics in keeping the plane in the air (to name just a few). I’m going to use this as the foundation to teach the academic side of all the topics that are appropriate.
We start with aerodynamics. He learns about lift and drag, makes his own balsa-wood gliders and experiments by changing different parts. He calculates how big the wings need to be to carry more weight and then tries his model with bigger wings. (By the way, I got a video on model planes so I could understand this well enough to work with him on it). Then we move on to the geometry used in navigation. Instead of drawing angles on a blank sheet of paper, our workspace is made of airplane maps. We’re actually planning part of the next flight my son and my pilot buddy will take. Suddenly angles are a lot more interesting. In fact, it turns out that we need a bit of trigonometry to figure out some things. Of course, a 10-year old can’t do trigonometry, right? Wrong! He has no idea that it’s usually for high school and learns about cosines and tangents.
Throughout this, I’m giving him chances to get together with my pilot friend, share what he’s learned, and even use it on real flights. How cool is that to a kid?! You get the idea. The key is to focus on building interest and excitement first, then the academics are easy to get a kid to learn. Try starting with the academics and…well, we’ve all had the experience of trying to get kids do something they don’t really want to do.
The Shortcut
Okay, so this might sound like it’s time-intensive. If you’re thinking “I just don’t have the time to do this!” or maybe “I just don’t understand science well enough myself to teach it to my kid.” If this is you, you’re not alone.
The good news is, you don’t have to. The shortcut is to find someone who already specializes in the area you want your kids to learn about and expose them to the excitement that persons gets from the field. Then, instead of you being the one to take them through the hands-on part and the academics, use a solid video-based homeschool science program or curriculum (live videos, not cartoons). This will provide them with both the hands-on experiments and the academic background they need. If you use a program that is self-guided (that is, it guides your kids through it step-by-step), you don’t need to be involved unless you want to be.
If you found this helpful and you find yourself thinking, “Hey, you know, I want this person to teach my kids science for me, and to create my curriculum lessons for me…” then we can do just that.
Go to www.SuperchargedScience.com
When you get there, you’ll see a video that shows you the science curriculum that I developed and teach. If you like what you see on that website, just fill in the form below the video and your kids can get started today doing real hands-on science with everyday materials.
Aurora
P.S. By the way, if you know anybody that might find this content useful or helpful, please share it! Thanks so much!!
