10 Simple Tips for Bringing Science into your Home

10 Simple Tips for Bringing Science into your Home

• Create a Science Station at Home

Include a Microscope, Binoculars, Magnifying Glass, Tweezers and Containers which are all tools a Scientist Needs to explore.

• Create Science Trays

Provide items on a science tray such as Magnets, Rocks, Shells or Fossils to provide opportunities to explore and investigate and question.

• Visit your local library to check out books from the Non Fiction Section

A deep understanding of a concept can come from a self-driven question.  Before you get there ask your child what they want to learn about prior checking out books.  Reptiles, solar energy, volcanos, insects, or chemistry, which topic will it be?  Keep a list posted of the Dewey Decimal System as a menu to choose from and to record on what you’ve discovered already.

• Grow a Garden

Stepping out and into your garden has so many benefits to your child.  Simple good nutrition is the first step as well as discovering the process from seed to plant to fruit or vegetables and all the stages in between.  Does your child know where potatoes grow?  Or how many peas grow in a typical pod?

• Cook with your Child

Have you ever really talked about the chemical & physical changes that happen while something cooks?  Observe active yeast?  Egg or no egg, baking soda or no baking soda?  How can kneading bread change from a sticky mess to something extremely soft and smooth? It’s all explained with science.

• Create a Science Journal

Have your children record observations of the world around them.  Create a Hypothesis for an experiment they want to do.  Encourage them to look at the world as a scientist would.

• Plan Family Outings

Plan trips that support Science Concepts they are learning at school.  A local trip to a science museum or park might be the first step to learning about the land forms and animal life in your area.  Zoo, local nursery, Pet store, Animal Rescue, or even your neighborhood can provide real life experience of many science concepts.

• Keep simple items on hand for experiments

You would be surprised with how much you can do with baking soda, vinegar, sugar, food coloring, dish detergent, glycerin, corn starch, dirt & seeds. Plus check out Steve Spangler’s Store for some amazing options for teaching children about science.

• Don’t be afraid of a little mess

• Ask questions that are open ended

This is one of the biggest keys to remember.  We need to encourage our children to think about a topic and originate their own questions and answers it prevents them from thinking outside the box.  As you see them observing something, encourage them to talk about their questions and observations.  It’s also a great way to build vocabulary too!    
Bonus Tip:  Follow Steve Spangler’s Science Experiment of the Week.  Plus don’t forget you can use Pinterest as a source for Science Experiments.  There are always amazing experiments being shared.  We have a Science Board that we encourage you to follow.
We hope that you’re able to bring science into your home with these simple tips. With these simple tips you can create great thinkers and develop a strong science background.  Plus these experiences will help to build their imaginations to form the skills necessary to discover new things for our future!



Kim Vij is the co-author of The Educators’ Spin On It . As an early childhood teacher and a mom of three, she’s learned many tips and tricks of parenting and teaching along the way in the past 20 years. She shares her “Educator’s Spin” on parenting issues and how to make learning playful and playtime meaningful. You can also join The Educators’ Spin On It on Facebook and Pinterest.

Tin Can Telephone

Materials you will need:

* String

* 2 Tin Cans

* Masking Tape (optional)

* Very Small Philips Screw Driver

Steps:

1.) Wash both tin cans out with soapy water and dry them. Make sure that the openings of the tins are not sharp. If they are, secure masking tape along the opening.

2.) With adult supervision - make a hole in the bottom (middle) of each tin can using the small screw driver. Make sure that you make a very small hole.

3.) Cut string long enough so that you can reach different rooms or reach a long distance in the yard.

4.) Thread the string through the hole at the bottom of the tin can so that the string has entered the inside of the tin can. Tie a knot big enough so that the string stays inside the  can. (You can also tie the string to a paper clip or toothpick to prevent it from slipping out of the cup/can.)

5.) Repeat step 4 with the other tin can.

6.) Hold one tin can and have someone else hold the other tin can. Walk the distance of the string so that the string in tight (not dangling).

7.) Have one person hold the opening of the tin can over his/her ear while the other person speaks into the opening of the other tin can.

Why it works: 

When one person talks into his/her can, the bottom of the can vibrates back and forth with the sound waves. Imagine the bottom of the can moving back and forth very quickly (1,000 times per second or more) with the sound waves of the speaker's voice. The vibrations travel through the string by pulling the string back and forth. Therefore, the bottom of the second cup should start to vibrate back and forth just like the bottom of the first can is vibrating, producing sound waves. The second person can hear the sound waves and, therefore, hears what the first person says.