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How to Make Science Fun and Exciting in the Classroom

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How to Make Science Fun and Exciting in the Classroom

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If kids have a favorite question, it's probably 'Why?" Make science fun and exciting for your students by encouraging their natural curiosity about the world and teaching them how to find answers for themselves. After all, much of science is investigating 'why':

Why does a caterpillar form a chrysalis? Why do leaves have veins? Why do some paper airplanes fly better than others? Like scientists, kids can sharpen their observation skills and learn to make and test hypotheses to uncover the answers. Here are ideas to get students started exploring science and finding out 'why':

Make It Fizz.

Do exciting chemistry demonstrations with colorful and fizzy reactions that encourage class discussion! Go beyond a typical vinegar-and-baking-soda foaming experiment. Help elementary-age children make non-toxic polymer slime or homemade bouncy balls. Younger and older students would enjoy investigating the unique properties of thermo-chromatic, non-Newtonian Thinking Putty.

Find Out How Things Work.

Whether they want to be engineers or not, most kids are fascinated by how things work. To discover the scientific principles behind everyday technology, study such famous inventors as Thomas Edison and then do projects showing how their inventions work!You can also help students demonstrate physics principles using household items: Can they figure out how to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks or even create a miniature roller coaster Or perhaps they'd have a blast building a balloon rocket car from a recycled water bottle.?

Explore Technology & Renewable Energy.

With gas prices going up and down, now is a good time to get your junior high & high school students thinking about alternative and renewable energy sources, which could be fueling their futures. Get a complete kit to make your own Power House with solar, wind, electrochemical, and plant energy sources. The kit comes with a lab manual and provides enough activities for a semester of science.Just need some quick solar energy projects instead? Help your students build a solar oven or make a solar water purifier.

Watch It Grow.

How does a chick hatch? Are insects different as larvae than as adults? Do plants really sprout from tiny seeds? Students can find out by observing the fascinating development process of animals and plants! Ladybugs, butterflies, quail, and tadpoles all have unique life cycles that are easy to study in the classroom.To study plants with elementary students, Dunecraft plant kits are a good choice - these mini-greenhouse designs keep moisture in and help plants grow quickly. Or engage your students by building a terrarium. Either way, enjoy watching the whole process from seed to mature plant and herbs!

Let's Be Practical.

What everyday issues affect - and interest - your students? From glow-in-the-dark germ demonstrations that can lead to ideas on keeping healthy to a paper making project that can foster an interest in recycling to weather studies that increase knowledge of how the daily weather works, there are as many possible projects as days in the year!

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How to Make Science Fun and Exciting in the Classroom

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If kids have a favorite question, it's probably 'Why?" Make science fun and exciting for your students by encouraging their natural curiosity about the world and teaching them how to find answers for themselves. After all, much of science is investigating 'why': Why does a caterpillar form a chrysalis?

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Modeling helps student to gather their information and ideas which helps understand what they have learned.

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One innovative way to foster critical thinking in STEM is to add a bit of history. STEM was born from the desire to emulate how life actually operates by merging four core disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math. In the real world, these disciplines often work together seamlessly, and with little fanfare.

But if we want to prepare children to be future scientists, we need to inform them about the past. By doing so, we demystify scientific advancements by revealing their messy historical reality; we show students how science is actually conducted; and we have the opportunity to spotlight scientists who have been written out of history-and thus invite more students into the world of science.

The Power of Science Stories

One of the best ways to share science from a historical point of view is to tell great science stories. Stories are sticky: The research shows that humans are hardwired for them, and that scaffolding information-by bundling scientific discoveries with a compelling narrative, for example-helps the brain incorporate new concepts. In this way, stories act like conveyor belts, making lessons more exciting and carrying crucial information along with them.

But good stories can serve another purpose, too. By seeing how an invention of the past impacts life in the present, students learn to think holistically. For example, if they are shown how clocks accelerated life, or how computers changed how humans think, then they can see how technology shapes culture or even changes our sense of time. In this way, STEM expands beyond its typical limits and becomes interconnected in students' minds-not just to other technologies, but to all disciplines and fields of inquiry.

Uncovering the Unintended Consequences of Inventions

For over a decade, I looked for a book to provide both the historical and societal context of inventions-to tell the stories of science-but didn't have much luck. I felt so strongly about this missing approach to nurture critical thinkers that I decided to write The Alchemy of Us, which is a book about inventions and how they changed life and society. In it, the lives of a diverse cast of little-known inventors-from pastor Hannibal Goodwin to housewife Bessie Littleton-are unfolded, and the many ways in which those everyday inventions changed life are highlighted.

Sometimes the outcomes of these inventions were intended, and in many more cases they were not. For example, students will see that the telegraph used electricity to shuttle messages over long distances quickly. But they will also come to realize that the telegraph had a shortcoming: It could not handle many messages at a time. Customers at the telegraph office were encouraged to keep their messages brief. Soon, newspapers used telegraphs in their newsrooms, and editors told reporters to write succinctly. The use of short declarative sentences was a newspaper style that was embraced by one reporter who went on to write many famous books-his name was Ernest Hemingway.

Here, then, is a case of how a technology, the telegraph, altered language and led to one of the world's most celebrated literary styles-and this lesson of cascading and unpredictable outcomes can be extended to how Twitter and text messages are altering language now. When history is included in STEM, students learn science, but they also learn about the much broader impact of science.

Shaping the Future by Using the Past: An Exercise

One way that we can build critical thinking skills is to put technology under the microscope. Have students think about inventions, like their cell phones or Instagram or the internet, and consider how they make an impact on life more broadly. Students can create lists of all the changes-ask them to think about not only changes to the material world, but changes to less tangible ideas and concepts, like human psychology and belief systems-and break students into small groups to discuss and share out their findings. Alternatively, you can pose a counterfactual: Ask students to create a timeline of the invention's history, along with a second timeline as if that invention never happened. What happens if the cell phone was never invented?

Obviously, there are no right or wrong answers, but the tasks require your students to observe the world with more wonder-and more skepticism-and condition their minds to think about causes and effects.

To take a deeper look: Let's say you asked your students to examine the effect of the internet on modern life. The internet has certainly changed life significantly. For starters, we can listen to music, watch videos, access information, and contact each other easily. Have your students discuss life before and after the internet in groups and then create a drawing or write a short essay. They could answer questions like these: How did people get their news? How did they hear from each other? How did people listen to music? Where was information about different topics stored before the internet? The next step might be to look at the pros and cons of the internet, specifically social media. Does being more connected help or hurt us? Does the internet bring us together or divide us? Does the internet make it easier or harder to find the truth?

Once students are warmed up to thinking about technology in this way, you might have them try on the role of futurists. Ask them to consider thought-provoking questions like: If social media is based on "likes" and "follows," what kind of society will we be in the future? Will we listen to popular celebrities with millions of followers, or will we listen to experts with fewer followers? Will it be easier to spread false information? Students can then draw a picture, write an essay, or create a video reflecting on the societal impact of the internet and what life could be like in the future with or without their proposed solutions.

Engaging Future Citizens

While STEM skills are themselves increasingly important in our technologically rich world, STEM is also a pathway to engage students as critical thinkers, and even as future citizens. By placing science in the broader context of history and culture, we can remind students of how scientific inventions play a role in our evolving cultural and even moral belief systems. And by giving students the space to critique inventions, we give them the skills to shape the future.

To get kids asking hard questions, however, the key first step is to give them good science stories. Once students are more engaged with how STEM is part of a larger fabric, they will have the skills to see the world more clearly and the lens they need to start posing tough questions. This approach aligns with the wisdom of William Shakespeare, who said centuries ago, "What's past is prologue." He was absolutely right, because if we're attentive observers, the old stories provide us with a good map to what lies ahead.
Ainissa Ramirez is a materials scientist and the author of "The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another (MIT Press).

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Building Critical Thinkers by Combining STEM With History

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One innovative way to foster critical thinking in STEM is to add a bit of history. STEM was born from the desire to emulate how life actually operates by merging four core disciplines: science, technology, engineering, and math. In the real world, these disciplines often work together seamlessly, and with little fanfare.

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What Is Science? 🔬🧪 Book Read Aloud For Children

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Put on your thinking hats & because we will become Scientists!

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Put on your thinking hats & because we will become Scientists!

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A great way to make science fun it's to teach students what a scientist does and it's purpose! Science don't just do experiences but they they doing investigations and discoveries new wonders in our world. Students need the to come out of their safe place and become scientists!

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Practice Brief 19 -- Topics: Practices Instruction

Why should students learn to plan and carry out investigations in science and engineering?

Teachers should help students make sense of the natural world by designing and carrying out authentic, studentdriven investigations.

District staff & PD providers should focus on curricular models and classroom arrangements that foster student inquiry, from a controlled experiment to other forms of research.

School leaders should think across the various curricula they support in order to offer multiple opportunities for students to investigate topics based on questions they have.

What is the Issue?

The NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education specifies eight science and engineering practices to be incorporated into science education from kindergarten through twelfth grade. One of these is planning and carrying out investigations. Although many existing instructional models and curricula involve engaging students in planned investigations, this tool will help you think about ways you can promote student agency by having them plan and conduct science investigations.

Authors:

KERRI WINGERT and PHILIP BELL - APRIL 2015

Reflection Questions

How often do your students feel that the investigations they are doing are "their" investigations? Feeling ownership in the work deepens engagement.

Think about your curriculum. Where can you support students to devise and investigate their own interests and questions?

What are some ways you can manage having student groups doing different investigations?

Things to Consider

Attending to Equity

Recommended Actions You Can Take

ALSO SEE STEM TEACHING TOOLS

STEM Teaching Tools content copyright 2014-22 UW Institute for Science + Math Education. All rights reserved.
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Award #1920249 (previously through Awards #1238253 and #1854059). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Others may adapt with attribution. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

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Why should students learn to plan and carry out investigations in science and engineering? : StemTeachingTools (en-US)

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Practice Brief 19 -- Topics: Practices Instruction Teachers should help students make sense of the natural world by designing and carrying out authentic, studentdriven investigations. District staff & PD providers should focus on curricular models and classroom arrangements that foster student inquiry, from a controlled experiment to other forms of research.

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I chose this because I feel scientific modeling gives students the opportunity to have visuals! This gives student the opportunity to even create own models!

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What is meant by engaging youth in scientific modeling?

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What is meant by engaging youth in scientific modeling?

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Practice Brief 8 -- Topics: Practices

What is meant by engaging youth in scientific modeling?

Teachers should regularly engage students in building, revising and evaluating multiple models. Students should learn to appreciate how models and modeling are central to science.

District staff and PD providers should help teachers approach the revision of models of natural phenomena over time in their classrooms. Modeling is an iterative process of representation.

School leaders should promote use of instructional materials that represent scientific models as having applications, limitations, and flaws.

What is the Issue?

A model is a representation of an idea or phenomenon that otherwise may be difficult to understand, depict, or directly observe. Models are integral to the practice of science and are used across many disciplines in a variety of ways. Scientists develop, test, refine, and use models in their research and to communicate their findings. Helping students develop and test models supports their learning and helps them understand important aspects of how science and engineering work.

Authors:

KERRI WINGERT, MARIAN WAGNER, ANDREW SHOUSE, STEVE SPODARYK & JEANNE CHOWNING

Reflection Questions

How do you already employ modeling? What different kinds of models are used? What crossdiscipline connections do (or can) you make with modeling?

Discuss the quote: "Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful." - George E. P. Box

Do your students construct, critique, and revise models? How can they share, compare, and refine their models? What can you learn from student-built models?

Things to Consider

Scientific models are representations motivated by an interest in developing deeper knowledge and communicating about systems in the natural world. Scientific models can take many forms, including physical models, diagrams, computer-based models, mathematical models, and conceptual models. These different forms sometimes overlap and can be present within a single model.

Models serve vital functions in scientific practice. Models can be used to explain complex data, build theories, and generate new hypotheses. Scientists also devise ways to test competing models and engage in arguments about them. New findings may support or contradict existing models. Models are created, revised, and sometimes rejected. Models are both explanatory and predictive. They are developed using existing data and also help drive future research. For example, models are used to predict outbreaks of diseases, climate change, and interactions within an ecosystem. Because models are approximations of real objects, phenomena, and systems, they are continually being refined as scientists gain new knowledge and data.

Creating, refining & manipulating models can support student learning of scientific concepts. Students need experience creating their own conceptual models, practice revising and improving those models, and opportunities to reflect on the limitations of models that they develop. For example, students can develop their own model to explain the phases of the moon based on their ideas, make predictions based on those models, and test their models against observations. Students should refine their understanding and their models as new evidence becomes available in an investigation. They should also consider the strengths and limitations of models-to help avoid confusing models with the larger ideas they represent.

Attending to Equity

Recommended Actions You Can Take

ALSO SEE STEM TEACHING TOOLS

STEM Teaching Tools content copyright 2014-22 UW Institute for Science + Math Education. All rights reserved.
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Award #1920249 (previously through Awards #1238253 and #1854059). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Others may adapt with attribution. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

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What is meant by engaging youth in scientific modeling? : StemTeachingTools (en-US)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Practice Brief 8 -- Topics: Practices Teachers should regularly engage students in building, revising and evaluating multiple models. Students should learn to appreciate how models and modeling are central to science. District staff and PD providers should help teachers approach the revision of models of natural phenomena over time in their classrooms. Modeling is an iterative process of representation.