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"What can we do to get our child interested in science?"

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"What can we do to get our child interested in science?"

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The exploration should be encouraged. Remember to practice what you preach!!

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I am often asked by parents, "What can we do to get our child interested in science?" My reply is always the same: "Your child is already interested in science!"

Children are explorers, observers and tinkerers. It's why they open up cabinets, roll balls down staircases, and proudly exhibit toads found in the backyard. It's why they love playing with flashlights, making paper airplanes, and mixing up "chemicals" needed to make chocolate brownies.

I have yet to meet a child that does not think like a scientist. Adam Savage of Discovery Channel's MythBusters often reports that a member of his crew had an epiphany: "The difference between play and the scientific method is writing stuff down." Another principle is that exploration should be encouraged.

The Science of Taking Stuff Apart

If you spend time with children, you know that they find as much joy deconstructing something as they do putting things together. This is because dismantling something into component parts helps kids understand how things work.

Owners of outdated personal computer towers might view their PCs as junk, but not an eight-year-old. She sees the opportunity for scientific exploration. Arm your little engineer with a few sizes of Phillips head screwdrivers, and then allow her to dissect memory cards, motherboards, hard drives, circuit boards and cooling fans. Take a nine-volt battery, connect it to the fan wires and watch it spring to life. Such an activity shows your child how everyday items are put together and engineered. It also increases comfort with tools and allows her to see the complexities of technology.

Safety Note: For the most part, dissecting a computer is safe. However, be sure to give your child goggles to wear, cut or remove the power cord, and remove the power supply inside the computer since it may contain capacitors that have stored energy.

Your House Has Guts

Science is everywhere. Just about every modern home or building is a scientific marvel, with most of the cool stuff hidden in the walls -- but not all of it is hidden. Give your child a tour of your home's utilities. Really, try it. Show them the system of pipes, valves, vents and ducts. Ask them what they think it all does.

Remove the tank lid on a toilet. As levers move, valves open and close, and water drains and then fills the tank. Put food coloring or even a little glitter in the tank and watch as it flows into the bowl during flushing. Adults don't view plumbing as science. But to children, especially young children, plumbing is a new hidden world to explore. They will enjoy a new children's book by David Macaulay and Sheila Keenan called Toilet: How it Works.

Welcome to My Laboratory

Sometimes, working like a scientist requires the right tools. Having a home "laboratory" can be a fun way to continuously feed curiosity. Whether you use a dedicated space in the house, a cabinet, or a box of goodies that gets stored away until needed, creating a home laboratory is easier than you think and can cost less that $30 to start.

Visit the pharmacy for vials, eyedroppers, suction bulbs, jumbo syringes, magnifiers and balloons. Pick up safety goggles, funnels, tubing, magnets, disposable gloves, mini flashlights, vinegar, baking soda, food coloring, dish soap, measuring spoons, and plastic mixing and storage containers. And don't forget a good waterproof tablecloth.

Then stand back and let the exploration happen. Will food coloring turn kids' hands green? Probably. Will it get messy? Yes, because science gets messy. But it's all worth it when children wonder, "What will happen if. . .?" -- a critical question that is part of hypothesis testing. Encourage observing, mixing and maybe even recording results, because this is what scientists do.

The 3-Day Zoo

The outdoors provides an ever-changing pallet of discoveries for young explorers. Next time that you walk with children through the woods, take your time and encourage them to turn over logs and rocks to explore what is underneath. When your kids are on critter watch, they'll find snails, beetles, lizards and frogs. Don't be surprised when they beg to keep them.

Fortunately, there is a way for you to board small critters at your house without acquiring a new pet. Three-day zoo materials include a large plastic tank or container (I like the type that bulk snack foods come in) to create a short-term space for small creatures. Poke a few holes in the lid and place some window screen inside the holes if you are worried about critters going AWOL. The three-day zoo allows children more time to observe an animal's habits and interactions while making sure the critter gets released back into the wild.

Science experiences at or near home needn't demand too much time or effort on the part of adults. A few tools and encouragment can set young ones up for many adventures. Do it for the love of your child, and for the love of science.

Share the scientific adventures that children enjoy at or near your home.

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Encouraging Science at Home is Easier Than You Think

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I am often asked by parents, "What can we do to get our child interested in science?" My reply is always the same: "Your child is already interested in science!" Children are explorers, observers and tinkerers. It's why they open up cabinets, roll balls down staircases, and proudly exhibit toads found in the backyard.

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Role models in STEM careers – James Branam, CA Technologies

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Interview with James Branam, Director, Software Engineering at CA Technologies on the topic of STEM role models and best practices on informing students about STEM careers. This interview is part of the 'Opening Minds to STEM careers' MOOC developed by the Scientix, SYSTEMIC and STEM Alliance projects.

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6.1 Role of teachers in career counselling

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6.1 Role of teachers in career counselling

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1. Tutorial roles:
a) Career informant: In this role, teachers provide students with a model, an approach of thinking about a career and help students shape their own way to view career choices by using their own experience as an example but without offering it as the only way to do this. The report lists some taks that a teacher in this role might perform: “talking about their decisions and how they made them, talking about their career building (including discussing challenges and regrets”, and many more;
b) Pastoral support: This refers to the teacher as a first contact point for students who may approach them with conversations they need to have with a trusted adult. These can be related purely to career choices/guidance and sometimes, they may appear as being related to careers, but in reality the issue the student is having may be, for example, health-related. In this role, the teacher helps the student in line with their capabilities, but also direct the student to other professionals who can help. A task the teacher can perform in this role: “acting as facilitator and advocate for students to help them to have career conversations with other staff, parents and employers.”
2. Teaching roles:
a) Within-subject: In this role, the teacher has two opportunities to provide CEL: within or beside the curriculum. For some subjects it may be more straightforward to discuss careers (e.g., Economics or Politics versus Physiscs, where more direct connections have to be made), and teaching approaches can also vary. If career information has to be provided besides the curriculum (e.g. STEM subjects), then the report proposes a team teaching approach, involving employers and other enrichment activities. Some tasks teachers can perform in this role: “explaining to pupils the progression routes open in continued learning in their subject area, using the curriculum to develop core employability skills”, “arranging visits to relevant workplaces”, “organising a programme of visiting speakers from business”;
b) Delivering CEL: This role refers to the teacher being involved, where possible and it exists (as it depends on curriculum set-up), in CEL as a separate, standalone subject of the curriculum. A task teachers can perform in this role: “contributing particular CEL inputs related to subject expertise”.
3. Leadership roles:
a) Leading CEL: A teacher leading CEL will be someone that, either has a teaching background or not, but needs to be familiar with and be able to coordinate various stakeholders involved in providing CEL to the school. Therefore, a teacher in this role would be someone in a middle leader position, and a Career co-ordinator/Careers Leader/Head of Careers.
b) Senior leadership: This role is taken up, normally, by someone of the school’s senior leadership team. In this role, the person would “connect CEL to the school’s mission and ethos, identify resourcing for CEL programmes, appointing and managing the school career’s leader” and other tasks.
As mentioned initially, these roles are proposed in the study for UK schools and some aspects may not be applicable to other countries but this should help for a first reflection.

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1. Understand the concept of mentorship and how you can integrate it in your schools (with focus on your own role as career counsellors);

2. Learn how to integrate STEM professionals in school activities;

3. Learn how to work together with career counsellors for optimum performance;

4. Understand and learn how to manage the role of parents in career awareness;

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Samantha Cristoforetti is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut of Italian nationality. Between November 2014 and June 2015 she spent 199 days on board the International Space Station as a Flight Engineer for Expedition 42 and 43. During ASI's Futura Mission, Samantha conducted experiments in the Station's laboratories. Samantha is a Captain in the Italian Air Force.

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Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for her part in the discovery of a protein that stimulates nerve cell growth.

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(born c. 355 ce—died March 415, Alexandria), mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who lived in a very turbulent era in Alexandria’s history. She is the earliest female mathematician of whose life and work reasonably detailed knowledge exists.

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The first doctor woman in Italy

Italian physician Maria Montessori was a pioneer of theories in early childhood education, which are still implemented in Montessori schools all over the globe.

“Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers, study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants—doing nothing but living and walking about—came to know all things, to carry in their minds the whole of learning: would you not think I was romancing? Well, just this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing but the invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality. It is the child's way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so passes little by little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love.”—Maria Montessori

Synopsis

Maria Montessori was born on August 31, 1870, in Chiaravalle, Italy. In 1907 she was placed in charge of the Casa dei Bambini school. By 1925, more than 1,000 Montessori schools had opened in the United States. By 1940 the Montessori movement had faded, but it was revived in the 1960s. During World War II, Montessori developed Education for Peace in India, and earned two Nobel Peace Prize nominations. She died May 6, 1952, in Noordwijk aan Zee, Netherlands.

Early Life

Maria Montessori was born on August 31, 1870, in the provincial town of Chiaravalle, Italy, to middle-class, well-educated parents. At the time that Montessori was growing up, Italy held conservative values about women's roles. From a young age, she consistently broke out of those proscribed gender limitations. After the family moved to Rome, when she was 14, Montessori attended classes at a boys' technical institute, where she further developed her aptitude for math and her interest in the sciences—particularly biology.

Facing her father's resistance but armed with her mother's support, Montessori went on to graduate with high honors from the medical school of the University of Rome in 1896. In so doing, Montessori became the first female doctor in Italy.

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Inspiring the next generation of female engineers | Debbie Sterling | TEDxPSU

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The learning objectives of Module 5 are:

1. Understand the concept of the STEM gender gap;

2. Learn to analyse data regarding the situation of girls and women in STEM careers;

3. Learn strategies to further address gender equality in the classroom, and how to encourage girls into STEM careers;

4. Learn about female scientist (of the present and of the past) and of current initiatives promoting girls in STEM.