Do YOU love Science?

This week’s subject is… SCIENCE!

Some people are scared of science.  A colleague of mine was recently asked to present in an elementary ed college course about how to use our books to teach science, BECAUSE (the professor said) his students didn't like it!

What about you?

Your child(ren) — or the children under your care — will adopt YOUR attitudes.  If you don’t like something, unless they experience otherwise for themselves, they won’t like it either. Are you scared of science?  Do you like it?  Is it gross?  Too many symbols and equations?  What do you think?

As for me… I am a closet science maniac.  I love our school’s science fair.  (See the results from our most recent science fair on the right... a salt precipitate.)  Chemistry is FUN!  (Yes, I’m a geek.)  And I can’t imagine people NOT liking science.  What’s not to like?  Whether you’re appreciating nature, baking a cake, pulling a wagon, or making things go boom, science is everywhere.  Scientists are tracking the sunrise & sunset times each day, designing cool new cars that run on different fuels, finding cures for diseases, and making the internet safer to use.  Science asks, and tries to answer, the “why” questions about our physical world!!

So today, here’s a tip you can use with YOUR kids:

SLOW DOWN.  Especially if you’re outside!  Notice things around you.  Are they soft or hard?  Wet or dry?  Why?

Take a walk or a peek outside.  Look at the leaves changing colors.  Why do they do that?  (Do you know?  Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscission for some answers if you don’t!)  Look at the bugs and the plants around you.  Is that bug a beetle or an ant?  How do you know?  What do the puffy seed pods feel like?

Look at the cake or cookies baking in an oven.  Why do they puff up?  (Because you put baking soda in it… I know… but why does it work?  Did you know that it reacts with other things in your cookies or bread mix to make carbon dioxide?  The bubbles in your baked items are air bubbles from this reaction!)

Talk about these things with your kids! The more you slow down and wonder why with your kids, the more science you’re encouraging them to investigate!