Learning science for the fun of it

Growing up, my least favorite subject at school was science and I gladly gave that up in favor of other subjects in high school as soon as the school curriculum permitted.  But in hindsight, I regret my hasty decision and wish I have stuck with it a bit longer.  I realized that through the years I have become more inquisitive about everything around me and that I would love to know more about the technologies involved that make our daily lives better, or how our bodies react to different allergens in the environment.  Now that I have children, I would love them to embrace science more readily than I was and to learn more about it in a fun way.

Take advantage of the second nature

With the profuse use of the internet and computers in their daily lives, children are already much more tech-savvy than our generation when we were their age.  Your 5-year-old might know his way around the tablet computer more than you do!  So they are already a step closer to learning more about their second nature, the trick is how to spark their interest in various aspects of science?

Trial and error is the way to go

First and foremost, I think we need to encourage curiosity in our kids.  This desire to find out how things work is a great motivation to get them started with being interested in science.  In a very meaningful podcast interview, Emily Calandrelli, a successful host of a kids’ science TV show, who is also a scientist and a mother talked about how important it is to teach our children to look at failure in a positive light because science is all about trial and error and that’s how all- discoveries were made.  Even if our kids don’t become scientists when they grow up, training up their resilience and persistence always help them to become better people all the same.

Science is for all ages

So how can we practically get the kids interested in science?  There are so many nice science-themed blogs available for kids they can check out.  There is also this website that provides all kinds of informative videos on various science-related subject that is great for all ages, even I go check it out regularly because the videos are so interesting!  Lastly, I believe we learn and retain the most knowledge through our experience in our everyday life.  So, we can propose a topic that we find around us and research it together with the kids, almost like a parent-child research project that we can easily do.  For example, because of the pandemic, we are hyper-aware of cleanliness and sanitization.  So together with the kids, we can look up what is the most efficient and environmentally friendly way to sanitize.  The topics and possibilities for us to learn about science are countless!

Stay Curious and Stay Sparky!