How to help at home

  • Help your child to think like a scientist. It is more important to develop their scientific and investigative skills than to help them understand complex scientific concepts. Keep it practical and most importantly, fun! Visit th link below for some great ideas for practical experiments you can carry out at home.
  • When it comes to developing your child’s investigative skills, explanations do not always help. Science is about asking questions, designing investigations, making sense of the information found out and communicating these findings. Children do not have to always find out the answer to their questions and they do not always agree. Spend time modelling how to be a scientist in fun ways: going on walks, mixing things, testing to see what happens, observing carefully and wondering alongside your child.
  • Listen carefully to your child. Engage them in conversation about what they think and encourage them to explain why they think by asking questions such as, “Why do you think this/that is happening?”
  • Don’t immediately correct your child. If your child says something scientifically incorrect, help them discover the answer for themselves. For example, if they say, “Heavy things sink”, you could ask them, “Which heavy things have you seen sink?” Or, “I wonder if we can find something heavy that can float?”
  • Model curiosity. Wonder aloud: “I wonder what will happen to this pudding mix when we put the water in?”

Here are some links for more information on how you can support your child in science, as well as some great ideas for experiments you can do at home.

https://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/science/science.pdf

https://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/science/science.pdf

http://www.kidspot.com.au/things-to-do/collection/science-experiments

Useful websites:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/science.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/science/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/science/

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/

http://easyscienceforkids.com/

http://www.scienceforkidsclub.com/

http://www.ducksters.com/science/

http://www.science-sparks.com/

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-fair

http://www.stemdupage.com/index.html