It's All About the Hands On!!

Tonight in class we talked about how it really is the teacher's responsibility to make science fun.  Children should want to be scientists, and it is up to make sure they can get excited about it and have a good time! I was thinking about my topic, marine science, and how I would make this fun for students.  The activity we did in class tonight was perfect! If I was back in the Marshall Islands, I would take the time in class to bring them to the beach.  We would go to the beach and find shells. Whatever we couldn't find in class, I would ask the kids to go spend some time out of class to get. I would do the same kind of activity we did in class with classifying, measuring, and weighing shells, but the kids would have the added bonus of having collected the shells themselves!

I know that example was specific to a beach area, but it is just an example of a fully hands on activity...what a great way to learn graphing, modes of measurement, how to measure, how to classify and arrange, and a whole host of other things! Learning should be fun, and like we brought up in class from the reading last night, children learn so much better when they are working hands on and are given the creative freedom to experiment and try out new concepts.

Science and math have always been my two most daunting subjects...two classes I was worried about teaching because I didn't have a lot of fun with them in school.  After Dr. Winters' class, I feel like I have the materials I need to make math "fun :), and I feel like I am learning all kinds of way science can be more than just a textbook subject! Yay science learning!