A lot of focus is placed on science education today, however most of it is really just scientific method practice. Speaking from personal experience, the scientific method is an incredibly simple process with definable steps that is not necessary for children to practice. The result of forcing the incorrect concept that the most important part of science is the scientific process creates children who are bored out of their minds and develop a lifelong distaste for the subject.
The fundamental key to enjoying science is gaining practice with the creative spark part of science. That is the fundamental piece that makes a scientist truly great.
There are plenty of professionals out there who understand this, although most of them are in England. Steve Spangler (http://www.stevespanglerscience.com), in Colorado, is one of the most successful in the U.S. in promoting a change in science education by making science experiments exciting. However, products you can purchase for your children to ‘play’ with that develop create scientific thinking are difficult to come by.
One product I recently discovered is the MaKey MaKey (http://makeymakey.com/). This is a tool designed for children to enable them to practice inventing things and develop their creative sparks. The possibilities are endless with the MaKey. Any age child will be able to use the tool to develop ideas at their individual level of understanding. Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum are final-year PhD students at the MIT Media Lab who created and now sell the MaKey. These two are worth keeping an eye on in the future!
So let your kids explore out of the ‘teach to the test’ mentality of traditional and charter schools. This is the beauty of homeschooling. However if you are not currently homeschooling your children, you can still offer them chances to explore and grow their capabilities freely.
