Happy World Science Day.
We must always make sure our children see the inter-relationships in life and the science in it.
Science is important.
Science can be described as the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the natural and physical world through observation and experiment.
For a child to understand a lot of things around them they need science, scientific skills. Ultimately to gain these they must develop their critical thinking skills.
We all say we are into developing 21st century skills in the child, critical thinking is one of them. If we teach science appropriately in our classrooms, this can help us achieve critical thinking skills in the child.
Children start learning science from the early years by exploring their environment.
A lot of the hands on activities the children do in the infant and casa classrooms in Montessori settings set the stage for children to observe and learn lots of simple scientific facts.
As the child grows these hands on Sensorial exploration of the environment moves on to deeper inquiry. The child starts asking questions, wants to know more
There is a wide array of skills needed to learn through inquiry, for me this is like a wonderfully cooked soup, with lots of mouth watering ingredients.
Let me try and list some of the ingredients, activities and skills children need to harness in order to learn through inquiry:-
- Observation
- Examination
- Questioning
- Organizing
- Recording
- Hypothesizing
- Theorizing
- Testing
- Theorizing
- Communicating
Children who learn this way will become the prepared adults for the world tomorrow, whether they become Scientists or not.
The question as we celebrate the World Science Day this year is are we as adults providing the right science framework for our children to thrive?
Science is important, and we need to use it to educate our children appropriately.
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