I have never thought about myself as a scientist. Most people who know me would not think of me as a scientist. I think it mainly boils down to the facts that I am really not good with numbers (I tend to see them in the wrong order which is a sign of discalculia - the numerical version of dyslexia and REALLY annoying for writing down or reading phone numbers/bank cards etc ) and rather vague about accuracy. I hated sciences and maths at school, they made no real sense to my brain and yet I chose to study a science based degree at University and loved it (and did pretty well!). My Mum will tell you similar about herself. She really struggled with maths at school and had a few attempts to get an O Level (sorry Mum!) and yet, within five years was a fully trained nurse and not long after that, a sister on a special care baby unit. She nursed for over 40 years, easily working out percentages for medications and managing (what I would see as extremely complicated) calculations about administering them and yet she will still tell you she is not good at Maths. What all this tells me (apart from the fact our family might need a bit of self confidence when it comes to that!) is that, somewhere along the line, education has missed the point. These children who leave thinking they aren't able to do something could actually have been the scientists of their generation.
The interesting thing is that children are natural scientists. We are all born trying to make sense of the world we are growing up in. The wonder that we are always trying to encourage is that natural urge to investigate, the what, when, if, how and why.
We watched some old family films of the girls yesterday, and in one of them our little 9mth old is splashing a spoon in a tray of water, trying to make drops come out while our 3yr old is trying to make a water fountain out of a cardboard tube and piece of pipe!
Those (sometimes frustrating) toddler behaviours of banging and throwing things, hiding objects inside others (always the car keys!!) and putting everything in their mouths are just ways of exploring taste/texture/heaviness. As they grow older, children start to like mixing things to see what will happen.
Our girls love making potions out of flowers and herbs in the garden or trying out putting different paint colour together. Oldest child even likes to mix different sauces on her plate at dinner (I am told mayonnaise and humous works but I'm not really up for trying it!). You might find your children love to build with blocks or train tracks or play with water, ice or sand. This is all investigation, wonder, science.
So why do we loose this wonder in all the business of 'education' and how do we get it back? As the last year has gone by, I've been reading and coming more across the idea of STEM (sometimes STEAM) which is that Science, Technology, Engineering (Art) and Maths are taught together, in a way that engages children. For example, if you are interested in robots, lets look at making one. Can we design it? Measure the parts? How do we make it work? All these bring in the ideas of the subject without being taught it from the front, at a table (though there is room for this and has to be done sometimes!)
As I said, our girls love making potions, sometimes we make playdough to add in which means we have to measure things out. Last week, we took a book out of the library which had some 'recipes' for potions which we could do together, wondering what was going to happen and why. We had loads of fun and importantly, the girls will remember our crazy experiments and are already asking to do more.
My Mum always says that once she started nursing and started using maths practically, she understood it because it had a use. For me, I loved my degree because of the research, the endless wondering about people, how they function and how that could be applied. Once we are inspired to explore more and see how it works, the wonder will never stop.
I've put a few of our STEAM type activities here. Our favourite go to is always playdough and potions in one form or other (snow potions) but we've recently branched out into more technical ones weather clouds and lava lamps. They are loving them, so we will keep them coming and will definitely be trying some more outdoor ones as the weather brightens up!
Some of our science and wondering through the years
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