When most people hear the term Scientific Method, they immediately associate it with having to complete a middle and/or high school science fair project. However, having a firm grasp of the requisite skills associated with can be useful beyond the field of Science. In fact, those skills can be extremely useful in any situation requiring critical thinking. These skills include observation, research, classifying, predicting, experimenting and communication. There is a terrific way to for parents to help their child/children practice identifying the steps in the Scientific Method. It involves watching the television show named MythBusters on Discovery Channel. The format of the show revolves around two gentlemen conducting experiments based on popular beliefs and myths. Simply have them watch episodes and identify each step of the Scientific Method related to the experiment being conducted. These are the steps that make up the Scientific Method: 1. Ask A Question 2. Do Your Research 3. Construct A Hypothesis 4. Test Your Hypothesis 5. Analyze Your Data & Draw A Conclusion 6. Draw Conclusions & Communicate Your Results Can you think of ways to reinforce the Scientific Method outside the realm of Science?
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Students always look forward to summer vacation as a time to relax and have fun even though they typically have a summer assignments to complete in addition reading. A great way that parents can help their children combat "Summer Slide" and retain important skills is to create Internet Scavenger Hunts. By creating Internet Scavenger Hunts for your child, you will help them develop reading, comprehension, and problem solving skills. It will also help them learn how to obtain, use and analyze information that is gathered. An example of an Internet Scavenger Hunt is using a magazine (e.g. National Geographic) and creating questions based on articles, charts and graphs and any other information in the magazine including the cover. In order to make it challenging to find they necessary information, create questions from various parts of the magazine rather than consecutive articles or pages. It will require patience and more effort to find facts and information to provide details when answering the questions. The following are few sample questions that could be used with the May 2014 issue of National Geographic:
Once your child has completed the Scavenger Hunt, have them create one for you to complete. The possibilities are limitless when creating them. Think outside the box, and make them fun! |
AuthorRandy Sally Archives
June 2023
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