Learning | Science Impact

Teaching Science to Kids

Teaching is rewarding, but all too often, your students will not be interested in what is being taught. When it comes to science, there are two methods you can employ: you can either tell the students the principles and information or you can show them.

Telling the students is boring — for you and your students. The best way to teach a principle is by allowing the students to see it in action. In fact, when possibly you should allow the students to observe what happens and then let them come to their own conclusions. At that point, you can then teach them the principle they’ve figured out on their own.

One way to do this is to have multiple stations with a different activity at each station that supports the principle that you’re teaching. This gives students multiple ways to learn and splits up the class into small groups so there aren’t too many people trying to do the experiment at the same time. It’s great for all types of learners and allows students a chance to be active instead of being forced to sit still at their seats.

There are tons of activities you can try with your students. Some are simple and don’t require a lot of preparation. Others are complex and require students to use their creativity in order to solve the problem. The best activities are ones with multiple solutions because as long as the solution works, it’s right. This really makes students think hard on how to solve the solution.

Filed Under: Education, Science Tagged With: Education, Learning, Student

Education Tips for ADHD/ADD Students

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Individuals with ADHD/ADD often have difficultly fitting into the standard manner of learning. This can be a challenge for the student, teacher and parents. Learning how to help an ADHD/ADD student cope with the issues faced while gaining a useful education can be overwhelming to everyone concerned. There are several things that can be done at home to help the ADHD/ADD student manage their education. The most important thing is to understand that ADHD/ADD students can be very smart individuals who simply learn differently. Once this has been understood the rest is a matter of setting systems in place to create a platform for success.

Schedule is everything when discussing ADHD/ADD education. Individuals with this challenge rely heavily on routine and schedule. Setting a schedule for homework and studying in the home is vital to a successful education. Set up a study area with few distractions and schedule a study and homework time every day at the same time. Allow the student to work for a set amount of time giving scheduled breaks. Take the time to go over the assignment prior to starting the study time. This ensures that the assignment expectations are understood by both the parent and the student and that the information is fresh in the student’s mind.

Organization is another vital requirement for success in education for ADHD/ADD students. Having a place for every item is important to keeping distractions to a minimum. If the student knows where everything is that they need such as pencils and paper, and know where those items should be return to, they will have a smoother time working through the assignments. It can be very distracting for a student trying to get an education to be thinking about the disorganization of the work area. It is important that there are as little distractions for an ADHD/ADD student as possible.

Filed Under: Education, Science Tagged With: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Disorders, Education, Health, Homework, Learning, Mental Health, Student

7 Elements of Cooperative Learning

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Using cooperative learning as a technique to teach your students about science involves more than grouping students together and allowing them to help each other learn. It is also about mixing and mingling the abilities of the students that make up each group. Experts say that cooperative learning has seven elements that must exist to achieve success with this teaching methodology.

Interdependence: The students need to have the belief that each of their actions either helps the group succeed or leads the group down the other path.
In-person interaction: Group the children in rows or circles where they have to face each other while working together.

Mixed groups: Each group should contain three to five members at different levels of ability when it comes to science. You may also want to mix groups up by backgrounds, gender and race and avoid putting together friends.

Clear and concise instructions: Be clear and concise on the directions the group must follow to achieve the common goal at hand. In science, this may be the specific outcome they should have in an experiment.

A level playground: Make it clear that every student and every group has the same chance to succeed. It is not a competition, but rather a way to create a group dynamic in learning about science..
Precise learning objectives: From the start, make sure the students understand what they are going to learn during their time together working in cooperative groups.

Accountability: While you want to observe groups as they work together, you also have to make each individual student accountable for the knowledge they are gathering from the process. This may require written tests or oral exams as a means to test the individual learning level.

Time: Establish a sufficient amount of time for groups to work together each day during the period to accomplish the science project at hand.

Filed Under: Education, Science, Technology Tagged With: Active learning, Cooperative learning, Education, Inquiry Based Learning, Learning, Learning Theories, Methods and Theories, Student

Student Benefits of Cooperative Learning

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Various studies illustrate that cooperative learning can help students to learn the science information you are trying to teach them. Sometimes, students have the ability to learn better and faster from their peers than directly from the teacher. Studies also show that the benefits of cooperative learning for students is more than just the ability to learn the information at hand. For one, students that do not do as well in science as some of their peers learn better when they are in cooperative learning groups with a mixed ability of students. This means that a student that doesn’t do well can learn from the science star of the classroom by working with them.

7 Benefits of Cooperative Learning

According to the experts and teachers themselves, students achieve seven other benefits from cooperative learning groups.
Achievement: Cooperative learning seems to increase student achievement in learning science and what they learn seems to stay with them longer than with other teaching methods.

Retention: Cooperative learning and the achievement it brings tends to keep students in school until they graduate because the students feel as if their contributions count.

Relationships: Cooperative leaning tends to break down various barriers that exist between students because they have to learn to work together in order to achieve a common goal.

Improves Critical Thinking: Because the group dynamic creates a “debate” situation in many circumstances, where they have to work together to solve a problem, cooperative learning boosts the critical thinking skills of students.

Improves Communication Skills: Students learn how to communicate with other members of their group, express their opinions and get their point across to others, which improves their communication skills.

Helps with Social Skills: The social skills of students involved in cooperative learning also improves.

Heightens self-esteem. Cooperative learning also boosts the self-esteem of students because they feel as if their contribution matters.

Filed Under: Education, Science, Technology Tagged With: Cooperative learning, Critical thinking, Education, Learning, Learning Theories, Methods and Theories, Student, Teacher

Teach Science with Cooperative Learning

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Cooperative learning has proven through various studies to be an effective way to teach students a variety of subjects, including science. In case you are not familiar with the teaching method, it requires you to assemble students into small groups, typically with three to five members in each group. The group assemble requires you to mix students up that have different abilities in order to maximize the learning potential of the group. In other word, don’t put all of the A students together in one group and the F students together. Rather assemble the groups with some A, B, C, D and F students. The purpose of cooperative learning is to provide students guidance as to what they are supposed to learn by working together to achieve a common goal.

4 Factors for Successful Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning can be highly successful in teaching students science concepts and information. In order to maximize the success of cooperative learning, four factors must be taken into consideration.

Set Goals: Make sure to set clear and concise goals as to what the groups are supposed to achieve. When you set and measure goals, you can assess how well the group accomplishes the goal at hand.

Accountability: While the goal is to work together in groups, students still need to be accountable for their individual contributions to the group.

Equality: Since the levels and abilities of each student that make up the groups are different, be careful to measure individual progress. For example, if each student in the group achieves a 10 percent increase in test scores from one week to another this is positive and equal progress. So, the student who raised a test score from 70 to 78 has achieved equal success as the student in the same group that increased the test score from 82 to 90.

Group Dynamic: You also have to teach students how to work together in a group.

Filed Under: Education, Science, Technology Tagged With: Active learning, Cooperative learning, Education, Learning, Learning Theories, Methods and Theories, Standardized test, Student

Role Playing Increases Science Learning

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As a teacher, you had to do a year or so of hands-on training in the classroom before you were able to apply for your first teaching job completely on your own. Especially for certain situations, hands-on learning or learning through role play can increase the retention of information you are trying to get across to your students.

Create Scenarios

When using a role playing scenario, you can approach creating the scenarios or scientific situations in a number of different ways. Your role as the teacher, however, requires you to set the stage for the students. If you are teaching them about the different roles in an ecosystem, then setting the stage may entail assigning a role to each student in the class—a group of students are the trees, a group are the water and a group are the animals for example.

Illustrate

To get the students started in their role play, you should show them how to work through the scenario. While you may not walk them through the entire process, you may need to be the spark that jumpstarts their understanding of how to role play and how to learn from the role playing in the process.

Let Them Run with It

Once you set the scene and show them how to role play, sit back and watch as an observer. Let the students fulfill their roles. You should intervene and adjust as necessary. You can also sit back and watch as understanding washes over the students faces. Just as it is easier for you to learn how to play tennis or complete a form by doing it and practicing, the same holds true for learning various concepts in science.

Hands-on learning and role pay can increase a student’s understanding. Rather than reading the information in a textbook, role play brings realization that a science textbook may never be able to accomplish.

Filed Under: Advancements, Education, Science Tagged With: Classroom, Education, Learning, Methods and Theories, Role-playing, Roleplaying, Student, Teacher

Staying Abreast of Science Teaching Techniques

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If you are have been teaching for a short time period, you may be searching for teaching techniques that can help you get across information to your science class. Even if you are a seasoned teaching, you may seeking new ways to get the same information across to a new batch of students year after year. Teaching students requires you to draw inspiration from a myriad of resources.

Other Teachers

One of the first places to learn what teach methods seem to work and which ones seem to bomb are from your fellow teachers. When you are in the teachers’ lounge or walking in the hall, talk to your fellow teachers and learn from them. If you are finding it difficult to reach your students, seek advice from a fellow science teacher or a teacher of any subject to help give you the boost you need.

Pay Attention to Your Own Education

As much as you need to be aware of the science concepts that you are teaching students, you also need to keep your teaching methodologies up-to-date and fresh. Attend a workshop or seminar on teaching. Read a book that talks about different learning and teaching techniques. Conduct a survey of your students and find out how they learn information the best. You can incorporate one or more of these methods into sharpening your teaching skills.

Step back and think about learning science from the perspective of your students. When you start to think like they do, you may find it a much simpler feat to teach them as well. Also, try to incorporate several different methods of teaching rather than simply focusing on one or two. If you attend a learning session where all the person does is talk in front of the class for 50 minutes, you may find this boring and it may prohibit you from truly taking away anything relevant from the session. Your students feel the same way, so mix it up a little.

Filed Under: Education, Science, Technology Tagged With: Education, Educators, K through 12, Learning, Methods and Theories, New and Prospective Teachers, Science education, Student