Nature
Science is a subject that is not simple to get students to engage in. Public school science curriculum is based on learning the facts and skills needed to pass a test. By engaging the already curious minds of kids, use their interests to structure lessons.
Science should be used in reference to and alongside the natural world in applicable ways through use of mapping technology and personal photos. There is a lot you are able to learn through exploring the areas around you like parks, schools, yards, city blocks, fields. There are so many daily connections that could ground us and provide us with more structural understanding of the world around us and our place in it. Science should be exciting, fun and something that kids are interested in. Schools should not be forcing kids to know what we want them to know about science, rather we should be asking them what they are curious about.
Natural World
Education through learning about the natural world is one of the strongest ways that we as humans living in the present moment can better understand ourselves, our history and our future. How can we have a more equitable and sustainable future?
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It is possible to teach all we need to know and all we are expected to know through the natural world. State standards of what we are supposed to learn only limit the outcome of what we learn and express a deeper desire for true connection and meaning, not how we get those outcomes.
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There are a lot of nature based education models and research speaking to how learning through play and exploration hinges on personal development and connectivity. It is important for students to make connections to the natural world in a way that provides them with the freedom to learn and grow at their own pace and challenge themselves to push past their comfort zone to grow into curious and brilliant humans.
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Were you generally able to make connections in your science class between what you were learning and how it applies to your real life? I didn't think so. This is the problem, science isn't currently being taught in a way that is relatable and allows for creative expression. The current system is too rigid to allow students the freedom to inquire honestly.
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It is important to learn how our actions affect other people, plants, animals and the environment around us but without feeling connected to the space around us, how are we ever going to improve for the better? Are our bodies, minds, and souls connected to our actions? How can our actions in the space we occupy improve our future?
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Engineering
Engineering is a big word that is an umbrella term for many different jobs and activities. Engineers have very important jobs by making things that help to solve problems that people have. Yes it really is that simple! Kids are already engineers, their imagination allows them to come up with different ways to think about or solve a problem. By allowing kids to be creative and use their imagination to create something that is relevant to them, they are in fact engineers.
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Engineering is so fun! There are so many videos displaying creative and easy experiments to do on YouTube and many different science kits that you can purchase and use at home or in the classroom, but are these examples on their own capable of teaching? No. The purpose should not be to replace the instructional component of teaching with these easy kits or videos, but to be an example that improves comprehension alongside the critical thinking that is vital to understanding these concepts.
Theory
There are so many theories out there in the world held by brilliant people. There are ways in which we can individually interact with and conceptualize our deepest understandings of the universe in which we view it. That is through conversation of knowledges and theories coming from different cultural perspectives that are not based in our current Eurocentric and stereotyped portrayal of culture in our world. This includes children to speak freely about their thoughts and feelings about the world around them. Let's try and see the world from their perspective, as we have been forced to grow out of our past and move forward in the world hoping things are moving forward, we must realize that theory is the most important. It keeps letting us ask the questions and go from where we have found sparked inquiry.
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What can we ask ourselves about the world around us? Do we have any theories that we want to explore?
Lab Work
Spending time in the lab or out in the field doing the actual work is the fun part! This should be the time that you get to explore the things you have been questioning. There is so much creativity that goes into designing and doing an experiment. To see that your students are engaged and excited about what they are about to learn is what makes teaching so exciting. If you can't be excited for the work that you are about to engage your students with, how do you expect them do be?
For me I know that in school the lab work part of my science classes was boring, even in university! It was the same thing each year and we had no control over the science experiments that we did. It was a cookie cutter curriculum designed to get us in and out learning the same thing each year. We had to learn the function of the endoplasmic reticulum and how to do math equations using protons and neutrons. Don't get me wrong, it's not that these topics aren't important for some careers and it's not to say that learning these things can't be exciting. They just aren't taught in a creative and engaging way that students feel empowered and excited about.
It almost felt as if the answer that we were looking for was predetermined, if we didn't get results that matched what the other groups got we didn't do the experiment right. What did we learn? To be honest, I couldn't tell you what we learned in those classes because we weren't actually learning. We were drones sitting in class and doing the busy work trying to memorize what we needed to get the A that we all so desperately were trying to achieve.
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Have you asked your students what they want to learn? Have you considered making science relatable to turn it into something that actually makes sense to your students? Why do we teach the same lessons and make kids to the same experiments year after year? Teachers who aren't passionate about science and work towards instilling a sense of wonder and inquiry into their students aren't teachers that I want to learn from and I can bet that students don't either.