The best way to get involved with something that is, to some people, normally considered tiresome and boring, like science, is to make it interesting. When we are young we heard that playful Mary Poppins song with the lyrics, “a spoon full of medicine makes the medicine go down.” I believe that this is quite possibly one of the best ways for children to get involved with science. If teachers make science interesting, with experiments and projects, children will WANT to learn about how their world works. Children are our future, and it is up to our generation to instill in them a desire to learn about their environment. They will be creating new and invaluable ways to better our lives through science. They will be developing fuel cell technologies to power our cars. They will find the cure for cancer and other diseases. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even this decade, but someday it will happen, and the only way for it to happen is to start these children off with a strong knowledge of science.
Having children make a personalized family tree, with family photos and other memorabilia, will give them insight into how our DNA functions and how our bodies reproduce. This activity will give children knowledge about, not only chemistry, but biology as well. If children learn at an early age how to determine traits based on family genes, who knows, maybe someday they will be able to track down the causes of deformities and other diseases that run in his or her own family.
One popular science project for children is the creation of a substance called flubber. Flubber isn’t a solid, or a liquid. In fact, it is a little of both. Flubber can be made with the following ingredients:
White glue,
Liquid starch,
Container with lid
In order to make the flubber you need to mix equal parts of the liquid starch with the white glue. Then, after mixing, watch the flubber form. (The flubber may stain fabric and/or carpets.)
Although this doesn’t find the cure for cancer or discover an alternative fuel source to power our cars, it just might get your children interested in science. Knowledge of how our world works is crucial in the development of young scientists. If the desire to learn is instilled in children at an early age, the desire to learn will follow them for the rest of their lives, and that is crucial for our society to make any kind of progress at all
