'Thinkering'- an article about the importance of hands-on instruction/experimentation

[Enough]

Here's the article at The Creativity Post.

[Jane in NC]

Since the article mentions Michael Faraday, let me take this opportunity to mention the series of lectures he gave to the youth of his day now published as The Chemical History of a Candle. They are a fine addition to any home school.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Thanks for the book suggestions. Put it on hold at the library. Back to the OP ... This is why we do hands-on science from the preschool years on up. This is why I started several science clubs for my kids to help make sure we did science in an interesting "non-bookish" way. This is why we never did WTM science notebooks with narrations of what they read. I put more emphasis on doing science than just reading about it.

[Enough]

Yes, thank you for the recommendation, Jane! I found it on Google Books and it looks very interesting. :)

[myfunnybunch]

Since the article mentions Michael Faraday, let me take this opportunity to mention the series of lectures he gave to the youth of his day now published as The Chemical History of a Candle. They are a fine addition to any home school.

 

Excellent! Thank you.

 

I found it available through Project Gutenberg. :)

 

The article was interesting, too. Thanks to the OP.

 

Cat

[Beth in SW WA]

Thanks for the book suggestions. Put it on hold at the library. Back to the OP ... This is why we do hands-on science from the preschool years on up. This is why I started several science clubs for my kids to help make sure we did science in an interesting "non-bookish" way. This is why we never did WTM science notebooks with narrations of what they read. I put more emphasis on doing science than just reading about it.

 

:bigear:

[Jean in Newcastle]

I agree that hands on learning is important. BUT - these are my musings after having spent the day yesterday with my 10 year old and 14 year old at the science center. They had lots of age appropriate materials to interact with but without someone to put that hands-on learning into context, to correct their thinking when they came to erroneous thinking (usually not totally erroneous but slightly off) the hands-on learning wasn't enough to really teach them anything.

[myfunnybunch]

This is why we never did WTM science notebooks with narrations of what they read. I put more emphasis on doing science than just reading about it.

 

Yes. We do narrations of what they've done instead of what they've read.

 

Cat

[MomatHWTK]

I would propose that coming to the wrong conclusions sometimes leads to learning once one discovers the error. If I recall correctly there are scores of scientists and inventors who experienced failure long before success. ;)

[Enough]

I agree that hands on learning is important. BUT - these are my musings after having spent the day yesterday with my 10 year old and 14 year old at the science center. They had lots of age appropriate materials to interact with but without someone to put that hands-on learning into context, to correct their thinking when they came to erroneous thinking (usually not totally erroneous but slightly off) the hands-on learning wasn't enough to really teach them anything.

 

FWIW, the article I linked doesn't advocate hands-on instruction instead of direct instruction.

[Rebecca VA]

Just yesterday my daughter took part in a STEM competition for girls held at a local girls' school. One of the challenges was to build a bridge with some bricks and five rubber bands. My daughter remembered something she had learned in BJU Science and recommended using a stair-step design. It was the winning design -- but she wouldn't have dreamed up on her own. She took a principle she'd learned in her science text and applied it.

 

Her team won second place, BTW. She's more excited than I've seen her in a long time. She has suddenly -- overnight -- discovered that she likes science and has the potential to be kind of good at it. I'm so thankful to the people who sponsored this STEM event.

[Beth in SW WA]

Just yesterday my daughter took part in a STEM competition for girls held at a local girls' school. One of the challenges was to build a bridge with some bricks and five rubber bands. My daughter remembered something she had learned in BJU Science and recommended using a stair-step design. It was the winning design -- but she wouldn't have dreamed up on her own. She took a principle she'd learned in her science text and applied it.

 

Her team won second place, BTW. She's more excited than I've seen her in a long time. She has suddenly -- overnight -- discovered that she likes science and has the potential to be kind of good at it. I'm so thankful to the people who sponsored this STEM event.

 

That is awesome! I would love to find something like that around here.

[DarlaS]

I think there are varying meanings to "hands on". Faraday and Edison may have benefited from their experiences because there was no to interfere as soon as they made an error, and they were left alone to follow through and eventually make a discovery.

 

In other words, they had a goal in mind rather than just tinkering with stuff. A goal which no one had yet attained. There was a specific thing they wanted to create. They tried, failed, and tried some more until they either succeeded in meeting that goal or discovering something new and unanticipated. Many things were invented by accident using just those methods.

 

It would be very very difficult for any educational materials or museum exhibits to replicate this kind of discovery today.

 

So how do we change this to get our kids into discovering and creating mode? Present the experiment first? I've been mildly annoyed when a science program does that, but in light of this article, maybe that's the way to go. Hmmmm...