Science: what should be the goals for elementary students?

[lorisuewho]

I've looked at quite a few science programs that I think I could do with my children, but I keep coming back to the question, "Is it worth our time now?"

 

This isn't to say that science is not most important, but how much time should elementary students dedicate to it?  What are the goals for science in our 10 and under crowd? 

 

If it is just to peak interest, than our continuing just to do science by reading library books, reading our nature reader, and talking about the world around us should be sufficient.  (Well, to be perfectly honest, we also do Evan Moor Daily science which is a broad overview and not overly deep into any one subject; I like it.)  Is laying a base for true scientific study and understanding, simply having strong reading and math skills, and a natural curiousity?  Is it having had taken the time to read on a variety of subjects and having conversations about all the things that surround us, like clouds, shadows, pulleys, etc?  Or is there more that needs to be done?

 

Should our goals be something else, than maybe I do need a curriculum. 

 

What are your thoughts on science education for the elementary crowd?

[regentrude]

My goal for science education in elementary would be: keep natural curiosity alive, encourage an inquisitive approach to the world, let child develop an interest in the natural world and realize that science answers those "why" questions - not that science is a tedious exercise in filling out worksheets.

Nature walks, nature centers, field trips, library books, documentaries - that's what I would use. I would not bother with a science "curriculum" in the elementary years, but focus on getting to know the plants and animals of their area, learning about rocks and the geological features they observe, explaining sun and moon, water cycle - all those things close to a child's observation.

 

 

[8filltheheart]

peak interest, than our continuing just to do science by reading library books, reading our nature reader, and talking about the world around us should be sufficient. .....laying a base for true scientific study and understanding,[**by**] having strong reading and math skills, and a natural curiousity?  Is it having had taken the time to read on a variety of subjects and having conversations about all the things that surround us, like clouds, shadows, pulleys, etc?

 

The bolded is my response.   No worksheets.  No vocabulary tests.   FWIW....we take this approach until high school credit science.

 

[Angie in VA]

I'm going to feel smart for 5 whole minutes, b/c I do what regentrude and 8FillTheHeart do. :hurray:

[beth83]

I was a biology major in college.  I was sure, when I first started thinking about homeschooling, that we would do a lot of science.  I have since changed my mind.

 

Personally, I don't think a strong emphasis in the younger years is necessary.  Focus on the three r's, everything else is supplement.  I mean, if you really get the there r's down in elementary, then all the other subjects are solidified later on.  You need that strong basis in the basics, though.  

 

I think the direction you are leaning is perfect.

[Arcadia]

For elementary school, I just want my kids to maintain their curiosity. They do interest led science. I do make an effort to bring them to state parks and beaches because where I stay is kind of urbanised. However once there, it is up to them to gleefully explore. For middle school, it would be more of a foundation for high school science.

[MinivanMom]

My goal for science education in elementary would be: keep natural curiosity alive, encourage an inquisitive approach to the world, let child develop an interest in the natural world and realize that science answers those "why" questions - not that science is a tedious exercise in filling out worksheets.

Nature walks, nature centers, field trips, library books, documentaries - that's what I would use. I would not bother with a science "curriculum" in the elementary years, but focus on getting to know the plants and animals of their area, learning about rocks and the geological features they observe, explaining sun and moon, water cycle - all those things close to a child's observation.

 

This is exactly what I am trying to do with my children. 

 

Instead of spending money on a "curriculum" we have purchased memberships to the zoo, the aquarium, and our local science museum.  We have purchased both a telescope and a microscope for the children to use (and we really let the children use them).  We have bought lots and lots of real science books on every topic imaginable.  We check out additional books on topics that spark an interest.  We spend lots of time outside, and we spend lots of time talking and answering questions about the things we see.  I want science to be woven into our daily lives.

[briansmama]

My kids read science books from the library, go to talks offered at the local nature center and museum, use experiment kits, watch science documentaries, and participate in a natural science field program. They also spend a lot of time outside. Both enjoy science and at age 6, my youngest can identify birds and discuss habitats, and is very interested in plant and animal life.

 

This is a great thread! Love the pp who mentioned letting the kids actually use the family microscope. I need to get ours down.

[dbmamaz]

My kids seem to not like hands on science.  We have done a few science classes, but my younger is happiest just reading about science and watching some science shows.  I'm fine with that for now.  

[Korrale]

Our goals are a bit different but similar. Firstly I want my son to know how the world around him, and his body works. But mostly I want him to know that science is everywhere and all around him.

We do a lot of science. Now that he is a competent reader but still too young to have the motor skills to write well we focus on math and science predominately.

We discuss science informally a lot. As we are going for a walk we will discuss the water cycle or the rock cycle. We will talk about how the systems in our bodies work. Or we will talk about how things work by the use of simple machines and forces. He is an inquisitive boy and asks questions a lot!

We read several books a week about science. And we read those more than a few times. My son loves science shows. He watches Peter Weatherall several times a week. He also loves a few of the science series on Discovery Steaming. We don't have regular TV.

I believe that the biggest hurdle in science during the higher grades is vocabulary so we focus on using the real terminology in our every day language.

 

We do use a science curriculum because I also believe that science builds upon itself, and I love having all that thought out for me. I love BFSU. I know many parents find it daunting, but I read through it and it gives me the information I need to be able to discuss science with my son. Generally we don't do the labs.

We are weak on labs. I am just not a big fan of the fiddly stuff. Although my son loved the last lab we did. So I think we will be doing more of those just because it is something he begged again and again to do for fun.

[Farrar]

I agree with most of the above.  I think there are some different ways to do it and using a curriculum can be one of them, but generally for us it has been exposure to a broad set of topics, encouraging curiosity about the world and learning to ask and answer questions, focusing on observation, and keeping it fun and positive.

 

We do a lot of reading, a lot of hands on stuff, a lot of being outside in nature, a lot of informal discussion.  I do incorporate science into our language arts through narration quite often.  We keep science journals so occasionally we have a sentence to copy into them or we do an illustration or something, but I keep it pretty light.

[abba12]

I agree with just exploration and discovery. I plan to get all the magic school bus books and shows. We also plan to get a microscope when the kids are older. We have a sciencecenter for kids in the city where we will take them at least once a year (mostly because WE love it! my husband and I have gone since getting married, as adults without kids, it's so much fun! I remember going a few times as a child).

 

I do, however, intend to do a formal study on human biology, probably around age 9 or 10. It will cover all human biology, digestion, blood, breathing, etc. but I am sure you ladies can see my ulterior motive in the timing. 

 

We do intend to do experiments, not all the time, but maybe once every two or three weeks. This is because I think there is a difference between being told facts, and actually discovering something. It also means I can teach about hypothesis etc, before we hit upper level science. But, at that age, half an hour or so every 2-3 weeks or even once a month for a year round schooling family seems quite managable

[GSOchristie]

I am so overwhelmed at this point that I can't imagine adding a science curriculum :/. We learn the cc science memory work and check out a few books on the topic from the library. They do a science experiment each week at CC. I'm calling it good for the year :).

[umsami]

I had a bad experience in elementary school with a science teacher and it really clouded how I felt about science and my perceived scientific ability.  I remember being shocked when I took my ACT and scored in the 99th percentile in science, because my science grades were usually low Bs and Cs.  I actually rediscovered a love of science after undergrad, and went back and did a post-bac pre-med program and aced it all.  Had i realized that earlier, I totally would have majored in physics.

 

Anyway, because of that, my goal up until late middle school, possibly high school, is just to let me kids think science is cool and interesting.  They went through a Wild Kratts phase...where we studied tons of animals.  They went through a Magic School Bus phase.  Now, we're very low key...doing Galore Park Jr. science and just random science experiments from this massive kit by Steve Spangler I got on Amazon.  

 

I do want them to be scientifically literate (so to speak)... I want them to understand that good science is reproduceable and logical.  I want them to have a great scientific base of knowledge, but none of those things have to happen before they're teenagers.  

[marlowefamily]

My 3rd and 5th grader are devoting their science time this year to life science, botany, and the history of medicine since those topics flow together very well.  We have workbooks/etc from memoria press and some other resources, including the harcourt elementary science book.

[8filltheheart]

  

I do want them to be scientifically literate (so to speak)... I want them to understand that good science is reproduceable and logical.  I want them to have a great scientific base of knowledge, but none of those things have to happen before they're teenagers.

 

Just wanted to note that I have these goals for my kids even when they are younger. Our experience is that it doesn't take science tests, vocabulary tests, and science textbooks to achieve that objective. Doing all that the OP has listed as objectives will provide her children with a solid base for upper level science studies. Fwiw, my kids absorb and retain so much of what they read bc they are reading info in so much depth vs textbook snippets. Reading an entire book on neutrinos, for example, vs reading a paragraph makes a long term impression vs studying it for a science test.

[lorisuewho]

 

 

We do a lot of reading, a lot of hands on stuff, a lot of being outside in nature, a lot of informal discussion.  I do incorporate science into our language arts through narration quite often.  We keep science journals so occasionally we have a sentence to copy into them or we do an illustration or something, but I keep it pretty light.

 

 

I have been thinking about your idea of a science journal.  I think I would like to have my oldest transform his nature journal into more of a science journal as he gets older.  He could write a sentence, a word, or draw a picture or a diagram from things he has read about.

[SorrelZG]

I'm so glad you asked this question. Reading this thread has been encouraging and inspiring.

[8filltheheart]

Gwen posted this youtube video on the high school forum.   The young man is earning his masters in physics and was homeschooled until 10th grade.   Nansk posted an interview that he did in the same thread.   When I read his interview, his comments really connected with me b/c it is how I hope our children perceive the education they are receiving.   This is the part of his interview that resonated:  http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/09/tim-blais-on-a-capella-science/

 

We had a very multifaceted way of learning [...] that I think allowed me to see the big picture of things without getting bogged down in the horrible little details that are often the stumbling block when you start learning something. That gave me a fascination with science that’s essentially carried me through a science DEC [eta:  I have no idea what DEC stands for.  ;) ]and one-and-a-half university degrees. But my parents have always been super cool about not pressuring us kids to be anything in particular,

 

 

[Embassy]

Overall, I think the elementary years are best served by spending time studying science informally with library books, documentaries, field trips, and science activities.  However, I've discovered that my knowledge of some areas of science is quite minimal and I needed a curriculum for some areas as my child approached middle school because of that limited knowledge.  I also had very little science in school prior to high school.  I did spend a lot of free time in science interests though.  When I hit Biology in high school I turned off of science even though I had plans for a future in a science field.  Science had become a memorization of terms.  I think that previous exposure to scientific terms would have been helpful.  We spend a lot of time on science compared to other homeschooling families because my kids love science and have plans for a future in a STEM field.  In elementary school I would keep it informal for the most part.  If you do need some guidance with curriculum, I would avoid the test and worksheet dynamic.  

[Leftyplayer]

We are doing more science than we "should" and even on days when it's not scheduled, we end up doing it.  But that's because my kiddo is really interested in it, gets excited for it and has a ton of questions that lead us there, "Is Earth the first planet from the Sun?", "Have any mountains been found in other planets as tall as Mt. Everest?", "Is it hot on Jupiter?" "How hot is a volcano?", "Can grasshoppers hear things?" "How do leaves change colors?"  These are nly a few of the questions asked in the past week.  It's a bit crazy-making because I feel like I'm scrambling all the time to find an answer, but I engage him in the "research process" and think it's an important thing to learn (how to find answers to our questions ... which involves the internet and the library).  Despite not having a strong science background, I enjoy it very much as well, so we do it.  But, like I said, I'm sure we're doing much more than we "have to."

[lorisuewho]

Thank you for all your thoughts on science in the elementary school.  Thank you especially to those who responded with their vision and goals for this age group.  Currently, I am not so much struggling with this curriculum or that or what I have to do or need to do, but what is my actual vision for science at this grade level. 

 

I have such a clear vision in other areas. . .reading, literature, writing, poetry, arithmetic, music, history, Bible.  

And then there is this thing that floats around in my mind called science that has no real home in my homeschooling vision.  I can't place it.  I can't shelf it anywhere.  The only place I have for it is in our every day life of discussions, our reading of books, and in what we observe.  But I wouldn't call that science.  I would call it just being a kid and learning about what is around us.

 

Does any of that even make sense? 

[Runningmom80]

My DS loves science.  He actually really loves the evan moor daily science?  IDK why, it's a very basic worksheet? :lol:  Anyways, last year what I did was just look ahead a week and see what "topic" was being covered and got library books out.  I bought a bunch of random science stuff too, like those magic school bus sets and some other random experiment sets.  So that's what we do.  It's hardly rigourous, but he really loves it and never complains, so I'm actually adding it into our curriculum now. 

 

 

All that to say, in my very limited experience, it doesn't really seem to matter, just go with what interests them, is my opinion.

[sunnyday]

Does any of that even make sense? 

 

Definitely.

 

Here's what the nebulous idea of "science in elementary" looks like for me. I want my kids to get some exposure to basic categories of science: life science/biology, earth science/geology, chemistry, physics. I want them to have FUN in each of these categories. This is similar to my goal for them to be exposed in a fun way to all the basic eras of world history. "Mesopotamia? I LOVE Mesopotamia!" "Bernoulli's principle? I LOVE Bernoulli's principle!"

 

I personally need a text to help me to ensure I'm covering classification and cells and the particulate nature of matter and mechanics and simple reactions and yadda yadda. I don't need them to come away with complete understanding, but an introduction is important.

 

For skills, I want to introduce the ideas behind lab reports, similar to the way I'd introduce the early foundations of writing expository and academic essays. Get them talking about what they did, then get them writing naturally about it, then start encouraging them to adapt the appropriate formats.

 

I want them to feel, at least occasionally, like we truly are puzzling out the truth together when we do an experiment, instead of just trying to achieve a predetermined result. When we did the red cabbage pH experiment one of our hypotheses was wrong and one of our results was inconclusive. This was awesome!

 

I want them not to hesitate to ask "why" and not to rest until the question is adequately answered. I want them to understand the fundamentals of critical thinking and logic to evaluate the strength of a scientific argument. I want them to understand developments in math and science within their historic context, at least roughly, and to understand how great minds have moved forward our understanding of science and how the world works.

 

Is that too much to ask? :D

[lorisuewho]

 

 I want them to understand the fundamentals of critical thinking and logic to evaluate the strength of a scientific argument. I want them to understand developments in math and science within their historic context, at least roughly, and to understand how great minds have moved forward our understanding of science and how the world works.

 

Is that too much to ask? :D

I LOVE that you love what you and your child love what you are doing with science.  It is awesome when things click within a homeschooling family.

 

The part I quoted above is something I'm wondering about.  I don't think my children have the "fundamentals of critical thinking and logic to evaluate the strength of a scientific argument" at this age.  I'm not sure that is even possible for us.  I really feel they just need more life experience and more knowledge so they have some sort of content to evaluate or think about.

My children don't have the background information necessary to understand scientific developments in their  "historic context."

 

All of the above sounds great to me.  But, for us, I don't really see it as feasible goals for my children in elementary school.  Hopefully when they are older!

[regentrude]

 

And then there is this thing that floats around in my mind called science that has no real home in my homeschooling vision.  I can't place it.  I can't shelf it anywhere.  The only place I have for it is in our every day life of discussions, our reading of books, and in what we observe.  But I wouldn't call that science.  I would call it just being a kid and learning about what is around us.

 

Makes perfect sense. And I found that when I listen to my kids and answer their questions about "what is around us", there's a lot of science. Because science is answering those how and why questions.

[8filltheheart]

I LOVE that you love what you and your child love what you are doing with science. It is awesome when things click within a homeschooling family.

 

The part I quoted above is something I'm wondering about. I don't think my children have the "fundamentals of critical thinking and logic to evaluate the strength of a scientific argument" at this age. I'm not sure that is even possible for us. I really feel they just need more life experience and more knowledge so they have some sort of content to evaluate or think about.

My children don't have the background information necessary to understand scientific developments in their "historic context."

 

All of the above sounds great to me. But, for us, I don't really see it as feasible goals for my children in elementary school. Hopefully when they are older!

Sunnyday's enthusiasm for what they do does exude from her post, doesn't it? :)

 

Fwiw, our science does not resemble anything that formal or structured. They don't do lab write ups until high school credits, etc. What you are suggesting in your post is much closer to what my kids are doing at 10.

[sunnyday]

Sunnyday's enthusiasm for what they do does exude from her post, doesn't it? :)

 

You could tell?  :lol:

 

Yes, my son loves science, I love science, and I especially love rediscovering it all through his eyes. :)

 

When I say we do write-ups, I mean that we put "Hypothesis" "Method" "Results" "Conclusion" on the white board and work together to fill these in. Or else we just talk about it, what we were trying to do, what we figured out. What I'm aiming for is a natural extension of the investigation process. I just remember getting to my first lab report in 10th grade and being so annoyed by it. Why are you asking me to re-write the instructions I was given into the hypothesis and method, then restate the results as a conclusion? What's the point? Instead, I want to enforce ownership of the process long before we try to impose that rigid format on it.

 

When I say starting to touch on critical thinking and logic, I mean that I'm starting to introduce the ideas of using clear grammatically correct statements, the meaning of if/then statements, etc. We'll soon dabble a little in logic puzzles to start getting a feel for drawing conclusions from the evidence that is or isn't provided. Just fun stuff to make that hook so that when we do proper Logic in middle school, there will be a context. It all feels like foundations for science to me.

 

And when I say historic context, for example we're studying Ancients right now. So as we go (and we're not going perfectly chronological) I like to make sure to hit the high points of what the Babylonians contributed to astronomy, the Greeks to math. I like to point out what the people of the time did and didn't know about the world, what discoveries had and hadn't been made. By the end of elementary it would be nice if the kids had at least the rough idea that Archimedes had his "eureka" moment in the Ancient era and not the modern, etc. ;)

[My3girls]

For under 10, my goal is for them to discover and begin to understand the world around them. We learn about our environment, why plants are green and the sky is blue, about energy in us and around us, why we go to bed when the sun is still up in the summer, and why the leaves change color in the fall, etc... I use BFSU as a way to be sure that I explain things in a way that builds upon things they know so that it makes more sense, is not arbitrary, and stays with them. We do fun experiments/ projects like growing a garden, dying flowers by putting food coloring in their water, hanging a globe from the ceiling and keeping a journal on sunrises, sunsets, temperatures etc... We, also, go on weekly nature walks and keep a nature journal. We watch documentaries, read books, and take field trips such as to the botanical gardens, aquarium, etc... My kids love science because it's something active and fun. They are much more interested in their reading when it involves science, as well, so it's a good way for me to get them to do more of it.

[Hunter]

I'm bumping this thread since it was linked to in another thread.

 

I have new goals for early science that are different from the ones I had in the past. I now want early science to focus on science topics that come up in literature.

 

Charles McMurry wrote that we only need enough math to leaven the lump. I'm realizing the same applies to science. I only need to teach enough science to support the other subjects.

 

Too often, we take a subject off by itself, and teach the subject like we are preparing a child to major in it. We lose track of where it fits into the COMPLETE curriculum. We sometimes teach one subject far ahead of the rest of the subjects, to the point that the student cannot even USE that subject. The subject develops a life of it's own.

 

So right now, for early science, the new primary goal is to cover the "science" topics that help a student understand their literature and other texts. Later elementary can continue to primarily be basic science literacy and being better able to understand the every day science that allows a student to be safe and feel at home in the world.

 

The first few years, now, though, are going to be more about seasons, animals, plants, cooking, health, etc. that populate literature. I'll focus on the science needed to leaven the rest of the curriculum. The same way I focus on enough phonics to allow a student to read literature and the other texts, rather than jumping into literature analysis too early.