Should Science Be Taught

Children are very interested in the world around them, and when they explore science, it allows them to gain an understanding and make sense of the world around them. Early years children are curious and eager to find the answers to many different topics. Children will play, observe, participate in conversations, and ask many different questions. This is known as ‘everyday science’ (Campbell, Jobling & Howitt, 2015, p.8). Early childhood children learn best when playing. When an educator provides structured play, children can develop and build on their science knowledge (Walker, 2007, p.19). Early childhood children will also complete a series of trial and error exercises. The Science subjects within the Australian Curriculum [ACARA] provide a broad understanding of how things work together in the world in which we live. Giving children hands-on experiences allows them to observe different patterns of growth and change in living things, which allows them to start making predictions. A child’s science inquiry skills will begin to develop when exposed to different experiences such as how do plants grow, how is water used and how electricity work (Worth, 2010, para. 6). The experience in this report was aimed at an early childhood student by allowing him to conduct a hands-on science experiment. He was able to explore what happens when different products were added to refrigerated water. By predicting, observing and then explaining his results, the student was

When teaching natural sciences and technology, teachers need to promote an understanding of seeing these subjects as activities to promote curiosity and enjoyment about the world and that what we encounter around us. The history of science and technology should also be integrated with other subjects. Science and technology should be seen as a contribution to social justice and societal development (Motshekga, 2011). A growing need of discovery in science and technology needs to be promoted in order to form interest in ourselves, society and

There is an inborn interest in science throughout the first couple years of early childhood when exploration is at it's highest peak. During this stage children are eager to learn and figure things out as they constantly question "why?" to almost just about everything. As they grow older, that interest slowly decreases if not motivated. With the world we live in today it is so important for children to be educated in most subject areas in order to operate as productive members of society. In this study it is pointed out that most children consider science to be irrelevant to their future, and have a hard time understanding how to apply science to real life situations and their daily lifestyle. They do not easily identify how science is involved in non-science careers like being a chef, theatre technician or fitness trainer.

In 9th grade, I began tutoring every Tuesday after school and this continued through 10th grade. During that time, I discovered that my students had a negative disposition towards science. Many saw science as "boring." I wanted to change that idea, to help them realize the wonders of science, to prove that science is fascinating and entertaining. The following summer, I prepared my proposal and pitched my ideas to Mr. Terrence Davis, Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Hopkinsville.

Wheelers said that when kids are little they love science and find all aspects of it extremely fascinating, however, when many students get to middle school and high school, then the science information gets drilled out in lectures and tests all while students are competing against one another to get the best grade.

This framework builds on previous high quality works in science education: Science for All Americans (1989), Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993), and NSES (1996). Unlike these previous standards, the importance of having the scientific and educational research communities was taken into the process for developing the framework. Thus, the most current research on science and science learning was grounded when identifying the science that all K-12 students should know, which increased its scientific validity and accuracy. The second step was facilitated by Achieve, Inc. with the recognition of the importance of state and educator leadership in the development of the actual standards. Thus, state policy leaders, higher education, K–12 teachers, and the science and business community were involved when developing Next Generation of Science Standards

In today’s political climate, individuals are more polarized than ever over climate issues. We don’t see much agreement that for whatever the reason, climate change is affecting the Earth. The issues over climate change has hit the media and the environmentalist has done a lot to shined light on the issue as well but, a lot of the citizens still believe that global warming isn’t real. If we are not educated about the issues regarding a sustainable living and about the climate changes going on in current world, then the issue can’t be solved. Educating children when they are young can be a great way to teach living a sustainable life-style. We the people and the politicians need to take a stand and create awareness in schools about living a sustainable life and educate the new generations to care about the negative human impacts on the world.

When I think of science, I reflect back to the day after having lunch in the cafeteria, sitting in my Science class looking in a microscopes thinking to myself, “how will I touch this frog in the pan,’ waiting for me to dissect. This is when I envision myself as a mad scientist working on my experiment like Albert Einstein proving my theory on frogs as correct but yet at the same time showing the world how talented and smart I was identifying frog organs. Years ago, my science class participated in a project to find out about each student blood type. We each pricked our thumb and swabbed it on a piece of paper and placed a chemical solution on our blood to determine our blood type. This was exciting because we each wanted to know our blood typed and how would it match my parent blood type. This not only made me exciting about learning science, it made me interesting about learning about physical science

Working scientifically is extremely important within the classroom, for it is an educational process which allows children to advance upon their scientific enquiries and knowledge through the means of investigation, bettering their ‘understanding of the world around’ (IAP, 2012 cited in Harlen and Qualter, 2014:100). The nature of working scientifically incorporates the children’s learning of systems, methods and contexts within the scientific world, allowing them to develop an understanding of the scientific ideas and processes whilst using ‘skills employed by scientists’ (IAP, 2012 cited in Harlen and Qualter, 2014:100). These scientific enquiry skills developed and used through scientific working are especially significant within the classroom because they are also applicable to colloquial life, for example, the enquiry skills of: observation and questioning.

Attempts to achieve widespread scientific literacy, however, become as difficult as understanding concepts in science. Even if formal education can provide basic scientific literacy for students in preparing for the workplace, science education in schools can hardly satisfy the needs of the general public towards improvement of their scientific literacy.

There has been great debate on whether science should be value-free or not. The value-free ideal view of science states that the scientific internal stages should remain free of non-epistemic values and should only be a factor in the external stages of science (Douglas, ). These internal stages are the selection of different methodologies, choosing which data is useful, and within the interpretation of data (Douglas, ). Non-epistemic values are beliefs, values, and morals, whereas epistemic values are cognitive values focusing on truths, knowledge, and understanding. Rejecting the value-free ideal of science means accepting the risk associated with the rejection or acceptance of a hypothesis because of the non-epistemic values within the

There are volumes of students slugging through college and medical school for a title and not for their love of science. An even more daunting realization is that students are not pursuing a scientific career because of the idea that everything has already been figured out and there is nothing left to discover. This is the current day problem; kids are turned off by the field of science. The only way to revive it is to ask questions. If people don’t start asking questions about what has been discovered, then there is nowhere to go. There is the possibility that things scientists have figured out are incorrect, but no one will know if it isn’t questioned or looked deeper

Growing up science has always been a part of my life whether I realized it or not. Truthfully I do not have a lot of specific memories of science as a young student. I remember bits and pieces of things but the days that stand out in my mind were the days of dissections and hands on activities. I have a couple speculations as to why that is, the first is because in the early years of school I was not very interested in science and didn’t find it as interesting or as cool as some of my classmates did. That isn’t to say I didn’t do well, but much of what I learned I retained just long enough for the quiz or the test and then forgot it.

In this paper, I strive to use the knowledge I acquired about teaching science to effectively describe an exceptional science class that encourages students to inquire and investigate their world. During observation of this STEM based science class, I observe several teaching techniques used to effectively shape and structure the science methods being used. The class community was very immersed into the science methodological process skills as students were inspired to discover while becoming effective problem solvers. This analysis will provide a detailed understanding of the skills and teaching techniques used as well as the role they play in the daily running of and effective science classroom.

Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing