How do the scientists know what they know? They utilize the scientific method, which is the process students use in their school or fair science projects. Your young scholar may be coming home with a science project assignment in the very near future, which begs the burning question: how much should you help your child? Here are some ways to help your child without doing the work for her.
1. Keep the goal in mind. The point of a science project is for your child to learn. Sure it would be great for your child to win an award or metal, but it wouldn’t bode all that well for your child’s confidence if she knows mom or dad did all the work. It’s easy to get carried away, creating fancy boards, but try to keep the end goal in mind.
2. Plan ahead. The temptation to do the work for your child will exponentially increase if you only leave a couple of days before the project is due. Leaving ample time to work on a project will also motivate and empower your child to do his own work. Nobody works well under stress, especially kids. One of the most helpful things you can do is map out a schedule and break up a science project into digestible bite-sized segments.
3. Settle on a question your child is interested in. Your child will need some guidance when it comes to choosing what question to answer for her science project. But make sure that it’s your child who chooses the actual topic. That way she’ll be motivated to do it. Just make sure she chooses an age-appropriate topic, one that includes an experiment she can perform on her own. Is your child having a hard time settling on a question? Here are some places to look.
A. Consider an old wives tale, like will aunts refuse to walk over chalk? Or will spiders not build webs around coconut oil? Old wives tales are great because they have relevance to real life, and your young scholar may one day be able to shed some light with a her peers or even with grownups.
B. Peruse science books or magazines. Remember, good ideas aren’t created, they’re identified. Give your child some examples of good science projects and let her mind explore and identify a good question to answer when she comes across it.
C. Spend time outside. Science is everywhere. It’s in the clouds, it’s in the billowing air, it’s in the leaves and trees, the insects, rocks, and sands. Spending some time outside and observing nature will inspire a host of observations from which to formulate questions around.
4. Be a good assistant. Your child will need your assistance with research, planning and gathering the materials necessary to perform her science project. Make sure help your child get access to necessary books, DVDs and other research material. You may need to chauffer your child around to the library or to craft stores in order to gather the materials she’ll need to perform her science project. While it’s the assistant’s job to point out the holes in research or missing ingredients for the experiment, try to steer clear from conducting the research or performing the experiment yourself.
5. Let your child direct his experiment. You may need to help your child measure, time or prop things up. Just remember to offer help only when asked. Let your child lead the experiment.
6. Drawing conclusions. Underscore the significance of learning through trial and error. Whether your child’s hypothesis was right or wrong is not the important thing. If the results are not crystal clear, it may be worthwhile to conduct the experiment a couple of times. A good way to display results is in the form of a graph. Feel free to teach your child how to draw a graph, but encourage her to create one herself. When it comes to the display board, leave the unprofessional writing and showcase it proudly as a sign that your child did the bulk of the work on her own. The end product will be rewarding for your young scientist to see!