How could you support your child with Science at home?
Enquiry skills are a crucial part of the Science curriculum. Why not try investigate using different enquiry skills?
Fair Testing - observing and exploring relationships between variables or factors. Changing one factor and observing or measuring the effect, whilst keeping other factors the same.
E.g. How does the temperature of water affect the rate at which sugar dissolves? Which paper towel soaks up most water?
Pattern seeking - observing and recording natural phenomena, or carrying out surveys, where variables cannot readily be controlled, and then seeking patterns in the data.
E.g. Do people with longer legs jump higher? Do dandelions in the shade have longer leaves than those in the light? Are some birds more popular than others in your local area?
Classifying and identifying - arranging a range of objects, animals, plants or events into manageable sets, or recognising them as members of particular sets and allocating names to them.
E.g. How can we group these invertebrates? Which things conduct electricity and which do not? What is this substance?
Observing over time - helps us to identify and measure events and changes in living things, materials and physical processes. E.g. Puddles evaporating · Watching a shadow move · Growing plants
Research - is used when the answer is found using secondary sources. There are lots of questions that are impossible or unsafe for children to answer using first-hand experience such as what lives in Antarctica, or how do fireworks work.
E.g. Which birds migrate the furthest? Why do different animals live in different places?
It is important to promote curiosity in Science. If you are interested in supporting your child’s Science education have a look at the following websites: