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Being that early childhood students are very young, what would be some age appropriate experiments do you suggest they can do to keep them engaged?
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I feel that kids are always engaged with colorful projects. Depending on what kind of topic you are teaching, you could always incorporate art of some sort!
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Hello!
I woud try not to forget that a large part of sicence is aksing questions. You could take students on walks, to look at nature. You can bring in almost anything for students to get their hands on and learn from. It may be fun to have them pull objects out of a paper bag, and have to describe for the class what the object is. Also having students bring in items for show and tell, could allow them to interact and learn about things they may not have in their own house. An activity that would be fun for the students would be rainbow candy science experiment. Again, this would get the kids thinking and asking questions! I hope this gives you some ideas!
Thanks,
Anika
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This one is not so much a experiement, but at my school we took the students on a nature walk around the outside of the school. They took paper and their pencil outside and recorded all of the things that they got to observe while outside (bugs, plants, animals, etc). The students loved the nature walk and looking at all of the cool things that were outside. We did this around the middle of September when some of the leaves were starting to change. This could be a fun activity to do during the spring time so the students can see all of the new flowers growing after winter.
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Some experiments you can do with younger students would be hands on experiments and experiments that do not have many instructions since some of thee instructions can be hard for them to understand.
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Changing the environment within the classroom in terms of letting students work outside can be very helpful in keeping early childhood learners engaged within the lesson.
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We have developed a progressive series of activities on 'needs of living things' focusing on gardening. Ideal for exploring basic skills, habits of mind, and also to get lots of others in the child's community involved.
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I love doing hands on scinece projects with my students. Anything that involves multiple materials that are easy to manipulate, colorful and fun, and mimic real-life situations they see in their own community. For example, I did a lesson on living and non-living things. We had students observe and write down characteristics of a gummy worm. Then, they got to observe and handle a real-life earthworm. The students LOVED it.
Another activity I would reccomend for older elementary would be having them plant their own seed garden. This can help them start to think about the water cycle, plants and how they grow, and observation techniques.
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Hi Makalia, I love the idea of allowing elementary students to observe a gummy worm and a real worm. Letting students plant seed gardens is also a great hands-on activity. I am a Senior Elementary Education Major, and I want to incorporate science projects into my class. I definitely want to use real-life earthworms and planting seed gardens. Thank you so much for these ideas!
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Makaila, your idea for using gummy worms and earth worms to teach about living and non-living things is a great idea. I could definitely see young kids loving this activity! Any project that they are picture in the real world and refer back to in the future would be beneficial. I’ve also seen the garden idea in many classrooms that I have visited. It is a way to teach responsbility while incorporating STEAM. More hands on activities could include music or movement since those things attract young students!
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Makaila, I love your idea of using gummy worms and earthworms to teach about living and non-living things. I think this is definitely an idea that students of all ages but especially younger students would love! This hands-on idea for an activity can make this more real for the students and allow them to make deeper connections!
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Makaila,
Love the earth worm and gummy worm lesson! To add on to your seed garden idea, maybe growing 2 plants by having one in the dark (a closet) and one in the sun would show students the importance of sunlight, what plants need to grow, and how photosynthesis works. I agree on having it for older elementary as this idea might be a little advanced.
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Something my pre-k students really enjoyed was allowing a hershy's kiss to melt in their hand. I was teaching the concept of heat. We introduced the activity by watching some cool compliations of things being melted on youtube, then we held the kiss for five minutes while we watched another five minute video. They were very amazed that their hand could melt something. We had baby wipes handy and they got a fresh hershy's kiss when we were all cleaned up to eat!
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Hello Nicole,
Early childhood is such a fun age. They are curious about the world around them. Using the student’s natural curiosity to lead learning is so fun at this age. I think one of the most important things for students at this age is having experiments that they can touch and feel. This allows the student to manipulate to understand the concept better.
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Makaila,
I think you are absolutely right with young students needing engaging materials such as manipulatives to help them learn. I also love the idea of mimicking real-life situations that students likely have some sort of prior connection with because we know that helps them connect with the new content on a deeper level. Young children are so impressionable and teachers have the opportunity and responsibility of making their first impressions of science an engaging and enjoyable experience. Along with that, early childhood teachers can make a huge impact on a child’s liking or disliking of STEAM concepts. For that reason, I believe it’s important to base many of the experiments and units on your specific students' interests and inquiries. I remember raising butterflies in my preschool classroom and learning about the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies. That lesson still sticks with me today and left a very positive image of science in my young mind, which should be what all early childhood educators strive for.
Ella Brase
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Hello,
some ideas are enaging and hands on experiments for the child to get involved. For example finger painting. I also really like the idea that makaila said earth worms and gummy worms and showing the difference between the two. This is a great idea for young students. I also think that you could do this experiment with any other insect.
BEST
caroline
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Hello! A great simple experiment could be talking about germs and why it is important to wash our hands. Sprinkle pepper over a bowl of water and have the student stick their finger in the water. This will show them that their finger was dirty and got 'germs' on it. Then have the students put dish soap on their finger and dip it into the water again. The pepper will immediately disperse throughout the bowl. Then explain to students that since they 'washed' their hands they do not get any germs on them. Pinterest also has lots of cute ideas for simple activities. Hope this helps!
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One thing that I observed in a previous placement was when talking about the states of matter, we made rootbeer floats, to show each state. This was a fun (and delicious) experiment, and the students loved it, but I felt the way it was displayed to this group of students, the actual message and lesson was lost. If you were to do this lesson, I think you would need to teach the lesson first, and then make the rootbeer floats, instead of teach it while making the floats. I also loved Makaila's idea about observing a gummy worm, and then an earthworm! That is so creative and fun!
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