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How can we involve families in early science education?
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It is so important to involve families in early science education! As an educator, one of the most important things is reaching out to families. Keeping in contact with families through weekly emails, phone calls, newsletters, etc. will keep your students' families in the loop. In these communications, you can let their families know what their child is doing in the classroom, and give them to opportunity to bring up their science content at home. You can also send home homework assignments or projects to complete with their families. This way both families and students are involved in the content and their families can help reiterate the lessons they learned at home. It is also important to note that while you can reach out to families, it may still be hard to get in contact with them. While you cannot force families to interact with you and their child's education, consistently reaching out and making attempts to get them involved is most important.
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Involving families in early science education is so important! Some ways to do this consist of keeping parents in the loop. Maybe they can have access to the teachers online classroom to see what their children are working on in science. In addition to completing hands-on activities in class, you can give students resources/instructions to complete them at home with their parents. For example, in class you can build a small scale boat model and see how many pennies it can hold up. You can provide the instructions and encourage families to complete this again at home with their parents. If getting resources at home is a struggle you can allow students to bring home materials used in class and return back to school later that week. In addition if students complete an activity like watching a sugar cube dissolve in water, parents can see that on the online classroom that they did this in class today and ask their child about it. The child is excited to show their parents it at home! If parents are not interested or do not see the importance of getting involved, in the beginning of the school year/conferences it may be helpful to bring up to parents the benefits and importance of this and offer any help or resources in helping them achieve this.
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Hi! As I am in the middle of student teaching, I find myself asking this question as well. First, I would recommend encouraging families to join field trips. Many field trips my district goes on are all science related. I would also recommend sending home supplemental resources for science activities that may not be for a grade, but a way parents can be involved with their child's early science education.
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Unfortunately not all families are going to be able or willing to participate in their students schooling. With that though, there are definetly ways we can try to encourage this!
I'd recomend starting with students bringing items/completed projects home, and having them share it with families. Maybe sending out a survey to the families to see what they enjoy themselves, and what they like doing with their students.
If you have a family that really likes camping, see if they would be willing to take pictures of fish that they might catch, different wildlife, or rocks that they see. We could then use those pictures in class, and see if we could identify it. With this, I'd also offer to see if the guardian would be interested in coming in and sharing with the class!
I think the most important thing to remember is to not add more to the parents already busy schedule, or make it feel like you are giving them more work.
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I think there are so many ways that we can try to get families involved in science education, however, we cannot force families to be involved. I think the first step in this is knowing the district and the background of your families in your classroom, which changes every year no matter what district you are in. If you are in a higher involvement district then we can start incorporating the home projects and the family involvement activities. It all starts with what you know about your students in the classroom.
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Hello, my name is Isabelle Sash, and I am currently a preservice teacher at Wartburg College. As part of my field experience, I have made it a point to ask educators how they engage parents in their child's learning. During one of my placements, I observed a teacher who implemented a creative approach to fostering parental involvement. She designed a bingo sheet for families to use during long breaks (winter, spring, and summer). The bingo cards included a variety of activities, ranging from science experiments and observations to nature walks. She also highlighted local community locations that were connected to scientific exploration. Additionally, the teacher provided families with resources and suggestions for where they could go to further explore these activities together. I found this to be a highly effective way to encourage both family participation in science education and a deeper connection to the local community.
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Hello I am Arlinda Davis and I taught 1st grade for 26 years and was over our Math and Science Club for 5 years. I was lead teacher for NASA in our state for 3 years. I found that parents really are involved in their children's lives with science when it gives a competition vibe. They strive to help and provide guidance for projects and fairs. Make science their sport. We have competition Fridays at the end of some units where they compete. Having a parent cheer and prepare you for a science Olympic helps show the value to that child.
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Involving families in early science education can be achieved in schools by providing accessible resources like science kits and activity ideas for home. Hosting interactive events such as family science nights or science fairs, and encouraging everyday science exploration through activities like gardening, or observing nature can be beneficial.
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You can involve families in early science education by encouraging families to bake or cook at home with their kids. They also can talk about the weather at home and have small conversations with their child. You can also plan science nights at the school if you have enough resources. This can help the students show their parents what they are doing at school. You can also send out weekly or monthly emails about what you are learning about in science so the parents can have an understanding of whats going on in class.
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Family involvement within education is a vital thing yet something that isnt always easy. One way to get families involved is to send home a packet of easy STEM/science activities that they can do at home. You could even provide them with the materials they need for the activity. Doing this bridges that gap with family involvement and allows students to continue their learning at home.
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You can involve families through sending home little projects that they can do with their children and then at the end of the project you can invite families into the classroom and have the students show the class what they did on their project. This can foster great parent-teacher relationships.
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Yesss! Projects are the best! Especially when parents are excited and the students can see and feel their excitement. It opens up various lines of communication between parent, student and teacher.
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I think involving families in early science education is a great way to not only get students more involved in what they are learning, but parents and families as well! I know from my own past experience, I was always so engaged in what I was learning or creating if it meant I got to work on it with one of my parents. This could be done by asking students to complete a take home project and work on it with their families, or asking them to create a model with at least one other person in their family for help. Another way by involving families in early science education could be by hosting annual science nights. This could be an event hosted by the school where families are able to walk around and go to different tables with their children and perform cool science experiments. It is always great to have family involvement in schools. This can even be done in the science classroom through encouraging students to go home and go on a walk with their parents outside, and point out all the cool plants and animals they see. The possibilities are endless! - Ava Plank
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Having families take their kids to different museums, getting students involved in different at home science experiements, make their kids interested in science is a huge way for getting students interested in science education. When schools have different fall and winter family nights is a great time to incorporate different science activites as stations to involve parents and make them understand the imprtance of having them involved in different science education things inside and outside of school.
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