Children start building their understanding of the world from birth. Everyday activities introduce them to concepts related to science, including weather, living things, and basic engineering. Through science activities for kids, they develop the ability to observe, analyse the information, and draw conclusions. This natural, spontaneous flow of our mind is called the science process. This process requires some essential abilities known as science process skills or science skills.
There is a great importance of science education in acquiring those skills because science games for kids can advance the science skills they already have, teach those they lack, and help your kids with science in general.
Below, we will talk about those science skills, how to improve your child’s science skills, and how to support your kid’s learning science.
- Investigation Skills
Every brilliant idea was born from a curious question. Investigation skill is also one of the benefits of STEM education as it stimulates curiosity in children. A child wonders about the magic behind everyday things, like “Why does it rain?” or “How far can an object go if I use this much force?” These questions lead the way for them to closely observe the things they are curious about and eventually spark a light for the science process.
- Observing Skills
Observing skills are the most fundamental of science skills as experiencing the world through the five senses is the basis of healthy child development. So, they examine the subject matter by touching, smelling, and listening to the things they work with or encounter. And they create a profile of the subject on which they can build their science process. Observing skills are also crucial as they enable children to pay attention to the details where the roots of an object or a concept lie.
- Measuring Skills
Measuring is using numbers to describe an object. The ability to measure correctly is one of the most valuable skills in science for kids. For example, using a ruler to measure the height of an object or weighting a cup of water is a practical science skill. Quantifying an object materialises it and creates the same picture in everyone’s mind. It also minimises the risk of confusion in the science process.
Asking children to count the legs of a dog or tell the weight of the apples in the basket improves their measuring skills. In addition, children acquire more complex measuring skills using mathematical equations and advanced equipment as they get older.
- Classifying Skills
Classifying is finding patterns, separating, and reorganising the things according to how they relate to each other. For that reason, this science skill builds upon observation and measuring skills. Children separate and sort objects based on properties. For example, given five different animals, like a cat, dog, chicken, spider, and penguin, children are expected to observe them closely and to use measuring skills to sort them by the number of legs. As children get older, they learn to classify using several factors at once, such as the number of legs, species, etc.
- Predicting Skills
Predicting is answering the question, “What do we think is going to happen?” Known as hypothesising, it is an educated guess deduced from their knowledge and foresight about the result of an action or some changes in factors. For example, a child, who has touched a stone before, knows that it is a hard material and can predict that if he throws it at a glass object, the stone will break the glass. Before starting a science project for kids, saying or writing a prediction stimulates children’s knowledge and skills.
- Experimenting Skills
Experimenting is the only way to determine whether our prediction is correct. Finding the answer to their question themselves by experimenting rather than reading it from a paper is much more educational for children. It also advances their skills in making a plan and sticking to it. They learn how to collect information, deduce a prediction, put it into action, and change some factors if the first fails. As a result, this improves kids’ analytical thinking.
- Interpreting & Forming Conclusions Skills
Interpreting and forming conclusions are closely interrelated, as one cannot draw a conclusion without reasoning and interpreting the experiment. Interpretation means deducing a meaning by analysing the information recorded during the experiment. When forming conclusions, students compare their predictions with the results, analyse them, and develop a conclusion taking all the data into account.
- Communicating Skills
Communication skills are also crucial. Scientists use hundreds of years of knowledge to experiment on a subject; science only flourishes when ideas and findings are understood and shared. So, after science projects for kids, children should be able to express the information they reached through words, diagrams, charts, and other media.
How Can You Improve Your Child’s Science Skills?
- Invite Curiosity: First and foremost, curiosity is the key element of the science process. So, let your child ask her own questions. Teaching science facts to kids also might be helpful as it would stimulate their interest in different topics and introduce new questions.
- Give Them Time and Space to Explore: Remember teaching your kids fishing is better than giving them a fish! One of the most significant benefits of science activities for children is that your kid can acquire and advance their science skills by practice. So, science projects for kids are a great way to create a space for your child to practice.
- Support Further Exploration: Try suggesting a question to extend the experiment after concluding. It can open a whole new series of experiments and a new perspective. So, your child improves her science skills on how to reconstruct the latest findings in another light.
- Make Use of Technology: Online activities can be an excellent option for engaging your kids with learning STEM. Twin App, for instance, challenges children with various DIY science projects for kids that nurture their curiosity and boost science skills.
How to Help Your Child Learn Science?
Turning learning science for kids into a fun experience is not that hard! You know every child is unique and precious on their own. So, what is the good of sticking to a general teaching style? You can try different learning styles for kids and find out which one is the most productive for your child. You also can go for a walk in the forest and examine the plants, stones, or insects. Even cooking together is a great demonstration of how the chemicals work and react to each other. These everyday activities pull kids and science together and arouse children’s curiosity about the world.
Twin App and kits are another great way to get your kids interested in science and support their STEM education. Children learn about various science concepts from experts through Discovery Bits videos in Twin App. Also, they can test and brush up their knowledge with trivia questions. Additionally, Twin kits encourage science projects for kids in various subjects, from robotic art to aviation. These hands-on science activities in the kits play an essential role in learning science for kids.
With Premium Subscription, Twin Science offers unlimited access to videos, games, DIY projects, and trivia questions in Twin App; six different STEM kits are also delivered every two months. You can check out Twin Shop to learn more about STEM kits!
