Acquiring Information, Concepts and Principles: Such information can be acquired from observing surrounding events. Since young minds observe the events without any bias or presumption they are found to acquire the information more accurately. Children are found to be very inquisitive while observing unknown events, they keep asking question after question to know the reason or consequence. One must surely have observed or have direct knowledge of the child on a journey asking the nature of every single one of God's creations. This is where the parents’ role becomes crucial. In order to develop a scientific temper, parents must satiate their query to the optimum satisfaction of the child and in such a manner that the child actually learns something from the experience. This type of activity is limited really only by the child's pedagogue, which well could be basic human stamina; even the greatest mother needs a break from all the questions.
Developing process skills: Once the child acquires the information, he starts to process it, with whatever knowledge s/he has acquired. If the child is not able to decipher the events he or she has percieved through prior knowledge, s/he starts looking for a possible answer. This helps the child in correlating similar happenings so that if a similar event transpires in the future then the child must be able to process the information with the acquired knowledge, reasoning and logic. This further strengthens the knowledge base of the student. Processing skills are required to be developed not only by the teacher, but by the parents as well. Teacher of course gives a direction to the processing skills by encouraging the student to attempt to answer queries like the ‘why everything keeps falling down on earth while the astronauts up in the space-ships keep floating like birds or fishes?’. The teacher not only provides answers to such queries, but also encourages the student to do his own research and formulate his own opinions. To make the process of learning more student-oriented however, the teacher will have to understand the caliber of the student, his/her preferences and areas of comptency, the feedback from parents and optimum use of the surroundings. Glynn et al (1991) state that the psychology of learning science holds the response for increasing the student’s understanding of the topic. Glynn et al (1991) further add that just as information overload of facts and figures results in decelerating interest, so an excess of laboratory work is also not an answer to satisfy student’s inquisitiveness. Clark (2006) also emphasizes the need for a balanced approach on theory as well as practical aspects. She tells us that an emphasis on theory-based lessons is deterring bright youngsters from studying science.
In order to make the learning process more lively and interactive both the student and the teacher should be stimulated. The teacher should provide and the student should reciprocate. Interactive sessions hold the key to increasing the student’s understanding of science. A recent research study by Clark (2006) argues that young children are being put off science as teachers do not give priority to practical experiments. Baddeley (1990) broadly divides the human memory system in two parts viz. our conscious mind or working memory and our long term memory. Mental work is done in the working memory while the products of learning are stored in long-term memory. Glynn et al (1991) also argue in support that due to the limitations of the information processing system of the tender minds of students, they cannot process large amount of unfamiliar information. Students are therefore quite selective in their cognitive processing of the information. If somehow the information can be presented in an interesting manner, it arouses the curiosity of the young minds and results in a quick grasp. Therefore, a range of varied practical activities will be more effective than repeated variations of the same activity. Learning as such is a process of acquiring new knowledge involving active interaction of key cognitive processes like perception, imagery, organization, and elaboration. These processes help in constructing a conceptual relationship (Glynn, 1991). Science for some requires more such interaction being the study of factual and interrelated concepts. Teachers can therefore help in the learning process by relating the concepts in the form of organized networks of related information and not as random lists of unrelated facts. This can be a good opportunity for cross curricular links. In earlier years, topics such as shadows and forces make excellent topics for art and literacy projects. Key Stage 2 can explore the use of science in stories. A stimulating Year 6 lesson this researcher observed involved the children using scientific processes to disassemble fairy tales. The children came up with interesting experiments such as how long an old lady could survive in a wolf's stomach. Unlike other students a science student learns much more from his/her surroundings, nature and the day to day happenings around him/her. If it can be accurately relayed to other departments of life it can only have a positive effect. Zimmerman (2005) tells us that scientific reasoning, by definition, involves both conceptual understanding and inquiry skills . The science student typically responds to a problem-solving environment created either by the student, the teacher, the textbook, the lab manual, or a combination of these sources (Glynn, 1991). This would constitute the main type of scientific thinking which forms the basis for experiments.
EDGE, an education foundation working in UK towards popularizing vocational and practical training, found out in a survey conducted in 2006, that nearly 60 per cent of 18 – 34 year olds say more hands-on activity in science would inspire them to learn and that 73 per cent found experiments the most enjoyable part of science lessons.
Learning about the nature of science: Nature provides the best hunting ground for science enthusiasts. There are so many questions which arouse curiosity - some of the most common heard in Class 3 would have to be "Why is the sky blue?", "Why is the sea water salty?" and "Where is Atlantis?"Such questions help in making science interesting for the young enthusiasts. Zimmerman (2005) states that psychologists who’ve been studying scientific reasoning are found to be influenced by the philosophy of science, particularly by the observable events. Zimmerman further states that with the help of causal mechanism one can determine the correlations between perceptually salient events, as it is a process which helps in identifying the cause and the subsequent effect. Science is one such field which affects almost all aspects of our lives. Therefore, developing scientific temperament helps in better understanding and correlating the events. For example, whenever there’s lightning in the sky, that signals oncoming rain or bad weather. The student will be thinking about the reason for lightning which helps in concluding that with the movement of oppositely charged clouds, there’s light and sound. The Year 6 children had an entertaining discussion about this concept despite the fact they had very little visual stimulus or prior knowledge of the topic. However, the class generally agreed that "Since clouds are up there that means rain is bound to come." Similarly, the students raised concepts such as to where the light, approaching a tall building, disappears all of sudden. Then the class was told about the existence of lightning conductors, which are placed over high rise buildings for this very purpose, This was more of a practical discussion than an experiment, but the children enjoyed many of the questions raised from both serious and silly viewpoints, such as the reasons why the lightning can't destroy the building. While observing the lightning from roof top, the students were tempted to ask why is it that s/he is able to ‘see’ the lightning before actually ‘hearing’ the sound of it. This even led to a brief exchange of theories about the different speeds of light and sound, and light being faster approaches us earlier than the sound. This activity could have been expanded, however. It is possible to find pictures or information on practically anything using the Internet.
This resource was not used and could have added answers to many questions as well as provoking further discussion. This researcher felt that one should be careful to punctuate speculation with occasional hard facts to bolster the learning process.
Improving attitudes to science: Of course science is known to have both positive and negative impacts on the lives of human beings. There has been much controversy over how to use science and how we might be better off without certain types of practical activity. The development of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction, has resulted in widespread destruction of life and property, but at the same time nuclear science has helped in providing solutions to many types of problems like providing energy for power generation, medical diagnosis and cure etc. A similar case could be posed for animal testing. These dilemmas also help in shaping the attitude of the student towards science. Similarly, the student may consider science as nothing more than a set of formulas and equations if it is not presented to him as something very natural. The final limitation would be the student's own moral choice. It is ultimately the student himself who will make the choice about how he will use his knowledge.
References:
Baddeley A. (1990). Human memory. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Clark, Laura (2006), “Why 'Safety First' Lessons Put Children off Science”, The Daily Mail. February 2, 2006.
Clark, John Cripps (2002). “What is the role of practical activities in primary science teaching?” Available online at HYPERLINK "http://www.aare.edu.au/02pap/cri02222.htm" http://www.aare.edu.au/02pap/cri02222.htm Edge (2006). Science at school irrelevant and boring say recent school leavers. Available online at HYPERLINK "http://www.edgeintospace.com/downloads/YouGovResearch.doc" http://www.edgeintospace.com/downloads/YouGovResearch.doc Glynn, Shawn M.; Yeany, Russell H., and Britton, Bruce K. (1991) “The Psychology of Learning Science: A Constructive View of Learning Science”, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ
Tsubata, Kate (2007), “Parents, Children Learning Together”. The Washington Times. January 8, 2007.
Zimmerman, Corinne (2005), The Development of Scientific Reasoning Skills: What Psychologists Contribute to an Understanding of Elementary Science Learning. Available online at HYPERLINK "http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Corinne_Zimmerman_Final_Paper.pdf" http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Corinne_Zimmerman_Final_Paper.pdf
