How to be a Whizz at Science
Science is a wonderful subject that has endless amounts of opportunity to astound and amaze. It is about chemicals and explosions and flashing lights and clever equations. It is about creating things. It can be a huge amount of fun and it can be the pathway to opening up careers and opportunities far beyond the realm of the classroom. Most famous inventors were scientists to start with – people like Thomas Edison, Alexander Bell or Michael Faraday and they took their fascination with science and turned it into something much bigger and greater. So, if you have a love for science, or if you are looking to inspire such a love of science in your child, here are a few ideas to set them on the path to becoming the next great inventor.
Make learning interesting
The problem with classroom learning is that it is often quite dry and boring. The poor teacher is trying to meet the needs of too many children to be able to do any of them justice. There are slower kids and faster ones, which means, some are bored, and some are overly challenged. It can be very tough for the teacher to make it accessible to everyone. This means that independent learning should be encouraged. Find a physics tutor Canberra certainly has plenty of qualified people available. Or enrol your child at a science or chemistry camp or club. Whatever it is, find something that resonates with your child, that is fun and exciting, and which will be at their pace.
Use channels that make sense to kids
Not too long ago learning in a classroom was the only way to learn. Perhaps for the really eager or keen children, there was the option to do more reading. But that was it. The digital age has changed that significantly and there are now all sorts of other channels available. Television shows are a good place to start, but so too is the internet. YouTube is filled with great learning-related content that has been tailored by experts specifically for children. Help to steer your child towards the right material and they will be mesmerised for hours – either watching the material or trying to perform the experiments on their own.
No room for rote
So much of old school learning was about rote learning rather than actual understanding. Being able to recite the periodic table might sound like an impressive feat, but it is useless if the pupil doesn’t know what the elements are or what they do. The same applies to equations that are important to know but far more important to understand. For example, anyone can remember that I equal V over R. But what does it mean and how do you prove it? It is being able to show these through concrete examples that make the whole learning process more tangible and relevant. And as soon as a learner feels that what they are being taught is relevant to their lives they will focus more and want to understand it better.
