Teaching science skills in class or science workshops is one of the most beneficial things that teachers can do for their students. Not only are science skills useful in the classroom, they’ll help students throughout the rest of their lives too. The core skills taught by science classes are based in critical thinking and reasoning, making them a vital component in every student’s learning.
Core Science Skills
School science classes are one of the best environments for exposing students to critical reasoning skills. Teaching these skills can be a challenge, and it often requires years of steady progression to equip students with the tools they need to take on complex topics alone. The list below contains eight of the most important science skills, as well as some suggestions on how each skill can be introduced to students in a classroom setting:
- Making observations – Learning to make observations is the first step in building lifelong science skills for students. Encouraging observational skills begins young, and it’s often as simple as asking students to identify plant life or animals found around the school.
- Classifying objects – Observing objects is one thing, but the next step is learning how to separate those things into categories. At the basic level students are taught to classify based on a single attribute, like the number of legs that a bug has. As students become more familiar with the concept you can introduce multiple attributes at once.
- Accurate measurement – Taking measurements is key to the scientific process. Teaching this skill largely revolves around teaching students to use measuring equipment accurately. For younger students that means using rulers and measuring cups, and for older students it means equations and advanced measuring equipment.
- Predictive reasoning – The first major step in teaching critical thinking is asking students to make predictions. Prediction is a great science skill because it encourages students to look at past experiments and observations to try and figure out what will happen next. Encouraging this skill is as simple as asking students to write down their predictions before conducting an experiment.
- Controlling variables – Learning to identify and control variables is a complex skill, especially for younger students. Before conducting an experiment, explain the possible outcomes and factors that may affect the results. Then, to demonstrate the importance of controlling the variables, you can introduce those factors one at a time to see the difference they can make.
- Interpreting results – The ability to analyse and interpret the results of experiments is the key to extracting value from the scientific method. The core skill here is learning to identify patterns, trends and correlations in the data that may be used to draw a conclusion later.
- Communicating findings – Scientific experiments aren’t worth much if students can’t share their results. Learning to communicate findings means investing in students’ ability to put the results into words, graphs, diagrams and other mediums that convey the point clearly and concisely.
- Drawing conclusions – Finally, students need to learn how to take the data they have collected and draw conclusions. This is often the hardest skill to teach because it requires independent thinking and research. For that reason drawing complex conclusions is better left to older students. For younger students, teachers can guide them through the process of drawing a conclusion to help them develop their logical reason skills.
How to Teach Science Skills to Students
There are lots of different ways to share science skills with students, but teaching the scientific method is the most common. Teaching students the scientific method allows them to break each problem down into manageable sections and apply the skills they’ve learned one at a time. In most cases this is done by structuring experiments so that they engage one or more of the skills we discussed above. The most effective way to teach individual science skills is to measure success based on whether students are developing their skills along the way, rather than the outcome of their experiments. For instance, it’s often helpful to work closely with younger students and guide them through the thought processes they need to use. Each time you perform one of these experiments you’ll be building their confidence and teaching them how to apply their observational, measuring and predictive skills on their own.
Hands-On Experiments and Activities
The best way to teach science skills is to get your students involved with hands-on activities. Lectures and book learning are effective tools for some topics, but engaging students with hands-on activities, experiments and projects will be the best way to impart complex topics.
Research shows that hands-on learning encourages students’ brains to build stronger neural pathways. Engaging more senses and more parts of the brain promotes stronger retention, recall and comprehension. You can dramatically improve the results that students are achieving simply by designing lessons that allow students to get involved! At the very least, each lecture or reading should be tied back to a hands-on activity. These activities teach students how to apply the concepts they have just learned and encourages their brains to retain the crucial pieces of information.
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