Living books are the secret ingredient to teaching science that we all can get our hands on. They are the special sauce we can use as educators to make science fun for our students!
You don't agree?
Well, let us make our case...
Let's look at two different scenarios - two different ways of teaching science to your students.
You share a lecture filled with facts. You add in a hands-on demonstration to liven things up a bit and your students enjoy that part, but their faces fall as you share their reading assignment.
You have your students read out of a text book - it has nice pictures, but the writing to somewhat boring, especially to them. And you wrap up your science time with a good old comprehension worksheet.
And a month later, when you refer back to what you were studying on this day, your students give you a blank stare and you sigh.
You begin by reading a chapter of an adventure novel to your students. They are drawn into the storyline, sitting on the edge of their seats as you read about the journey and the science that is woven into the chapter.
At the end of the selection, you ask a few questions about the story - what happened to (character) in this chapter? What do you remember about (the topic you were studying)? You spend a few more minutes laughing as you remember what happened in the story.
Then, you ask the students to write down a few things they remember about the topic on a notebooking sheet and you have them color the picture. You do a hands-on demonstration with them that relates to the topic and the students are able to tell you some of the things they have learned as you work through it.
And a month later, you find your students pretending to be the characters from the story and as they play, you overhear them sharing some of the facts from the topic with each other and you smile.
So, which one sounds better to you? #1 or #2?
For those of us whose eyes are glazed over by the mear appearance of a textbook, we definitely think the second scenario is the better option.
And that's why we love living books! Because that adventure novel is a living book and in scenario two, it is the secret ingredient to changing the narrative of "science is boring" to "science is so much fun."
Living books are the secret ingredient to teaching science - they are that tool in your teaching toolbox you can use to make science your children's favorite subject!
Now that we have made our case, here are a few more articles you can to dig into to learn more about living books and how you can use them to teach science.
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