Science is sooo boring! How often have you heard that soundtrack?

For season 8, we are taking these negative soundtracks, or beliefs, and turning the volume dial down. Then, we are turning the dial up on a new soundtrack – one that will help us share science with our kiddos.

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Episode 104 - Science is boring {Science Soundtracks #3}

Episode Transcript

How many times have you said or thought that science was boring? You are not alone – 47 out 60 adults say that same thing. That’s not true. I just made that statistic up. But it does seem to me that the majority of adults outside of the lab think that science is a boring subject.

And that may be our experience with science from our own education, but the real question is, is this helping us share science with our kiddos? Let’s put this belief, or soundtrack, through the 3-question litmus test.

If you remember, I shared Jon Acuff’s soundtrack litmus test back in the introduction to this season. If you haven’t listened to that yet, hit pause to go back and listen to episode 101. It explains a bit about soundtracks and how season 8 came to life, plus it will help this episode make a lot more sense.

That said, let’s put this soundtrack through the litmus test:

1. Is the idea that science is boring true? Though it pains me to admit it, many of us had boring science classes in school. And science can be boring if one focuses only on the facts. So we’ll give this question 0.75 points, which hurts my science-loving ego.
2. Is the idea that science is boring helpful? Well, how often do your kids beg to do boring things? I’m guessing about a quarter to never. Zip, zilch, 0 points.
3. Is the idea that science is boring kind? I’m not even going to address this one – 0 points.

Tally up the score and the idea that science is boring scores a 0.75 out of 3 points. I wish it was zero folks, but I have to keep it real here on the Tips for Homeschool Science Show! This week’s soundtrack came out fighting, but ultimately, it failed our litmus test. So as Mr. Acuff says in his book, Soundtracks, “That’s enough of doing it that way, let’s try something else.”

Let’s stop looking at the blank science squares on the planning sheet template and stop skipping something that we assume will be boring. Instead, let’s flip that soundtrack to:

I get to make science fun!

I know what you’re thinking, and I can almost hear the collective groan that comes with the thought of more homeschooling work. I am not going to sugarcoat it. Yes, it will take a bit of effort on our part to make science fun, but it’s worth it to change our student’s perception of science.

The good news is that most of that work will be research for the right tools because there is soooo much on the market that can you help you do this. We talked about how to make science fun a bit in episode 97, but this time I want to address a few of the common reasons why science can be seen as boring and pair those with solutions so that you can make science fun in your homeschool.

• Science can be seen as boring because it has so much information – Yes, there is a lot of information to learn for science, but the good news is that you have lots of time to share it! Plus, you don’t have to use boring texts. You can use adventurous living books, beautiful encyclopedias, interesting videos, real people and experiences, and more. When you start sharing science early at a level that your kiddos will understand, you chip away at the information mountain in an interesting way. Science becomes a fun subject instead of a boring, fact-cramming session.
• Science can be seen as boring because it’s not engaging – Science without any hands-on is not something I would want to do. Not only are demonstrations and experiments the face of science, they also serve to engage and draw the student’s attention to learning about science. You can also add in things like nature study, science games, and projects to make science fun for your students.
• Science can be seen as boring because it’s separated from creativity – Read a book, answer some questions . . . it’s not very exciting or creative. And that’s why I don’t recommend teaching science this way. Instead, we can allow our kiddos to express themselves with notebooking, rather than parroting back facts. And we can partner science and art through hands-on activities. Creativity and science do not have to be separated – we can partner them together to make science fun!

As you can see, we have the ability to make science interesting for our kiddos. We can cut out the things that make them snooze and focus on the stuff that interests them, especially during the early years. We don’t have to have a boring repeat of our experience with science. We get to make science fun!

So at the beginning of this episode, we put that old, tired science-is-boring soundtrack through the litmus test and it wonderfully failed. Let’s try out our new soundtrack to see if it passes the test:

1. Is the idea that we get to make science fun true? Yes, we just chatted about a few ways that we can make science fun. We can use interesting reading assignments, lots of hands-on experiences, and unique written work, which is what I call the three keys to teaching science. And the earlier we get started, the truer our new soundtrack will be – 1 point.
2. Is the idea that we get to make science fun helpful? Yes, it is helpful to know that we can change the way our kiddos view science. It’s one of the wonderful aspects of homeschooling! But, you all know that I know we live in reality, so I’m going to ding this one a bit because it does make a bit more work for us. We have to go beyond the standard textbook and find materials that will support our goals and make science fun for our students. Let’s add 0.75 points for this one.
3. Is the idea that we get to make science fun kind? Yes, as a parent, we want our kiddos to experience something better. And the idea that we get to make that happen is definitely kind – another point for the new soundtrack.

That’s a 2.75 out of 3 points for the idea that we get to make science fun. It’s not a perfect score because it does require more effort beyond changing the soundtrack playing in our mind, but it’s totally doable!

So, let’s turn the dial down on the idea that science is boring and turn the dial up on the belief that we get to make science fun.

Because when we change the soundtrack we have been listening to about teaching science it changes the way we approach teaching science, which changes the outcome of the success of science education in our home.

Thanks for listening and I hope you have a great week sharing science!