Hands-on Science 101: Three Keys to Teaching Science at Home, Part 1 {Episode 35}

Hi, I’m back in your earbuds to start 2018 off right! And as promised, for season 2 we are opening up our conference vaults. The first session we are going to share is my most popular one – The Three Keys to Teaching Science and today we are going to kick that off with chatting about the basics of hands-on science.

Hi, I’m Paige Hudson and you are listening to the Tips for Homeschool Science Show where we are breaking down the lofty concepts of science into building blocks you can use in your homeschool!

Listen to this episode

Share the Tips

If you found these homeschool science tips to be helpful, would you please take a moment to rate it on iTunes or Stitcher? This would help me tremendously in getting the word out so that more earbuds are filled with science-teaching encouragement.

Highlights

The Three Keys to Teaching Science

• Performing Hands-on Scientific Tests
• Gathering Information
• Keeping  A Record

Why do you need hands-on scientific tests?

• Provides practical reinforcement for what the student is studying.
• Allows students to interact with science face-to-face.
• Shows students that science is more than just facts and figures.
• Fosters scientific creativity and discovery.

I recommend weekly hands-on scientific tests during the school year. You can use:

• Scientific demonstrations 
• Experiments 
• Nature study 
• Science fair project 
• Interactive on-line demonstrations, such as those created by PhET

What to use when:

• Preschoolers – scientific demonstrations and nature walks
• Elementary years – scientific demonstrations moving into experiments, nature study
• Middle and High school years – experiments, nature study, science fair project, interactive online demonstrations

Tips for hands-on scientific tests:

• Make sure you have the materials you will need on hand.
• Plan ahead by reading through the directions and explanations.
• Follow the directions.
• Discuss the explanation with your students, i.e. why it did work or why it didn’t.

Takeaway Tidbits

To teach science without the hands-on aspect would make no sense.  It would be like a blind man watching a movie—it will sound right, but he really won’t have a complete picture of what is going on. (Pin this Tidbit)

I recommend doing at least one hands-on scientific activity once a week during the school year. (Pin this Tidbit)

Additional Resources

Check out the following articles for more tips on performing hands-on scientific tests:

• 6 Experiment Questions that Homeschoolers Need to be Answered
• 5 Tips for success with experiments
• 5 Sanity-saving tips for experiments 
• What to do with a failed experiment

And here are the links to all of the podcasts in this series:

• Ep.35 - Hands-on Science 101
• Ep.36 - Finding Scientific Information 101
• Ep.37 - Notebooking for Science 101
• The Three Keys to Teaching Science Video