Boston Children's Museum
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Website Design by JackrabbitDesign challenges are a great way for kids to develop a range of skills, like problem solving, communicating, observing, comparing, measuring, estimating, and lots more. This challenge, which is best for your older students, also asks children to examine properties of materials, practice engineering design, and learn about the properties of planets in our solar system.
VIEW ACTIVITYMany cultures have traditions related to weather, weather prediction and even trying to influence the weather, making the topic of meteorology not only a great entry point to science, but also to the shared connection every culture has to weather events. This activity is a great introduction to Japanese culture and a fun way to connect science, culture, and art together.
VIEW ACTIVITYHow can art help kids engage with science? The natural world is the source of so much inspiration in art, literature, invention and much more, and the images produced by NASA and others’ space telescopes is some of the most breathtaking and inspiring imagery imaginable. Associating science with art presents the world as a place filled with connections, and helps children to practice two often overlooked STEM skills – creativity and imagination. And by asking children to use astronomical images as inspiration for their artwork, you are also asking them to closely observe – and therefore learn more about – these astronomical objects and phenomena.
VIEW ACTIVITYConstellations are pictures that people have imagined in the patterns of the stars. They are now accepted scientific ways of organizing our view of the night sky. But this idea that scientific classifications, like constellations, could have begun with imagination might surprise people. Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Pretty smart. This activity invites children to look at star patterns and imagine their own new constellations, while practicing STEM skills like observing, recognizing patterns and thinking creatively. This kind of creative activity encourages children to make personal connections to objects in the sky, and to seek out their new constellation when they look up at night.
VIEW ACTIVITYThis activity is a good follow-up to the Let Your Light Shine activity from this curriculum, and is a fun game to play. Activities like these help to reinforce a beginning understanding of the behaviors of light, and how those behaviors can be utilized and manipulated with different materials.
VIEW ACTIVITYOur solar system is truly enormous. Developing a sense of just how enormous is difficult for almost anyone, let alone children. A good starting point to understanding how vast the universe is, is to have children explore the relative distances across our solar system, and this activity provides a fun first step in that understanding. This is also a great activity for learning about the major bodies in our solar system, and to practice measuring, estimation and fractions.
VIEW ACTIVITYIt is easy to introduce an art activity by telling children what materials they will use, based on what you know works best. But by asking them to conduct investigations around possible materials, they will not only be engaging in scientific thinking and learning about experimental design; they will also have a clearer understanding of the materials themselves, how they behave, and why they are chosen for use.
VIEW ACTIVITYWater has a lot of interesting properties that we typically take for granted. This simple activity gives kids a chance to experiment with water’s properties of surface tension and cohesion. They will also experiment with color mixing and recognizing that once colors mix together, they cannot easily be separated. This is a fun game that you can pull out any time.
VIEW ACTIVITYChildren are inundated with advertisements practically as soon as they are born. Many of these advertisements can be tricky…or even misleading. If we would like our children to grow up to be savvy consumers, we need to help them develop independent thinking skills, and have them practice being thoughtful about the choices that they make. This activity encourages children to compare different brands of products, design scientific tests to compare those products, and determine which of them is the best buy.
VIEW ACTIVITYNow that you have tested one product…how about testing some more? Children are inundated with advertisements practically as soon as they are born. Many of these advertisements can be tricky…or even misleading. If we would like our children to grow up to be savvy consumers, we need to help them develop independent thinking skills, and have them practice being thoughtful about the choices that they make. This follow-up to the Consumer Reports Jr. activity encourages children to compare different brands of products, design scientific tests to compare those products, determine which of them is the best buy, and share the results with their peers, family and community.
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