How to Make Science Fun in the Classroom

Science is all around us. Gravity, chemical reactions, and static electricity are just some of the scientific marvels we witness everyday. Yet, sometimes science is reduced to textbooks and boring black and white worksheets. If your students are bored, it’s no wonder. Here’s how to make science fun in the classroom.

Explore with Experiments
Seeing science is action is a great way to ignite students’ imaginations. Most grade levels have standards that deal with hypotheses and experiments. For instance, one of the science standards for eighth graders in California is to “plan and conduct a scientific investigation to test a hypothesis.” Over the years, I have done many science experiments. Most experiments can be adapted to different grade levels. Some of the favorites are the Red, Drop, Green Drop Experiment. In this experiment, students learn how detergent affects the properties of water. Here is one variation of this lesson plan at lessonplanspage.com. And of course, one can’t forget the classic Egg Drop experiment, where kids design a device to prevent an egg from cracking or breaking when it is dropped. In my experience, young kids really like working with magnets and older kids like chemistry and physics experiments.

Make it Visual
Along with being hands on, science is a very visual subject. For younger kids, use big books with colorful graphics. Let them point to pictures and read along. Multimedia like interactive whiteboards has tons of options for letting kids “see” science in action. Scholastic.com has several interactive white board activities for science. For instance, “weather watch” allows kids to experiment with online weather tools. Promethean Planet is another great site for educators. As a teacher who used a Promethean board, I used this resource daily for games, interactive lessons and colorful diagrams. For instance, teachers who lecture on the human body can find interesting visuals and lessons to teach anatomy. Search by theme, grade level or type of resource.

Enrich with Projects
Whether preparing for a science fair or open house display, projects are a way to stimulate creativity. Kids will forget they are even learning. A project can be as simple as a food chain poster or a diorama of different types of habitats or ecosystems. High school students can construct their own bridges and then test how strong the bridges are. Go to scienceproject.com or sciencebuddies.org for more ideas.

Let Kids be Interactive
Classrooms don’t always have to be quiet. Interaction among students is fun, teaches responsibility and lets students learn from one another. Project GLAD is a huge program that has been initiated by many schools to help with language acquisition and literacy. GLAD stands for Guided Language Acquisition Development. Many of the GLAD units use songs, chants, big books, teams and group work to help with language. It also encourages integrating language with other subjects like science. Check out these GLAD lessons on elements that were designed for a fifth grade classroom.

Sources:

Judy Schneider Red drop Green Drop lessonplanspage.com

cde.ca.gov
college.cengage.com
projectglad.com
scienceproject.com
sciencebuddies.org
Scholastic.com
sites.google.com
prometheanplanet.com