Summer Science for School-Agers

06/19/2006

Summer Science for School-Agers

If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
Bruce Barton

One year Steven Snyder discovered that for the summer he would be teaching science in a school-age summer program. He wrote up the process he followed to prepare for taking advantage of children's imagination and curiousity in an Exchange article ("Summertime Science for School-Agers — Just for Fun!"; May/June 1999). At the end of the summer here were the accomplishments...

1. The "Living Museum" provided much learning outdoors and indoors. Crafts and collections contributed to an overall consolidated project. They built a pond and habitat models. The study of habitats, both urban and natural, led to a field trip to Nature's Nursery, a licensed rehabilitation facility for native wildlife, which provided close animal encounters.

2. A captive hog-nose snake became a learning experience in animal husbandry, environmental needs, field research science, ledgers/field notes, release, tracking, and predicting migration.

3. The group learned about animal architecture, home building, and special adaptations. These topics generated many individual projects, created imaginary animal structures, and contributed to the Living Museum. Topic related sidebar conversations between children occurred.

4. Bridge and pond interests paralleled and generated topics in mathematics, proportions, mapping, and measuring. We studied the mechanics of structures and shapes, which generated game playing, bridge models in clay, truss bridges with sticks, and a study of photographed local bridges. Pond designs and mapping conjoined with the Living Museum project.

5. I introduced and discussed animal locomotion and told stories of animal oddities and amazing feats, partly to test the Olympics project concept, and in part just for fun.

Interestingly, our activities that produced topics at previous sessions resurfaced and joined others into new themes with common interests and projects. Some areas only partially pursued created opportunities to revisit, become independent projects, or for continuation to the next year. We rarely discouraged the children when they frequently shared personal experiences or news events that caught their ears. These accounts, appearing to have little to do with the topics at hand, captured interests; but, more importantly, they put to ease the timid members, which resulted in their greater participation.

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