Learning Science Through Play – That’s Just What Happens
We sometimes get caught in the trap of trying to justify play by figuring out some kind of higher purpose for play. Children are naturally curious. They try things out. They test one way of doing things and then apply that knowledge to trying something different but similar. That IS science. If you spend a day watching children playing you see the process of science happening all around you. You simply need look for it. This past weekend at Bernheim’s annual ColorFest event (go ahead and put it on your calendar for the third weekend in October for the next several years) I observed children engaged in scientific discovery. It wasn’t planned. It’s just what children do.
Rockets were built.
Homes were crafted.
Pendulums were explored.
Pulleys were invented from scrap.
Hypotheses were tested and either rejected or accepted.
Structural integrity was tested under various load limits.
New ways of attaching materials together were discovered.
Here are a few pictures of all of that science in process. But you should have been there. You would have been amazed.
