Enriching Education: Summer Science Activities at Home

 You’re never too young or too old to start experimenting with science with Dr. Stephanie. With a few ingredients parents likely already have in the kitchen and some virtual guidance from Dr. Stephanie, parents can transform their kitchens into mini science laboratories. Dr. Stephanie helps parents step through each activity and offers advice on the types of questions they can ask.  

 

Some of the science activities Dr. Stephanie teaches that can help fight summer boredom include:

• Make Your Own Lava Lamp: Make your own lava lamp using vegetable oil, water, effervescent antacid tablets, food coloring, and a clear plastic bottle or clear glass. The science behind this visually amazing activity is a chemical change!
• Ice Cream in a Baggie: Make your own ice cream using a sandwich zipper bag, a freezer-size zipper bag, ice, salt, and ice cream ingredients. Oh—and some shaking! The science behind this tasty treat is a great way to teach about mixtures and changes in the states of matter! We start with a liquid and end with a yummy solid!
• Strawberry DNA: You don't need a fancy lab to see DNA! All you need is strawberries, salt, soap, a zipper bag, glass, isopropyl alcohol, a small jar, a toothpick, a coffee filter, water, and a clear cup or glass. You can literally wind it up on the toothpick and see it!

I had a chance to interview her to learn more.

What makes science activities so great to stave off summer boredom? We often think of entertainment for our children as being expensive. Summer science experiments at home don't have to be complicated or expensive! This is what makes them great for kids. By issuing challenges to your kids to build a solar oven to make s'mores or to blow up a balloon without using your lungs, you are giving them the opportunity to solve problems, create prototypes, and test their ideas. They are seeing that they can do these things in real life and outside of the classroom. Their solution might take them to the library or into another experiment to find an answer. If you have multiple kids, it provides a fun competition that is safe and at home. Did I mention that most of the "ingredients" to do many of these are already in your house? 

How can parents and caregivers encourage a scientific mindset to help their kids make more discoveries? This is a tricky one that I struggle with, too, but we need to normalize failure and not being right. If you child is wrong, don't correct them by saying "No, that's wrong. It is ____." Ask them why they think that? Have them work through their reasoning. What they need is contrasting information to add to their model to revise it. Help them experience a new piece of information that will make them question their original way of thinking! Another tip I like to give parents is: It is okay to not know the answer. Learn something new together! Make it a project to contact an expert on social media to ask your question! Watch Youtube videos together to learn. Learning together helps your child see that learning doesn't stop the day you get your diploma. We are always learning. 

How did you get interested in science? My dad was an engineer when I was a kid. He and my mother both encouraged my sister and I to explore science. Local universities often held science days on campus and my parents would bring us to those!

Dr. Stephanie Ryan

Stephanie Ryan has a strong background in chemistry and biology and enjoys applying her background to develop education products to share with others. She has over a decade of experience in curriculum development and assessment. Stephanie Ryan has taught science in school and after school settings from kindergarten through college. She runs the @letslearnaboutscience Instagram account that shares educational content for parents. Dr. Stephanie’s goal of her account is to help parents feel more comfortable being scientists with the kids in their lives. She loves to remind parents that their lived experiences make them much more qualified to teach science to their kids than they think they are! She also wrote the children’s board book Let’s Learn about Chemistry.

Stephanie Ryan earned her Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has an M.S. and B.S. in chemistry, from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Saint Mary’s College, respectively. 

For more information, please visit http://www.letslearnaboutscience.com/ or www.ryaneducationconsulting.com/

Follow Stephanie Ryan on Instagram @LetsLearnAboutScience