All schools in the country have to teach their pupils science. This is because we need science to understand our existence. Everything around us is based on science in some way. Indeed, even our sleep patterns are scientifically determined! Hence, it is vital that we learn as much as we can about science. That said, some people do not feel they are missing out when they don’t understand how rain falls from clouds. However, simply knowing that rain falls from clouds is a little bit of science. Jay Eitner is committed to making sure all young people in New Jersey receive a solid science education.
Jay Eitner Makes Science Fun
It is clear that all children should receive a good scientific foundation when they are in school. However, nobody really agrees on how this should be delivered. That vast majority of schools in New Jersey will use hands-on methods, enabling students to take part in experiments. This is a great way for young people to really experience science and it is far more likely to grab their attention than what reading from a textbook will. Indeed, studies (science!) have shown that knowledge retention is far greater through this form of learning.
There are a number of reasons why most young people do better at retaining knowledge if they take part in scientific experiments. Those include:
- That it is the perfect way for visual learners to get to know a subject. Those are the children who need demonstrations or pictures if they are to understand and remember new things. They find it very hard to retain words and link those to facts. Yet, when something is specifically demonstrated to them, or they have a visual idea of what is happening, they finally understand it. Something understood is also something remembered. Because science is a very visual subject, a lot of young people remember the things that they learn.
- That it engages everybody in the science experiment themselves. Nobody is able to quickly skim over the texts and hope for the best during a test, or to cram all the necessary knowledge in the night before the exam. Rather, everybody has to participate and everybody is able to make mistakes and to learn from them. This means students must get to understand the science, or things will start to go wrong. Indeed, in most cases, various experiments will be complete failures first.
- That it makes students feel more accomplished. When the experiment works the way they thought it would, or the way the teacher asked them to, they will feel a true sense of pride. That type of psychological reward is huge and students are likely to want to complete more and more experiments in order to replicate that feeling. Jay Eitner believes that if this is properly nurtured, students will soon start to come up with their own ideas for scientific experiments.
Many people believe that science is a dry subject. In reality, however, it is a lot of fun – if it is delivered properly.