{"id":8711,"date":"2019-08-06T04:33:24","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T04:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/?p=8711"},"modified":"2025-07-17T05:51:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T12:51:38","slug":"what-do-kids-really-need-to-know-when-it-comes-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/what-do-kids-really-need-to-know-when-it-comes-to-science\/","title":{"rendered":"What do kids really need to know when it comes to science?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kids who have a solid science and technology background are better equipped to go to college, and will have many more choices once they get out into the real world.<\/p>\n<p>Learning science isn\u2019t just a matter of memorizing facts and theories. On the contrary, it\u2019s developing a deep curiosity about the world around us, AND having a set of tools that lets kids explore that curiosity to answer their questions.<\/p>\n<p>Teaching science in this kind of way isn&#8217;t just a matter of putting together a textbook with a few science experiments and kits.<\/p>\n<p>Science education is a three-step process (and I mean teaching science in a way that your kids will really understand and remember). Here are the steps:<\/p>\n<p>1. Get kids genuinely interested and excited about a topic.<br \/>\n2. Give them hands-on activities and experiments to make the topic meaningful.<br \/>\n3. Teach the supporting academics and theory.<\/p>\n<p>Most science books and programs just focus on the third step and may throw in some experiments as an afterthought. This just isn\u2019t how kids learn.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Using Homeschool Curriculum Right\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QsFHSbr0em0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There is a better way. When you provide your kids with these three keys (in order), you can give your kids the kind of science education that not only excites them, but that they remember for many years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let this happen to you&#8230; you buy science books that were never really used and now your kids are filling out college applications and realizing they\u2019re missing a piece of their education\u2014a REALLY big piece. Now that&#8217;s a setback.<\/p>\n<h2>So what do you do?<\/h2>\n<p>First, don\u2019t worry. It\u2019s not something that takes years and years to do. It just takes commitment.<\/p>\n<p>What if you don\u2019t have time? What I\u2019m about to describe can take a bit of time as a parent, but it doesn\u2019t have to. There is a way to shortcut the process and get the same results! But I\u2019ll tell you more about that later.<\/p>\n<h2>Putting It Into Action<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Step one:<\/strong> Get kids genuinely interested and excited about a topic. Start by deciding what topic you want your kids to learn. Then, you\u2019re going to get them really interested in it. For example, suppose I want my 10-year old son to learn about aerodynamics. I\u2019ll arrange for him to go up in a small plane with a friend who is a pilot. This is the kind of experience that will really excite him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step two:<\/strong> Give them hands-on activities and experiments to make the topic meaningful.\u00a0This is where I take that excitement and let him explore it. I have him ask my friend for other chances to go flying. I\u2019ll also have my friend show him how he plans for a flight. My son will learn about navigation, figuring out how much fuel is needed for the flight, how the weight the plane carries affects the aerodynamics of it, and so much more.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll use pilot training videos to help us figure this out (short of a live demo, video is incredibly powerful for learning). My son is incredibly excited at this point about anything that has to do with airplanes and flying. He\u2019s sure he wants to be a pilot someday and is already wanting flying lessons (he\u2019s only 10 now).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Step three:<\/strong> Teach the supporting academics and theory. Now it\u2019s time to introduce academics. Honestly, I have my pick of so many topics, because flying includes so many different fields. I mean he\u2019s using angles and math in flight planning, mechanics and energy in how the engine works, electricity in all the equipment on board the plane, and of course, aerodynamics in keeping the plane in the air (to name just a few). I\u2019m going to use this as the foundation to teach the academic side of all the topics that are appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>We start with aerodynamics. He learns about lift and drag, makes his own balsa-wood gliders and experiments by changing different parts. He calculates how big the wings need to be to carry more weight and then tries his model with bigger wings. (By the way, I got a video on model planes so I could understand this well enough to work with him on it).\u00a0Then we move on to the geometry used in navigation. Instead of drawing angles on a blank sheet of paper, our workspace is made of airplane maps.\u00a0 We\u2019re actually planning part of the next flight my son and my pilot buddy will take. Suddenly angles are a lot more interesting. In fact, it turns out that we need a bit of trigonometry to figure out some things.\u00a0Of course, a 10-year old can\u2019t do trigonometry, right? Wrong! He has no idea that it\u2019s usually for high school and learns about cosines and tangents.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Throughout this, I\u2019m giving him chances to get together with my pilot friend, share what he\u2019s learned, and even use it on real flights. How cool is that to a kid?!\u00a0You get the idea. The key is to focus on building interest and excitement first, then the academics are easy to get a kid to learn.\u00a0Try starting with the academics and&#8230;well, we\u2019ve all had the experience of trying to get kids do something they don\u2019t really want to do.<\/p>\n<h2>The Shortcut<\/h2>\n<p>Okay, so this might sound like it\u2019s time-intensive. If you\u2019re thinking \u201cI just don\u2019t have the time to do this!\u201d or maybe \u201cI just don\u2019t understand science well enough myself to teach it to my kid.\u201d If this is you, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is, you don\u2019t have to. The shortcut is to find someone who already specializes in the area you want your kids to learn about and expose them to the excitement that persons gets from the field.\u00a0Then, instead of you being the one to take them through the hands-on part and the academics, use a solid video-based homeschool science program or curriculum (live videos, not cartoons).\u00a0This will provide them with both the hands-on experiments and the academic background they need. If you use a program that is self-guided (that is, it guides your kids through it step-by-step), you don\u2019t need to be involved unless you want to be.<\/p>\n<p>If you found this helpful and you find yourself thinking, \u201cHey, you know, I want this person to teach my kids science for me, and to create my curriculum lessons for me\u2026\u201d then we can do just that.<\/p>\n<p>Go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.SuperchargedScience.com\">www.SuperchargedScience.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When you get there, you\u2019ll see a video that shows you the science curriculum that I developed and teach.\u00a0If you like what you see on that website, just fill in the form below the video and your kids can get started today doing real hands-on science with everyday materials.<\/p>\n<p>Aurora<\/p>\n<p>P.S. By the way, if you know anybody that might find this content useful or helpful, please share it! Thanks so much!!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kids who have a solid science and technology background are better equipped to go to college, and will have many more choices once they get out into the real world. Learning science isn\u2019t just a matter of memorizing facts and theories. On the contrary, it\u2019s developing a deep curiosity about the world around us, AND [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeschool-science-curriculum-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12841,"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711\/revisions\/12841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.superchargedscience.com\/ss2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}