MNN - Mother Nature Network

Do your kids love science? Do they love science class? My girls are crazy about science. They love to poke around in streams, concoct formulas in the kitchen, and learn facts about their favorite plants and animals — all great science topics. Yet when we talk about the science they learn in school their eyes often glaze over as they recite word-for-word the definitions of the various states of matter or the forces of gravity.  

 

I get it because I was the same way. I hated science class when I was in grade school and high school and didn't learn to love it until I finally had some teachers in college who knew how to explain science in a way that made sense. And then I was hooked.  

 

Science teacher Tyler DeWitt understands this disconnect between loving science and learning science via textbooks and boring jargon. And he's making a plea to science educators to change the way they think about teaching science in the classroom — relying on stories rather than textbook definitions to help kids learn and love the material.  

 

His approach makes sense, and it could really change the way kids think about science.

 

Check out his TED Talk on the subject here, and if you want to see and hear his ideas in action, check out one of his YouTube chemistry lessons such as this one entitled, "What Happens When Stuff Dissolves." I dare you not to get hooked!